Grace Anne (11 page)

“I don’t either most of the time. But
it’s here to remind me of what I came from.”

“You came from a weird house if
that’s how they painted your walls, Miss Grace. It’s sort of sickening.”

He flushed and she laughed before
she answered him. “It’s not paint, Trace, but material. It’s all the material
scraps that I had with me when I finally had enough money to buy this building.
See, I started out just using the leftover pieces to make my designs. I would
stay up late at night and sew these small dresses and then think about ways to
improve them. Every day I would learn a little more until I was able to present
my first design to the previous owner. He loved it and promised me that he’d
take it to the next show. He even let me help with the larger design of the
dress. It’s that one over there.”

Trace got up and walked to where
she pointed. There was a mannequin behind a glass wall and she was dressed in a
pretty black and purple dress. Trace didn’t know anything about clothes and
less about fashion. If it fit when he tried it on, he figured he looked good.
Besides, his dad would have told him if he looked dorky.

“You made this?” He looked back at
her when she said yes. “It’s nice. Nothing I think my aunts would wear, but I
like it. I bet it looked pretty on you.”

“You’re very kind, and I did wear
it. Phillip told me if I wore it on the floor and sold more than a hundred
copies of it, he’d take me on as his apprentice.”

Trace looked at the dress again
and tried to remember if he’d seen anyone wearing one like it. He couldn’t, but
then he didn’t know all that many women. He looked back at her and decided that
she’d not sold any if the dopey look on her face was any indication.

“I’m sorry, Miss Grace. I guess
you had to work really hard the next time, huh? Is that why you only make
underwear here now?”

She grinned at him before
answering. “I sold over ten thousand units, Trace. More than any other design
he had. And I thought he’d just kick me out of the place, but he said a promise
was a promise and helped me design my label.” She stood up and handed him the
picture next to the dress. “That’s a copy of the first order we filled. And the
amount. I was surprised that he charged so much.” She picked up a magazine next
to his chair. “And this is my catalogue that comes out this summer. See the
underwear, as you call them? They’re our number one sellers. Pretty underwear
is what women want to wear.”

Trace handed her back the catalogue
and looked over at the wall again. “You put those scraps on the wall to remind
you of the pieces you had to put together in order to make it big then?”

“Very good. Yes, that’s right.”
She ruffled his hair and he hugged her. “Not many people get it so quickly if
at all.”

He was watching a “set” be put
together when he noticed the puppy. It was sitting in the corner all scrunched
up in a ball and Trace made his way to it. He was just kneeling down to touch
it when one of the men nailing something together came over.

“We been trying to catch him all
day. He musta got in when we was bringing in the lumber. Pick him up, will ya,
and toss him in the back? His mom will come and get him, or, if she’s been hit,
then he’ll have to fend for himself.”

The puppy whimpered when Trace
touched him. He was hurt, probably from this guy. Trace bundled him up in his
arms and went to find a place to hide him so that when his dad came to get him
they could take him somewhere safe. Grace was coming toward him with a frown
and he was afraid she was going to tell him to do what the guy had done.

“I won’t throw him outside. It’s
raining and he’ll get a cold. There isn’t any reason for you to be cruel to a
little puppy.” He brushed at the tear on his face and turned away before she
could make fun of him like his uncle did.

“You feel better for lashing out
at me, or did you want me to kick the dog so you can at least feel justified
for snapping at me like that?”

He turned to look at her angry
face.

“I was going to suggest we take
him to the vet just down the block, but I can see you have it under control.”

She started to walk away and he
said her name. “I’m sorry. I just…I love animals. And that guy over there
wanted me to throw him out back to fend for himself. Could we really take him
to the vet?”

She told her assistant Becky to
get rid of the man who had wanted to toss out the dog and told her to make sure
that everyone left at five. She grabbed up her coat and they were out the door
and into a cab in no time. Trace looked over at the woman seated next to him

“You’re not like the other women
my dad sometimes dates.” She snorted and he smiled. “You do that too. The
pretty women that dad used to date wouldn’t do that if you paid them a million
bucks. But you don’t care, do you?”

“I most certainly do not. And for
the record, I’m not seeing your dad. He and I have an arrangement. He’s going
to buy the building and I’m going to disappear.”

That made the area around his
heart hurt a bit. He didn’t want her to disappear; he really liked Miss Grace. He
was trying to think of a way to make her want to stick around for a little
while longer when her phone rang. He watched her answer it.

She was already a very pale woman,
he noticed. He thought her skin looked like milk and was really smooth like it
too. He thought of her as the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen and thought
maybe his dad did too. But as soon as she put the phone to her ear she seemed
to get paler. He watched her close the phone with shaky hands and put it back
into her pocket. He didn’t know a great deal about adults and less about what
made them scared, but he’d bet his brand new bed that someone had scared the
crap out of Miss Grace.

Trace did the only thing he could
think of and he reached out and took her hand. She took it and held it really
tight. She seemed to be so sad all of a sudden when she looked at him and he
decided right then and there that he loved Miss Grace.

“I’m really going to miss you,
Trace. It’s been a pleasure knowing you.”

As soon as they got to the vet he
called his dad.

Chapter 11

Michael answered his phone on the
first ring. He was right in the middle of the biggest deal in his career and he
didn’t have time for calls.

“Whatever you want, you’ll have to
call back later. I’m too fucking busy to talk to you right now.” The silence at
the other end had him close his eyes. He just knew it was going to be his
mother. When Trace spoke, his heart started to pound.

“Dad, I’m sorry, but I found him
and they wanted to throw him in the back to die and I didn’t know she was going
to let me take care of him, but I was mean to her and then she got this phone
call and whoever it was made her sad, then she held my hand and told me that
she was going to miss me.”

Michael could hear the tears in
his son’s voice and took a deep breath. “Okay, son, let’s start over. Who did
you find and who wanted to throw them out to die?”

Seemed a reasonable place to start,
but apparently not to his son. “She’s going to leave us. Are you going to let
her go? I love her, Dad, and I don’t want her to go away.”

He figured he was talking about
Grace, but wanted to be sure. “You mean Grace? She’s not going anywhere, Trace.
She and I are working on a deal that will give her a better place to work and I’ll
have—”

“You’re not listening to me. She
got this phone call and I think that person…hang on, the doctor wants to ask me
a question.”

Michael stood up. His son was at a
doctor’s office. He grabbed his coat to go to him when he realized he had no
idea where he was. The last he’d heard he was with Grace. He sat down hard,
thinking something had happened to her. When Trace came back on the line,
Michael was ready to scream.

“They wanted a name to call him. I
hope you don’t mind, but I’m calling him Walter. They said he need a good name
and Grace said I should add something distinguished to it. So his name is
Walter Stuffinpuppy the Fourth. Is that okay with you?”

Michael laid his head on his desk.
“That’s fine, son. Where are you?”

“At the vet.”

Michael waited for more, but
apparently he was waiting in vain. “And you’re there with Grace and Walter?”
Again, a short, to the point answer. “Can I speak to Grace, you think? Or can
Walter come to the phone?” At this point, he would talk to anyone to figure out
what was going on. His son’s laughter caught him off guard.

“Walter is a dog, Dad. Grace is
out in the lobby with my coat. I left her my stuff so she couldn’t leave me. She
said she was going to have to leave us, Dad. I don’t want her to.”

Neither did Michael. He stood
again and walked toward the door. “What vet are you at and I’ll come and get
you both…well, all three. And then we’ll talk about Walter and his new owner.”
Trace giggled again. “I’m assuming you’re his new owner, right?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t let them throw
him outside in the rain, Dad, and the vet says that he’d got a cold and needs
some TLC. I had to ask him what that meant and I’ve got plenty of tender loving
care for him, I promise.”

Michael didn’t doubt it. “Does
Grace know that you called me?” At his son’s ‘no’ he grinned. “Don’t tell her.
She and I will have a long talk when I get there. And son.”

“Yeah, Dad?”

Michael grinned bigger when he
heard the suspicion in his son’s voice. “If Walter isn’t house trained, you’re
cleaning up his messes.”

Michael called his mom next. “Can
you call Markus for me and tell them we’ll have to meet tomorrow? I have
something to do and it can’t wait any longer.”

“Yes. I’ll call him now. Is there
anything wrong? It’s not the deal, is it? Oh Michael, tell me what I can do to
fix it.”

He pushed the button to the
elevator to go down to his car. “No, nothing to do with that. It’s Grace and
Trace.” He liked the sound of that. “Trace apparently found a dog and someone
he loves more than me.”

“He doesn’t love a dog more than
you. He may say that, but he doesn’t. I remember once when you claimed to love
the lady across the hall from us more than ice cream. It didn’t last. The next
time I went to the store and got you your favorite, Miss Too-tight-dress was
history.”

Michael laughed. “If I remember
correctly, I only loved her for her cookies. Back then I don’t think I would
have noticed how tight her dress was. No, it’s Grace. She told him she was
leaving and he’s decided that he loves her too much to let her go.”

His mom snorted. “Well, at least
one of you is smart enough to know a good woman when he sees one. Tell Trace
that his grandmother thinks he’s the smarter of the two of you and I’m rooting
for him.”

Michael was still smiling when he
pulled up in front of the Main Paws Veterinary twenty minutes later. He stepped
inside just in time to hear a shrill whistle and a little boy crying.

Before he could step in and fix it
Grace started barking orders like a drill sergeant. “You, I want you to stop
yelling at the top of your lungs and sit still. You’re making matters worse by
caterwauling like a cat with his tail under a rocker.”

The woman with the furry piece of
fluff in her hands stopped shouting. Grace turned to the nurse standing there
and started on her. “Take that…what the hell is that anyway?”

“It’s a gecko, miss. And I don’t
appreciate you taking over like you own the place. The doctor will be—”

“Happier if he doesn’t have to
bail you out of jail for causing a riot. Take that lizard in the back and see
if it needs stitches. Why you don’t have a leash law in here is beyond me.” Grace
turned to the little boy who was sobbing in his mother’s lap. “You should be
whipped. And don’t you dare try to tell me that you didn’t throw that cat on
top of the gecko on purpose. I saw you. And if he needs therapy after this, I’m
going to make sure you get the bills. Poor thing will probably lose all his
scales by the next full moon.”

“I don’t believe gecko have
scales, honey,” Michael said to her when she looked at him. “And therapy? The
poor thing will probably need years of it when this is over.”

“He called you,” she said with a
glare, and he nodded. “Why? No, don’t tell me, he thought that you’d not turn
him down bringing the puppy home if he could show you that he was injured. Well,
he’s fine. He needs a good home and if you can’t provide it for him, I’ll take
him to my nephew. Connor will love him.”

Michael wanted to pull her to him
and kiss her senseless, but thought she’d hit him. And as much as he wanted her
right now, he didn’t want her to hurt him in front of a room full of witnesses.
He braced his arms over his chest so he couldn’t touch her and smiled. “He can
keep the dog. I’ve wanted to get him one for weeks now. As for your nephew, I’d
love to meet him.” He stepped closer, unable to help himself. “You are the
reason I’m here.”

~~~

Grace tried to get out of going
back to his house with him after they left the vet. Trace was so happy about
getting to keep the little dog that she’d let her better judgment get away from
her. She was in his limo again and speeding across town in less time than she
could have arranged it.

“I’m going to have to have a cab
take me back home tonight, so will you lend me enough money to pay for the
ride?”

Michael simply grinned.

“I have an early meeting in the
morning so I have to leave by eight to get back in time to get to bed early.”

“I’ll make sure you get back in
time for your meeting tomorrow. I have a meeting too and we can share the ride
in.” He leaned back on the seat, entirely too full of himself. “You should
bring some clothes to leave at the house so you can have something to change
into when you’re here.”

“I’m not spending the night. I
told you, we can’t see each other anymore. You need to purchase the building so
that I can get on with my life.” She looked over at Trace and realized he’d
fallen asleep. “You can’t keep coming around like you’re…like we’re seeing each
other.”