21
T-DAY MINUS ONE
When Sam appeared at the mouth of the airport
concourse, he clasped Grace to his muscular, wiry frame for a
marathon hug and then presented her with a ridiculously large
bouquet of flowers that he swore he’d held in his lap the entire
flight. “I bought them as I was running to catch my connection in
Newark,” he explained, “but I think they began life in
Columbia.”
“They’re better traveled than me,” she
said.
He arched a dark brow. “What, better
traveled than the Christopher Columbus of the Oliver
family?”
She whacked him playfully with a tip of
a carnation.
She’d always had a soft spot for Sam.
Maybe it was because he was the closest in age to her—albeit the
farthest in geography. She sometimes felt that if she dropped off
the face of the earth, none of her other brothers or Natalie would
notice. But Sam would. Even though he hadn’t always been there
during the few holidays she’d spent in Austin, or during the summer
visits to her dad’s, Sam had always kept up with her life, and he
was known to nag her about working too much or not having enough of
a social life . . . the very things that his own life suffered
from. But e-mails and telephone calls couldn’t compare to the fun
of seeing him in person. It always felt like running into a
long-lost friend.
Having him here, she started to feel
excitement about the holiday. A real Oliver holiday—she hadn’t been
here for one of those in years. Only now that she’d had a hand in
organizing Thanksgiving, she felt at the center of it all instead
of just being a drop-in guest.
On the drive back, she listened as Sam
caught her up on all his news. His paper was squeezing out the
foreign offices all the time, so he was worried about losing his
assignment. “I might end up in L.A. churning out copy about Lady
Gaga.”
“Good—I’d probably read you more often.
Although we both know that you’ll never come back to this side of
the world as long as Seeger’s in . . . where is he
now?”
He slumped a little.
“Malawi.”
Poor Sam. When it came to Seeger
Johnson, Sam had a little Olivia-Newton John man in him. He had
been lucky enough to find a kindred spirit as an adolescent;
unfortunately, he and Seeger had spent their entire lives not quite
managing to live in the same place. Or even on the same
continent.
“I heard from him a few weeks ago,” he
said. “He still hopes to get the tree planting project funded by
the Malawi government. Now he’ll never leave that place.” Seeger,
who actually listed environmentalist as his profession on his tax
return, had been working for years on a project called Trees Across
Africa. “The man’s a disgusting idealist with a Johnny Appleseed
complex.”
“You’ve got a little bit of that in you
too, don’t you?”
He turned, drawing back. “Me? I
observe. I analyze.”
“Okay, but you aren’t in L.A. writing about celebrities. You’re where
the trouble is.”
“The difference is, I prefer to keep a
safe distance, especially if there’s the slightest chance of
cholera.”
She shook her head.
“Oh God, let’s not talk about my
problems anymore.” He shot her a wry look. “Let’s talk about
Steven’s. Is he going to be moping the whole holiday?”
“I doubt it. I think he’s mostly over
Denise, but you know Steven. He’s not exactly Mr. Emotive. He
reminds me a little of Ray, but of course I think Steven has
blocked Denise from his mind, while Ray—”
Sam stopped her. “Wait, wait—back up a
moment. Who is Ray?”
“Our neighbor. I mean, Dad’s
neighbor.”
His brows lifted. “And?”
“And it’s not what you’re thinking,”
she said. “He’s a widower, he’s still grieving, he’s got three
kids. I e-mailed you about them—Dominic and Lily.”
“That’s two
kids.”
“Oh, there’s this other girl, but we’ve
never hit it off. In fact, last time I saw her she called me a
hemorrhoid.”
“What does that
mean?”
She’d been wondering that herself. “I
haven’t the foggiest idea. But it can’t be good, can
it?”
He laughed, but in the ensuing silence,
it became clear that they’d been tap dancing around the person who
was really on their minds. “How is he?” Sam asked.
She didn’t have to ask who he was. They’d talked about everyone else. “Dad’s
fine.” In spite of her words, Sam looked anxious. “You might not
even notice anything wrong at first,” she told him. “Or at all, if
it’s a good weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.”
“But you guys still think he needs
live-in help?”
At the mention of this topic, her grip
on the steering wheel tightened. “We’ve finally found someone.”
Here, it was harder for her to sound upbeat. “She seems very
nice.”
“Who is she? What’s her
name?”
“Her name’s Darla
Swinton.”
Sam’s mouth set in a grim line. “What’s
she like?”
“She’s very nice.”
“And?”
“Well—you know. She’s had some nursing
experience, then she lost her husband and she wanted a
change.”
“But what’s she like? Does she have a
sense of humor?”
“She’s a home-care nurse, Sam. She’s
not a comedian.”
“But does Dad like her?”
“During their one meeting, Dad barely
said a word,” Grace answered truthfully. “He’s still resistant to
the whole idea. But once I’m gone...”
She hated saying the words he’ll get used to it. It felt as if he were a person
who’d lost all independence, and that they were condemning him to a
life he’d hate. “I don’t want to leave him.”
Sam sent an alarmed look over at her.
“But you are. Scruffy Ben’s coming down to take you back with him,
isn’t he?”
“Yeah. Once I drop you off at the
house, I have to turn around and go right back to the airport and
pick him up.”
“Do I detect a lack of enthusiasm in
your tone?”
“It’s not because of Ben,” she assured
him. “It’s because I’ll be going back with him. To Portland. I
always hated leaving Austin. You know that.”
He smiled faintly as he squinted into
the windshield. “Dad always tried diversion tactics to get you back
on the plane to Oregon—as if a quick jaunt to the ice cream shop or
a bookstore would make you forget you were going to the
airport.”
“It worked when I was little. Then one
time when I was around twelve we ended up at Holiday House with me
wailing into a milkshake for an hour. That was the end of the
bait-and-switch.”
“But you’re okay with going back this
time, right? You’ve made your decision.”
She had—or thought she had—but when the
reality of leaving hit her she felt less resolute. “I hate it.” She
reached down to her purse for a tissue and shot Sam a warning look.
“No cracks.”
Sam darted his left hand toward the
steering wheel. “I won’t make fun of you for being weepy if you
promise to stay in your lane.”
She laughed.
“You’re doing the right thing,” he told
her. “You’ve got a great life in Portland. Your cool store, family
number two, friends, and let’s not forget scruffy
Ben...”
“But when I think of Dad, none of that
seems to matter.”
“Believe me, it matters,” Sam said.
“You’re lucky you’ve found someone who wants to live with you. You
don’t know what it feels like to wake up and have no one...” Sam
muttered a curse and reached for a Kleenex.
“But that’s just the problem,” Grace
told him. “I keep thinking about Dad waking up feeling that way.
He’ll be so alone. Some days he probably won’t see anyone but this
Darla Swinton person. Or maybe he’ll have a visit from Uncle Truman
to look forward to.”
Sam sank against the passenger door.
“God, that’s gruesome.”
Because Sam’s plane had been a little
late, Grace barely had time to drop him off at the house before she
needed to turn around to retrieve Ben. Foreboding took hold of her,
though, as she drove up to the house and found Muriel Blainey
practically blocking her way into the drive.
“Hello, Grace!” Starched and pressed in
autumn hues, Muriel darted a glance at Sam and walked right up to
the car before Grace even had a chance to get out. “Hello, Sam. You
probably don’t remember me.”
He smiled, but the split-second gap
between his mouth opening and his words said it all. “Who could
forget?”
She came nose-to-nose with Grace as
Grace was trying to help unload Sam’s stuff. “I was just wondering
what you were having tomorrow.”
Grace straightened.
“Turkey.”
“Well, yes, I assumed . . . but do you
need me to bring anything?”
Grace gaped at the woman, trying to
compute what she was saying. “Food, you mean?”
“When I bumped into Lou, he didn’t
mention what I should bring.”
Her father had invited Muriel to the
family dinner? Muriel? To the dinner that
he had insisted should be only family?
“What about John?” Grace asked,
referring to the rarely-sighted Mr. Muriel. “Is he coming,
too?”
“Unfortunately, he had to stay in
California.” In the next second, Muriel was back to food. “I’d be
happy to make my mother’s Jell-O salad recipe. It’s old school, but
it’s always a big hit, especially when I make it in my special
holiday turkey mold.”
“Yum!” Sam exclaimed, almost managing
to cover his sarcasm.
Grace shot him an exasperated glance.
She was still trying to come to terms with Muriel getting invited.
When had her dad invited her? How had they bumped into each
other?
Something about that struck her as odd.
“Where exactly did you bump into Dad?”
“He was out walking—over past Koenig
Lane.”
Grace froze in panic. That was almost a
mile away. “Did he have Iago with him?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Okay.” Grace looked over the roof of
the car at Sam. “Let’s go dump this stuff.”
Muriel glanced from one to the other.
“Is something wrong?”
“No—not really,” Grace said. Apart from
Lily, she hadn’t told anyone in the neighborhood about her father’s
illness. She hadn’t felt it was her place to blab to her father’s
friends and neighbors about his diagnosis, and she certainly didn’t
want to go into it with Muriel now. “I just worry about him walking
that far on his bum leg.”
“Oh! I didn’t think about that,” Muriel
said. “I should have offered him a ride, I guess. Though I don’t
usually like having dogs in the car.”
“It’s okay,” Grace said.
She prayed it was okay as she nodded to Sam to start heading toward
the house.
“What about the Jell-O salad?” Muriel
asked.
“Fantastic,” Grace told her. She
couldn’t have cared less about food right now.
“What time tomorrow?”
“Noon.”
“Though you’ll probably want me to come
a little early, right?”
“No, not really,” Grace said, too
distracted to candy-coat things.
Inside the house, she dropped Sam’s
suitcase and gave her hysteria free rein. “We’ve got to find Dad,”
she said. “Now.”
“Grace, you need to get back to the
airport.”
She stopped in her tracks. The airport.
Ben. She’d forgotten.
She shouldn’t have left her dad alone
so long! He’d insisted he didn’t want to go out, though, and that
he’d be fine. How could she have been so stupid?
And to think she was worried that Darla
Swinton wouldn’t take good care of him!
“You go to the airport,” Sam said.
“I’ll go look for Dad. He probably just wanted to stretch his
legs.”
“You’ll need the car.” There was only
one car. She looked at her watch. “I have time.”
As they prowled the streets, worry and
frustration ate at her. Her father had said he was going to lie
down before Sam showed up. Why had he suddenly decided to take
off?
“What if he gets hit by a car again?”
she asked, hugging the steering wheel and peering out the side
window.
“He might be hit by you if you don’t
keep your eye on the road,” Sam said. “Just drive. I’ll
look.”
At that moment, Grace mashed on the
brake. Peggy and Truman were walking down the sidewalk, hand in
hand. They looked over, startled by her squealing of tires, and
practically jumped apart when they saw who it was hanging out the
opened window.
“Dad’s missing!” she blurted
out.
Sam got out and poked his head over the
roof. “He wandered off on a walk.”
“So?” Truman asked.
Peggy elbowed him. “It’s good to see
you, Sam.” Then she assured Grace, “Don’t worry about your father.
We’ll get the car and look for him, too. I’ve got your cell phone
number.”
Grace felt like weeping in gratitude.
“Thank you!” She accelerated, forgetting about Sam being half in
and half out until she heard his cry of alarm. He was about to duck
back into the car when she told him to shout after them that Lou
had last been seen at Koenig Lane. He did this and then sank back
into the passenger seat, blowing out a breath.
They zigzagged around the neighborhood,
peering around each street and yard and asking anyone they saw if
they’d seen an old man walking a fuzzy basset hound. No one
had.
“We’re on the wrong track,” Grace said
after ten minutes of this.
“Maybe I should go home and wait while
you drive out to the airport,” Sam suggested.
She shook her head. “You take the car,
and I’ll take the bus to the airport.”
“But—”
Grace wasn’t willing to argue the
point. “And keep looping by the house regularly to see if he’s
shown up there.”
They switched sides and Sam dropped her
off at a bus stop just as a bus was pulling up.
“We’ll find him, Grace,” he assured
her.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she
said.
She boarded the bus and rode it to the
capitol building, where she had to get on the airport shuttle. Luck
was with her. It was waiting right there.
She bit back the urge to tell the
driver to step on it and flopped on a seat near the front of the
empty bus, which started its journey just as her phone rang. It was
Peggy.
“Grace, we found him. He’s with
us.”
Grace nearly collapsed in relief. In
that moment, the animosity she’d felt toward Peggy all these months
disappeared. At least she’d come through in the pinch. “Thank you
so much!”
“We’re driving back to the house
now.”
As she was hanging up, Grace saw a
message on her phone she hadn’t noticed. It was a text from Ben
that had come a few hours before. She had accidentally left her
phone on vibrate until she’d turned on the ringer, hoping for news
about her dad. Ben had probably texted to let her know his plane
was delayed.
She decided to call Sam first and tell
him the good news.
“Thank God,” he said. “I’m going to go
home and root through the liquor cabinet now.”
“Leave a little for me,” she
said.
After she’d hung up, she looked at her
phone again. As she scrolled down Ben’s text, her forehead furrowed
in confusion.
Not on plane. I’m so
sorry.
She pressed speed dial. On the other
end, the phone rang and rang. She hung up, stewed for ten seconds,
then dialed again. When there was no answer, she sank back in
frustration and watched suburban Austin whiz by through the window
for a block. The third time she called, Ben picked up.
“Okay, Grace,” he said, as if they were
already midargument, “I’m sorry. Okay?”
“What happened?”
“I have to go to Seattle. In fact, I’m
halfway there now.”
Halfway to Seattle? “What’s in Seattle?”
“Amber. She’s all alone up there during
the holiday, and swamped with school stuff besides.”
Grace would have laughed if she hadn’t
been so irritated. “Are you going there to help her
study?”
“She needs me, Grace.”
“Why?”
His long sigh crackled over the line.
“Nobody knows this yet but me. Amber’s pregnant.”
The response threw Grace. And, frankly,
she couldn’t help feeling a little hurt. She and Amber used to be
good friends, but they’d barely communicated at all since Grace
left Portland. She hadn’t even e-mailed her the big news. “Why
would she tell you this?”
“Because.” When he realized
because wasn’t enough, Ben confessed,
“Because I’m the father.”
“What?”
“I knew you were going to react this
way.”
“What way?”
“Mad.”
But she hadn’t been mad. She’d just
been shocked. Flabbergasted.
Now she got
mad. “For God’s sake!”
“You left, Grace. You’ve been gone
forever.”
“For five
months.” She sputtered wordlessly before asking, “What
happened? Only a month ago you were begging me to go back to
Portland. Thanksgiving was going to be our big
reunion.”
“I know.” He sighed. “The truth is, the
thing with Amber happened before.”
“Before you asked me to come back?” she
said, her voice finally reaching toward hysteria. “Before we made
plans for today?”
“The thing with Amber was nothing,” he
said.
“Obviously not!”
“She’d just come down one weekend to
get those boxes in our basement,” he explained. “And I was feeling
lonely, and so was she, so—”
Grace cut him off. “I get the
picture.”
“I thought that was the end of it.
Obviously. But now, with the kid . . .” He sighed. “I asked you to
come home all summer, Grace.”
“But I didn’t know you meant that if I
didn’t come home you would get our mutual friend
pregnant!”
The bus driver, a woman, glanced up at
her through the rearview mirror.
“You’d been gone so long, Grace,” Ben
said. “How was I to know what was going through your
mind?”
“By asking me!”
“I did—and you always set dates for
returning and then broke them. How could I be sure that
you weren’t seeing someone down there, like
that Ray guy.”
“That’s absurd! How do you even know
about him?”
“Because you talk about him and those
stupid kids all the time. Every time we
talked, you mentioned them.”
For some reason, hearing Ben refer to
Dominic and Lily as those stupid kids made
her madder than anything else. “You are crazy and wrong, but it
doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t even want to talk to you right
now.”
“Fine. You don’t have to talk to me
ever, if you don’t want to,” he announced. “I’m moving to
Seattle.”
Grace felt as if her heart should have
been breaking at the announcement, but her first thought was,
Who’s going to take care of
Rigoletto’s?
When she finally hung up the phone, the
bus was pulling into the airport. “Do I get a price break for
taking a round trip without getting off?” she said to the
driver.
Eyeing her through the mirror, the
driver pursed her lips. “Sounds like if the city of Austin doesn’t
give you a break today, nobody will.”