Almost Home (35 page)

“I think so, too.” She lifted her arms and her mouth to his, and welcomed him home.

I
T
was a glorious morning. Wade stood on the dock with his son and smiled just because life was so damned good. He had everything that mattered to him. He had Austin, he had Stef, he had a place in St. Dennis that was just his, not one that was dependent upon his sister or his aunt or anyone else. And soon he’d have his own brewery again. Well, his, Clay’s, and Dallas’s. But he was going to be the brewmaster. All of this good fortune made his head spin, like someone who’d been living on the bare edge of poverty who’d just won the lottery. There seemed to be almost too much goodness in his life. Could there be such a thing, he wondered, as too much good fortune?

“What are you grinning about, silly boy?” Dallas came up behind him and pretended to push him toward the edge of the dock.

He told her. Life was overflowing with an embarrassment of riches.

“Don’t you think you deserve it after the two years you’ve had?” She sat on the dock and swung her legs over the side. Austin lay down next to her to see what he could see in the water below. “Your life was on a
mean streak there for a while, bud. I think it’s time you got a little break.”

“Thanks.” He sat next to her. “Actually, I got a big break. Several big breaks.”

“Name three things you’re thankful for this morning.”

“Austin and you, of course,” he replied without hesitation. “And Stef.”

“Oh, so she’s made it into the top three, has she?”

Wade nodded.

“That’s nice, sweetie.” She smacked him on the arm. “It shouldn’t have taken so long.”

“I know. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Me either. But at least you’ve seen the error of your ways.” Dallas smiled. “What is it about those Wylers that we MacGregors find so irresistible?”

“Speaking of the Wylers, when are you and Grant getting married?”

“We can’t decide. On the one hand, I’d love to be a Christmas bride, and get married at the inn.” Dallas’s eyes were shining. “On the other, a summer wedding is always so lovely. All the flowers I most love are only available then. But a winter wedding, with everything white and sparkly …”

“So the answer is, you don’t know.”

“It’s still under discussion. Why the sudden interest?”

When he didn’t respond, she said, “Wade? Why do you want to know?”

He cleared his throat. “Because, um, I … ah … asked Steffie to marry me and she said you and Grant had to get married first because you got engaged first. That it was some sort of rule. Not that we’re engaged
yet, not formally. I mean, I didn’t buy her a ring. But I will.” He paused. “Buy her a ring, that is.”

“You! You knew this and you’re sitting out here in the sun like a big fat old toad and you didn’t think to tell me?” She smacked his arm again.

“I just did tell you.”

“This constitutes Very Big News, brother.”

“I know. I was just sitting here thinking about it and thinking how lucky I was.” He turned to his sister. “I was going to tell you this morning, really. I just came outside with Austin because it’s such a beautiful morning and he likes to watch the little fish swim under the dock. But I was going to come back in, in a few minutes, and talk to you and Berry.”

“That was all so lovely, I’ll probably have to forgive you.” She smiled. “But Berry isn’t here. She went to Archer’s last night and didn’t come back.”

“She drove all the way to Annapolis last night in the dark? And you let her?”

“He has a place out near the inn, right before you go onto the bridge that goes over to Cannonball Island. It’s on the road that winds toward the Bay, so she didn’t drive to Annapolis. And since when has ‘letting’ been involved when Berry wanted to do something?”

“You have a point.” Wade nodded. “I didn’t know Archer had a place here in town.”

“He sold the Annapolis house last month and bought a smaller place here. To be closer to Berry, I’m sure.”

“He has kids, right?” Wade asked.

“Three or four, I think.”

“How do they feel about their father’s relationship with Berry?”

Dallas shrugged. “I don’t know if they even know that he’s seeing her. His wife has been dead for a few years, though, so it shouldn’t come as a complete shock that he’d want the company of a gorgeous, vibrant woman like Berry.”

“That’s your second good point of the morning,” he told her. “You’re on a roll.”

“I will be in about two hours. I’m meeting an architect at the warehouse at eleven to go over my plans for the studio.” She grinned. “We are just digging our heels in, aren’t we, the two of us? Me with my studio, you with the brewery. Your phone call made me very happy.”

“I’m glad you’re happy. But hey, you just reminded me. I have a meeting this morning, too.” He stole a look at his watch. “Clay and I are going to go through his barns and see which is best suited for conversion into a brewery. Then we’re going to look into the equipment we need to order.”

“I’m delighted that you’re moving ahead immediately with this. But what are you going to do with Austin? I won’t be here to watch him.”

“Clay’s mom recommended a sitter, some friend of hers who’s looking for something she can do at home. I thought I’d give her a call. I need to find someone local anyway, if I’m going to be working here.”

Dallas stood and brushed off the seat of her jeans. “I’m really happy for you and Stef, Wade. I couldn’t be happier. I think it’s wonderful. I’ll have to give her a call later and tell her so.”

“Good idea,” he said. “Maybe you and she can work out the whole date thing.”

*   *   *

Steffie could barely contain herself all day. Her arm was almost black and blue from pinching herself every other minute to see if she was still awake. Having your best dreams come true was nothing short of awesome. That they did so unexpectedly made the reality even sweeter.

She couldn’t wait to tell Vanessa.

Calling on the phone wouldn’t do, and when she stopped at Bling around noon, Vanessa was taking delivery of some merchandise she’d ordered for the shop. She’d just realized that the order was short and was going back and forth between the vendor and the delivery guy.

“I’ll stop back later,” Stef told her.

Vanessa put her hand over the phone. “I have three more deliveries scheduled for this afternoon, and if this is any indication of how things are going for me today, you don’t want to be around to witness the aftermath.”

Steffie was keeping the shop open until seven, but Wade had brought her dinner—Chinese takeout—at six. Dallas had a meeting, and Wade had both Austin and Cody to feed and put to bed.

Cody had homework, which meant Wade needed to get the boys back to the house by six-thirty so that he could help Cody with those all important spelling words.

“Dallas called me this afternoon,” Steffie told him. “She said she was thrilled that you’d finally come to your senses and that she and Grant wanted to get together with us to celebrate really soon. Which I already knew because my brother stopped in this morning and I told him. I was going to tell my mother but
I thought I’d wait until we were together. Dallas and Grant are still talking about a date, though.”

“I have to ask your father for your hand.”

“I’d have thought there were other parts you were more interested in.”

“Ha-ha. That’s not part of the tradition. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it the right way,” he said.

“Did you tell Berry?”

Wade shook his head. “She wasn’t around today, at least, not when I was. Of course, I was at Clay’s for most of the afternoon.” He ruffled Austin’s hair. “And Austin got to meet his new babysitter, right, ace? Mrs. Lindstrom,” he told Stef.

“Cathy Lindstrom’s mom?” Stef asked.

Wade shrugged. “I don’t know. Clay’s mom recommended her and she seems really nice and Austin really had a good time at her place today, didn’t you?”

Austin nodded and picked up a piece of overcooked broccoli to lick.

“Nice manners,” Wade noted.

“He’s just a little guy.” Stef leaned on the back of Wade’s chair, her arms around his neck. “But if he eats his dinner, he can have ice cream.”

Austin nodded again and stuffed the broccoli in.

“I don’t know what time Dallas is getting home tonight,” Wade said when they were leaving. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it over to your place.”

“Give me a call if it isn’t too late when she gets home.” Stef helped Austin on with his jacket then handed Wade a carton of ice cream. “Or just call me. I want to stop at Vanessa’s on my way home and I might be there awhile.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.” Wade kissed her, then picked up Austin and, taking Cody by the hand, went out into the cool night air.

Steffie stood at the window and watched them disappear around the bend. “My guys.” She sighed happily, then closed the door.

She packed a few containers of ice cream to share with Vanessa in between waiting on the two customers she had after Wade left. At ten after seven, she grabbed the bag of ice cream, locked up the shop, hopped into her car, and headed for Vanessa’s house on Cherry Street. She all but danced from the car to the front door, where she rang the bell in three or four spurts.

“Hey, Stef,” Ness said as she unlocked the front door. “I wasn’t expecting you. Come on in.”

“I have something really huge to tell you.” Stef followed Vanessa into the living room. “Last night …” she began, then seeing the woman seated on the sofa, she stopped. “Miss Grace. Hi. Am I interrupting …?”

“No, dear. Of course not.” Grace sat back slightly on the cushions as if to distance herself from the coffee table, where, Stef realized, the Ouija board had been placed.

“I hope that’s ice cream in that bag,” Ness was saying as she tugged off Stef’s jacket.

“Duh.” Stef swung the bag back and forth. “I’ll put it in the freezer for later.”

“Or we could have some now. I’ll come with you and get bowls. Miss Grace.” Vanessa turned to her guest. “You’ll have some, won’t you? I’m not sure what flavors we have tonight …”

“If Steffie made it, I don’t even need to know the flavor. Of course I’d love some. Could I help …?”

“No, no. You just sit there and and relax and we’ll just be a minute.” Vanessa smiled, and grabbed Stef by the arm and pulled her into the kitchen.

“I am so glad to see you,” Vanessa whispered when the door closed behind them. “You are not going to believe what is going on out there.” She took a deep breath. “Miss Grace stopped over to pick up a few more journals that I found in the attic, and she asked about the Ouija board. Well, I had it here, so I took it out and said something like, ‘Let’s see if it will say something besides DAZ with someone else playing with that little triangle thing.’ ”

“Did it?”

“Did it ever! It’s the strangest damned thing. It keeps spelling out ‘Hello, Gracie. Hello, Gracie!’ Like it—the spirit—recognizes her! It’s totally creeping me out.”

Vanessa pulled back the left sleeve of her sweater and held out her arms. “Look at the hair on my arms. It’s standing straight up.”

Stef looked. Vanessa wasn’t exaggerating.

“She’s got to be controlling that thing,” Stef told her. “She’s playing with your head.”

“This is Miss Grace we’re talking about,” Vanessa reminded her. “She doesn’t play with anyone’s head.”

“Well, she’s playing with yours.”

“Stef, you have to see it. That little triangle was flying across that board like nobody’s business. Zip zip! Like it was excited. It was so weird, even Miss Grace was getting tense. We could hardly keep up with it.”

“Was there a message from beyond?”

“Just ‘Hello, Gracie.’ ”

“Let’s dish up the ice cream and we’ll go back out there and we’ll see if she’ll do it with me here. I think she was just trying to spook you.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Maybe so that you’d let her take the Ouija board home with her.”

“I’d already offered it to her, and—”

“Do you girls need a hand?” Grace stuck her head through the door.

“No, thank you. I just need to get a few spoons. Stef, grab those two bowls and I’ll take this one.” Vanessa smiled. “Miss Grace, if you could just hold that door … thank you.”

The three women returned to the living room. Vanessa and Grace sat on the sofa, and Stef took one of the floor cushions and tossed it next to the table.

“Oh, a Ouija board,” she said as she sat on the pillow and placed her bowl on the table.

“We were just … testing it,” Miss Grace told her.

“And did it work?” Stef asked innocently.

“I’m afraid so, dear.” Grace put her bowl down next to the board. “It’s been most puzzling.”

“What’s the puzzle?” Stef asked.

“I’d thought we might be able to contact Alice, but it appears the spirit isn’t hers.”

“How can you tell who the spirit is?” Stef frowned.

“It … whoever … keeps calling me ‘Gracie.’ ” She looked from Stef to Vanessa then back again. “Alice never called me Gracie. Never.”

Stef’s spoon stopped halfway to her mouth. “Seriously? You’re not playing with Vanessa? Please say so if you are. And if you are, please stop.”