Dead Silence (Stillwater Trilogy #1)(37)
Author: Brenda Novak

“Everyone says I look like my mom,” he said.

That was true, too. In certain ways. How had she missed it?

Grace hadn’t expected Kennedy Archer’s son to be running around on his own at eight years old—that was how! She hadn’t expected Kennedy Archer’s son to be allowed to get dirty or rip out his knees or mow other people’s lawns. But most of all, she hadn’t expected to like anyone so closely related to Kennedy Archer.

“Why isn’t someone watching you?” she asked. She was trying to curb her disappointment, to hide it—but that wasn’t easy.

“I told you, my grandma watches me.”

“She can’t. She lives out of town, down by the—”

“She moved,” he broke in. “A long time ago.”

“Where?”

“Around the block.”

“What?”

“Grandpa wanted to be closer to the bank,” he explained.

Around the block. Closer to the bank. Of course. It all made sense. Teddy had lost his mother, so someone had to watch him during the day. Why not Grandma Archer?

Which meant…

Grace pressed her fingers to her temples. That had been Kennedy in the black SUV the morning she’d been caught unawares. He’d probably been dropping his boys off at his mother’s house and gotten quite an eyeful.

“Oh, boy,” she muttered, dropping into her seat.

After several long seconds, Teddy tentatively tapped her on the shoulder. “Grace?”

“What?”

“Are you mad at me?”

“No, of course not,” she said, but she didn’t know what she was going to do. She couldn’t hang out with Kennedy’s son. Kennedy might’ve let her go last night, but she was pretty sure none of this was over yet.

“What’s wrong, then?” he asked.

She rubbed a hand over her face. “Um…I just need some time to think, okay, Teddy? Why don’t you…” Her mind grasped for something that might make him happy and buy her some time. “Why don’t you take all the cookies home with you? And…and we’ll talk later, okay?”

“You don’t like me anymore,” he accused.

As she looked into his troubled face, her heart threatened to break. “Teddy, that’s not it at all. You see, your father and I…we’ve never been friends.”

“He thinks you’re nice.”

“No, he doesn’t. We…I can’t believe he’d even allow you to be here. He doesn’t know about it, does he?”

“He knows,” Teddy insisted. “He said to thank you for the lasagna. And he asked me to bring him some more cookies. He loves your cookies.”

She’d made dinner for Kennedy and his sons last night. She’d thought she was sending food to a poverty-stricken family with a darling little boy who needed her. She hadn’t realized she was wasting her time and effort on the likes of Kennedy Archer, who could buy his children the best of everything.

“He even said you could go camping with us,” Teddy added, as if that might help.

Camping again. Grace couldn’t imagine that Kennedy had plans to invite her anywhere. “Teddy, you have a family who loves you and takes good care of you. You don’t need me.”

Tears filled his eyes. “I’m never coming back here!” he cried and ran away.

Numb, Grace sat staring at the food spread out on the table before her, and thought about the books she’d planned to check out at the library. Teddy had never heard of Lemony Snicket. She’d wanted to read him the whole “Series of Unfortunate Events.”

But she was running into too many unfortunate events of her own.

His mother was calling—again. Sometimes Kennedy wished he could go through a whole day without being interrupted by her. She always had some complaint or suggestion. If Rodney Granger had surplus peaches on his trees, she called to see if he and the boys wanted to go pick a few pounds. She called to let him know she’d be renting a carpet-cleaning machine and to ask if he’d like to borrow it. She called to tell him she’d won him another vote whenever she convinced a Vicki Nibley supporter to switch sides. For the most part, it was pretty thoughtful stuff. It was just…constant. Sometimes she made him feel claustrophobic. But there wasn’t much he could do, since she was watching his boys every day. He certainly didn’t want to leave them with anyone else. Maybe his mother wasn’t the most soft-spoken person in the world, but she was very responsible. And she was family. If Raelynn’s death and his father’s cancer had taught him anything, it was to value those relationships.

Stifling a sigh, he pushed the Talk button on his phone because he knew she’d only call back if he didn’t. If she reached his voice mail twice in a row, she called his secretary and started tracking him down that way. “Hello?”

“Kennedy?”

“What?”

“We have a problem.”

“What’s wrong now?”

“Teddy’s upset.”

“Why? Did he get in trouble for coming home late again?”

“No. He came home early. But he went straight to the tree house and won’t come out. Something happened while he was over at that woman’s house.”

Grace. Besides Irene, Grace was the only one his mother called “that woman.” “Do you know what it could be?”

“He won’t say.”

The disapproval in her tone screamed, “I told you he shouldn’t have been allowed over there!”

“Put him on the phone.”

Kennedy waited several minutes. He was beginning to believe his mother wasn’t able to coax Teddy into talking to him when his son finally picked up. “Hello?”

“Hey, buddy. What’s going on?”

“I’m not in trouble,” he grumbled sullenly. “I came home on time.”

“I know,” Kennedy said. “I’m just calling to see what happened at Grace’s today.”

“Nothing happened.”

“When I drove past her place at lunch, the stand was up, but you two weren’t around. Didn’t you open the shop?”

“We opened it for a little while, but—” his voice cracked “—she doesn’t want me over there. She doesn’t like me anymore.”

Kennedy remembered them reading together at the patio table. “What makes you think that?”

“She told me to take all the cookies and go home.”