Dead Silence (Stillwater Trilogy #1)(85)
Author: Brenda Novak

“I don’t feel comfortable here.”

He studied her. “Why not? I don’t think you’ve been over before, have you?”

“I went by this place a lot. I can still remember seeing you and your friends celebrating Lacy Baumgarter’s sixteenth birthday party right there.” She motioned to the side yard. “I was on my way to the pizza parlor. You were pushing the girls on the tree swing.”

He said nothing.

She cleared her throat. “Anyway, it reminds me of all the reasons we don’t belong together.”

“I would’ve come over to Evonne’s, but I can’t leave the boys alone,” he said.

“I know.”

“Does that mean you’re not coming in?”

“I can’t.”

Stepping outside, he closed the door quietly behind him. “Grace…”

“What?”

He strode down the path. He was wearing nothing but a pair of blue jeans, and she tried not to let her eyes linger on his bare torso.

“I’d really like you to come in,” he said softly.

She shook her head, gazing beyond him, at the house.

He lifted her hands and kissed her fingertips. “I think you’d like the place, once you got used to it.”

“You hurt your hand last night,” she said as she noticed the swelling.

“Not too bad. The doctor said it’ll be fine in a week or so.”

“That’s good.”

He tried to tug her toward the door, but she resisted. “Come on, Grace. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to make love to you with you wishing I was Raelynn,” she admitted.

Dropping her hands, he scowled at her. “I don’t want you to be anyone other than who you are.”

When she didn’t respond, he put his arms around her and pressed his lips to her temple. “That party wasn’t as much fun as it looked,” he whispered. “None of them were.”

She nodded. “We’re just so different, Kennedy.”

“Who says?”

Everyone knew it. She’d lived it.

“Come on,” he said and led her onto the lawn.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked in surprise.

He pointed to the old tree swing. “It’s your turn.”

Still bent on leaving, Grace hesitated. But the envy she’d felt all those years ago kept her where she was, and the expectant look on Kennedy’s face convinced her. Sitting in the swing, she held on to the ropes as he started to push.

The chair creaked as he sent her flying higher and higher. With each lift of her stomach, Grace’s heart raced with exhilaration.

Closing her eyes, she smiled at the heady sensation of Kennedy’s firm hands helping her sail through space. Difficult though it was to believe, the girl who’d been the laughingstock of the whole town had finally been invited to the party.

By none other than the prince himself.

The inside of Kennedy’s house was as elegant as the outside. Expensive furniture and paintings filled room after room. Persian rugs covered richly polished hardwood floors. Crown molding lined the ceiling. And there were plenty of built-in cabinets and shelves.

Grace began to feel out of place again as he walked her through the parlor, the living room, the sitting room and the kitchen. Especially when she saw the family portrait hanging in the dining room. But Kennedy held on to her the whole time, as if he sensed that she might bolt.

Fortunately, she saw numerous little reminders that Teddy and Heath lived here, too. That helped.

“Can I see the boys?” she asked.

He took her upstairs to the second story. Heath’s room was on the right. Teddy’s was just past it. Grace smiled as she stood at each boy’s bedside and stared down at his sleeping face. “They’re wonderful, aren’t they?” she whispered, rubbing her knuckles against Teddy’s soft cheek.

“They think you’re pretty special, too.” Kennedy kissed her neck. “They’d be mad if they knew you were here and they didn’t get to see you.”

“It’ll be hard to leave them when I go back to Jackson.”

“Don’t talk about leaving.”

The grandfather clock chimed in the entryway below.

“I don’t know anyone else who has a grandfather clock,” she said with a smile.

He nipped at her ear. “If you don’t like it, I’ll get rid of it.”

“Right now?” she teased.

“First thing in the morning. It can wait that long, can’t it?”

“I don’t know,” she said more seriously. “I don’t like being reminded of the passing time.”

“Neither do I,” he admitted. “Not when you’re here.”

He drew her away from Teddy’s bedside, but she stepped on something that made her pause. “What’s this?” she asked, picking up the page of a magazine, folded into a tiny triangle.

“I don’t know.” Taking it from her, he stood in the light spilling from the hallway to see what it was. Then he looked back at his son. “Oh, my gosh, this is it.”

“What?”

He turned the paper so she could see. It showed a marble statue of an angel and two different birdbaths, along with ordering information for each. “What he’s been saving up for,” Kennedy murmured.

Remembering Teddy at her door the day she’d first met him, Grace took a closer look. He’d told her he was saving up for something special. “He wants a birdbath?”

“He wants the angel.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Raelynn clipped this out herself. She was considering buying it for the garden. When she died, Teddy wanted me to get it for her headstone.”

“You didn’t want an angel?”

“I preferred something rectangular, something that could be more easily inscribed.” He frowned as though disappointed in himself. “I guess I was so caught up in my own sorrow that I didn’t realize how important the angel was to him.”

“It’s been two years. How sweet of him not to give up.”

“He’s quite a child.” Refolding the clipping, he placed it on the dresser. “I’ll have to talk to him when I get an opportunity, see if I can help him somehow.”

“I think he wants to do it himself,” Grace said. “Otherwise, he would’ve come to you.”

Kennedy rubbed a thumb over her cheek and bottom lip. “You’re probably right. But now that I know, maybe I can hire him to do some extra work around the house.”