Noble Pursuits Page 17

  Finally, in sheer frustration, Grace dug a felt tipped pen out of her purse and created an outline of the fake mustache on the sidewalk, picked it up with a tissue, and carefully tucked it into her purse. She practically ran all the way to the police department. She was not prepared for the reaction that followed.

  “Lady, do you know that your actions could be considered interfering with a police investigation? You have likely destroyed any evidence on this.”

  Grace looked at the unfriendly officer and sighed. She turned to leave but an officer at another desk stopped her. “Grace! Hey! Remember me?”

  Grace’s smile was warm and genuine. “Todd Mercer. It’s good to see you again. It’s been a while.”

  Grace explained to Todd why she was there and what the other officer had told her. “Well, that’s not really true. You weren’t on a crime scene, you haven’t interviewed any witnesses, and there is nothing wrong with bringing evidence down here. I’ll talk to him. Joe’s just mad that we haven’t caught this guy. He’s taking it out on all of us.”

  “I didn’t want to move it. I tried to figure out how to call you guys, but I didn’t have a cell phone. I didn’t touch it. I used a tissue…”

  Todd walked her to her car, talking casually about the case and how Grace was connected. He remembered their school days and how kind Grace had always been to him. While the other nice girls skirted around Todd’s mini gang of troublemakers, Grace had treated everyone the same. She smiled if they made eye contact and invited them to the church parties she attended faithfully.

  “I never thanked you. I should have.” Todd’s voice betrayed emotions he worked hard to hide these days. The rowdy boy who acted out to gain attention was gone. He was a respected member of the community now. He lived on ‘the right side of the tracks,’ so to speak.

  “Thank me for what?” Grace’s genuine bewilderment showed him that some things don’t change. Grace was still the modest person she’d always been.

  “Just how you always treated me like everyone else. You were the only one outside the guys who did that.”

  Grace thought for a moment. “I don’t want to cheapen your gratitude, but honestly, Todd, I didn’t try…”

  “That’s my point. Everyone else either pretended to be nice if they thought they needed to do their good deed for the day, or they completely ignored my existence, or worse.” His voice still held traces of the boyish pain he’d felt as the more popular girls from the hill would tease him only to toss him aside before he got close enough to soil their air.

  “Some of those girls from fourth period were rough on you, weren’t they?”

  He nodded and shuffled his feet before gathering himself together. “Let’s talk about today. What’s up with you? Can I buy you a coffee? They’ve got a mean espresso down the street if you like that kind of thing?”

  Grace debated. She didn’t know why Todd was asking. What would Craig say about coffee with Todd Mercer? His status on the police force nullified that argument, but Grace wasn’t sure. Finally, her blunter side won. “Why?”

  “Huh?” Todd hadn’t expected that. Yes would have been a surprise as well as a delight. No would have been understandable, but “why” wasn’t something he’d expected.

  “Why do you want to buy me a coffee?” Grace felt foolish but she had to know.

  “Well, because—” He shook his head. “Sorry, I just wanted to repay some of that friendliness.”

  “Well, a friend I can always use,” she laughed, and together they strolled toward the coffee shop. Grace talked animatedly about her life and what she was doing, and then listened intently as Todd told of how he’d been encouraged by the track coach to enter the police academy. To the casual observer, Grace and the officer seemed unaware of their surroundings, and they definitely seemed somewhat absorbed in each other when Nolan drove by on his way to a lunch meeting.

  After talking for over an hour, Todd went back to work with new insight on the “Housewife Rapist” and a new friend. He had told Grace about his online girlfriend, and they arranged to have lunch later that week to discuss his friend Wendy.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Nolan lost the account. His distraction over seeing Grace with another man bothered him more than he cared to admit. His client, another woman sent by the disgruntled and rejected Michelle, had marched out of the restaurant with a disgusting stream of expletives. Picking up his proposal, Nolan absently paid the check and drove home in deep contemplation.

  Once there, Nolan sat in his most comfortable chair, his hands warming around a cup of his favorite coffee, gazed at his little tree lit up with multi-colored lights, and prayed. He wasn’t sure why he kept dragging his feet regarding Grace. At first, he wondered if she wasn’t interested in him and if that made him overly cautious. Then he surmised that she didn’t know of his interest in her, but rejected that notion when he decided his actions lately should have been quite obvious.

  Nolan stood and strode across the street to speak to her. It was time to quit dilly-dallying. It occurred to him as he knocked on the door, that he’d never truly expressed interest verbally in Grace or any woman. He was accustomed to running from women, and this time he didn’t want to run away. It felt as though he was about to embark on a new adventure. He swallowed hard as he realized that his new adventure was a romantic relationship. Was he up to the challenge?

  Grace opened the door while on the phone. She motioned him inside and shut the door quickly behind him. He listened to her chatting away with someone, probably Paige, about the internet. Grace was bundled in a warm sweater and thick leggings under her skirt. She eyed her wood stove with the air of someone who can’t decide whether to add more wood or not. Nolan made gestures indicating his willingness to add more logs and received an appreciative nod. Meanwhile, Grace hurried into the kitchen to make him some of her excellent hot chocolate, still chattering about fabrics and trims.

  He wasn’t sure why Grace seemed so cold. Her house seemed almost stiflingly warm, but he was willing to do anything to get him in her good graces before he brought up the subject that risked the condition of his heart. Nolan wondered if he could really gather the nerve to lay his heart on the line, and that is when it hit him. His reticence to speak clearly was because he knew it wasn’t just a dinner invitation he wanted to secure. He wanted everything—Grace, her heart, and her quirky little ways that charmed him when he allowed himself the freedom to enjoy them.

  Nolan was surprised at how little wood Grace had stacked on her porch. Long before she’d fired up her antique wood stove, Grace had piled a great quantity of wood on the porch where her wicker furniture sat during the warmer months. It was almost half-gone already. Gathering an armful, Nolan edged himself into the house and filled one of her wood “bins.”

  An old oak barrel, cut in half, with well-sanded edges, stood on each side of the stove. During the spring and summer months, huge houseplants filled each barrel, while one sat on the stove. Today, one barrel stood empty, the other held only one log, and instead of a fern on the stove, a pot of chili simmered there. The room smelled heavenly.

  “Paige, I think I could do this, but I don’t know where I’d ever get the money for a computer, and I hardly know how to use them anymore…” Grace listened to obvious protest on the other end before continuing. “Paige, it’s been seven years since I’ve really used a computer. They’re probably different now, and I’m not familiar with the Internet anymore; I know nothing about html, but I’ll see what I can do. Maybe Craig has an old one he’d let me use, or maybe I can borrow one from the office.”

  Grace nodded a few times and then promised to go to the library soon and check out eBay to see whatever it was that Paige meant. “Look, Paige, Nolan is here, and he’s filling my wood box for me. I need to go and help him. I’m freezing. This is going to be a cold winter. Uh huh. Thanks again, bye.”

  She turned to him and smiled. “Here, have some cocoa. Cold today, isn’t it?”

  Nolan shru
gged and made a comment about his activity keeping him warm enough as he searched for the right words. “I— well, I’ve been thinking.”

  “I hear that’s a pretty scary thing to do. I suggest that you find a different hobby. Something less stressful, perhaps?” Grace chuckled at her own joke as she curled into her favorite chair and pulled a lap quilt over her.

  “Grace, are you really that cold? Do you think you might have a fever or something? It’s pretty warm in here.”

  Grace leaned forward and pulled her hair from her forehead. “Do I feel warm to you?”

  Nolan reached toward her, only to jerk back suddenly. “I can’t tell. I came here because we need to talk.”

  “Well then speak, O wise one.” Grace hid a bemused smile behind her hand. He hadn’t touched her, so how could he expect to tell?

  “It just occurred to me today that I haven’t made an effort to share how important our—” He paused searching for just the right word, “friendship is to me.”

  “Well, I’m glad to know it. What do you know about Etsy?” Grace’s mind still appeared to be on her conversation with Paige.

  “Not much.” He tried again. “Grace, what I’m trying to say is that you are really an admirable woman.” Nolan prayed that Grace would focus on the discussion at hand.

  “Do you think so? I don’t know. I think that, really, I’m just different. I’m just a house-spinster.”

  “What!” Nolan’s reaction to her joke was stronger than Grace had expected.

  “Well, I’m not married, so I can’t call myself a housewife, and homemaker sounds so architectural to me. I’m a house-spinster. Cute, huh?”

  “I can’t believe you’d call yourself that. A spinster is a skinny old woman with no warmth or friendliness and who makes misers look like spendthrifts! A—”

  Grace hastily interrupted. “Well, I may not be stereotypical. No one could accuse me of being skinny, that’s for sure.”

  “Grace, that’s not what I meant at all.” Nolan’s voice sounded strained as he backpedaled.

  “No, but it’s the truth… Prayerfully, I’m warm and friendly, though right now I feel pretty chilled.”

  Nolan started to protest again, but her phone interrupted him. As Grace greeted someone by the name of Todd on the other end, he stood, gestured that he was going to go, and dragged himself homeward. Had he seen her collapse into a fit of giggles, he would have been at a complete loss. As it was, he immediately called Craig and made an appointment to talk. Talking to Grace had failed; maybe Craig would have some insights.

  Meanwhile, Grace listened to the suggestion that Todd made. Several of the victims of the recent attacks wanted to gather for support, and Todd thought Grace might be a good group leader for the women. “Grace, maybe, and you didn’t hear this from me, but maybe one of these women will remember something in the group that they didn’t before. You could ask permission to share everything with me, just in case we didn’t know about it…”

  Grace realized that Todd was really stretching the bounds of his job by suggesting the thought, but she pounced on the idea. “How about you tell them Thursday evenings at The Assembly. I’ll make sure we have coffee, tea and something tasty. We can meet from 7:30-8:30. You can come by around 9:00 or so, I’ll tell you anything I hear that they’ll let me share, and you can polish off any leftovers for me.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Craig listened intently to Nolan’s ramblings. Grace had called him the previous night to warn him that Nolan might call and had collapsed into another fit of giggles upon hearing that Nolan had already set up a meeting. “He was trying to ‘declare himself’ or something. It was so cute. I felt bad playing the dumb brunette, sort of. It was kind of funny…” Her voice replayed through Craig’s mind, as Nolan tried to make his point.

  “Oh, this is ridiculous. You were right. I don’t know how you knew I’d fall for her, but I am. Falling that is. I tried to talk to her yesterday and see if she was comfortable with that, but Grace—I don’t know. Either she’s completely clueless, or totally uninterested. She’s your sister. What do I do?”

  Craig unsuccessfully stifled a chuckle. Nolan’s eyes flashed—not amused. “Nolan, Grace is a very intelligent woman. She’d have to be to survive the way she has this year. Do you know she’s socked away almost five thousand dollars?”

  Nolan failed to look suitably impressed. “And your point is?”

  “My point is that she isn’t clueless of your interest, and in my opinion, she’s definitely interested.”

  Nolan shook his head. “I’m lost.”

  “What is Grace’s defining characteristic? What is that one thing that sets her apart from most women that you’ve met?”

  “She’s strong without being brash?”

  Craig’s laugh resounded throughout the restaurant. “Ok, besides that. You’ve been around too many militant feminists, my man.”

  “She’s traditional, almost old fashioned, but not caught in a time warp or anything.”

  Craig nodded. “And what would that mean in regards to relationships?”

  “Relationships? Plural? Is there something going on between her and that officer I saw her with?”

  “No, as far as I know, that man has an online friend he’s been ‘seeing’ or however that works when you’re online.”

  “Scary. Ok...”

  Craig decided to help his friend understand. “You’ve seen how Grace and my relationship works. You know how concerned I was about you. Why would you think she’d want to discuss anything between you two without knowing you’d spoken to me first?”

  “I’m awfully dense, aren’t I?” Nolan sounded amused at himself.

  “Nah. You’ve just never met anyone like Grace.”

  Nolan smiled. “You’ve got that right.”

  They drank their coffee in companionable silence. Nolan’s head jerked up from his cup. “Craig! You didn’t tell me to back off! Why?”

  “Because I know you better now, and because I only wanted to keep her heart from being broken.”

  “And you don’t think I’ll do that now?”

  Craig took a sip before admitting, “Mel pointed out to me that killing a friendship with you would break Grace’s heart before you ever could. She’s right. I treated you just like those women that you are so sick of.”

  Nolan’s questioning look prodded Craig to continue. “I reacted to you solely based upon your physical attractiveness.”

  “You reacted before you saw me. You came charging over before you ever saw me.”

  “And as I left the house to come find out just what kind of man you were, I overheard my sister tell my wife that you are the most attractive man she’s ever met.”

  Nolan grinned. “Is that so? Hmm… seems like I remember her making some comment to that effect, once upon a time.”

  “I have a suggestion for you, though.” Craig’s tone was serious.

  “What is that?”

  “When you talk to her, start by telling her you’ve spoken to me, and then avoid the kind of conversation you have with the guys. I’ve learned in the last three years that women like to be talked to as much as they like to be listened to. If you think you’ve said enough, double that, and you’ll be set.”

  “Can I take her to dinner? Think she’ll go for that?”

  Craig nodded. “I think you might find someplace that gives you a bit of privacy though, but not too private. Just avoid anything that might appear inappropriate.”

  “And you’re sure that she’s not interested in this officer?”

  Craig stood, laughing. “Go call her. You’ve got it bad. Oh, and one last thing. Women are into feelings. Tell her what you’re feeling. Trust me on that one.”

  “Feelings. Great. Do I have feelings? Better get some if I don’t. Think the mall has a store with them?” Nolan began muttering something about how he didn’t know how to become proficient at expressing his feelings at his age.

  Craig leaned back in his chair, grinning.
How much funnier could it be when your future brother-in-law begins to pick up your sister’s quirky habits before he marries her?

  ~*~*~*~

  “Morning. I come bearing eggs, bacon, and orange juice. What do I have to do to beg you to cook ‘em for us?”

  The scent of blueberry muffins almost attacked his senses as Grace opened the door wider to allow him to pass. “Well, I’ve been craving an omelet…”

  “I need to talk to you. You cook; I take orders and talk. Is it a deal?”

  “No.”

  “Well—” Nolan paused, taken aback. He hadn’t expected a negative response. “What?”

  “I’ll cook, you sit and talk. I don’t handle helpers in the kitchen this early. Just sit down and let me function.”

  While Grace pulled out a non-stick frying pan and laid the bacon strips in it, Nolan tried to re-gather his thoughts. He watched as she deftly whipped eggs and half-and-half together and chopped the tops off a green onion and diced a tomato. “I went to see Craig yesterday.”

  “I thought you would.”

  “You knew all along?”

  “Well, I think I figured it out the day before Thanksgiving,” Grace replied as she poured the eggs into another hot skillet. “You said something like, ‘she’s not as far away from my acquaintance as you’d think.’ Something like that. I’m not dense.”

  “You acted dense.”

  She whirled and glared at him. “I acted nothing. You didn’t say anything, so I didn’t either.”

  His eyes held hers until she whirled to sprinkle the onions, tomatoes, cheese and torn bacon strips over the omelet. “But you knew what I wanted the other day, and you played dumb.”

  Once the omelet was flipped in half, she turned and pointed her spatula at him. “You were beating around the bush. You knew how bothered Craig was by our friendship, and yet you chose to talk to me without discussing it with him, and if that wasn’t enough,” her voice rose slightly as she scooped the omelet from the pan and slid it on a plate. “You were a little heavy handed.”