On Blue Falls Pond (19 page)

She opened her eyes and asked the question that had to be asked. “Did you know that Andrew didn’t want the baby?”

Granny’s posture stiffened. “Andrew wasn’t a man who wanted anyone to take your attention. You never said it to me—but I figured.” She took Glory’s hand in hers. “You remembered then?”

Unable to speak, not wanting to explain, Glory just nodded.

Squeezing her hand, Granny said, “Maybe you can let the past go now there ain’t secrets left buried in your mind. You’re too young to spend the rest of your life hidin’.” After a moment she asked, “You been to his grave?”

The question seemed odd, odd enough that it took Glory a few seconds to process whose grave Granny meant. Then, with a listless shake of her head, she whispered, “No.”

“Might do you some good—now that you remember. Make peace. Let go.”

“Maybe.” She didn’t tell Granny that there were still things that were a mystery to her, things that had to be settled before she could begin to let go.

Chapter Seventeen

“M
RS.
M
C
E
LROY SAW
Glory Harrison leaving Eric’s house late last night.” Gail Landry paused; Jill held the phone tightly and could just see the I-told-you-so expression on her mother’s face. Gail’s voice dropped to a scandalously low tone when she added, “He didn’t have a shirt on.”

The words not only set Jill’s teeth on edge—her normal reaction to her mother’s meddling—but twisted her gut with anxiety. She’d never actually considered there would be another woman in the picture. Eric had behaved like a monk since the divorce; she didn’t have a doubt that her mother and her cronies wouldn’t have missed a single liaison, especially considering their vigilant efforts in tracking his activities with Glory.

“Mom, I really don’t have time for this. I’m going to be late for work.” Jill’s impatience had nothing to do with her job. Even after the divorce, she’d been the one in charge—she’d been the one to leave, the one to end the marriage. But suddenly she felt as if she were trying to catch sifting sand with her bare hands.

“You’d better make time, or that woman’ll have her hooks in him. Maybe you should have a little chat with Glory when you pick Scott up tonight.”

“Honestly, Mother! What do you expect me to say?”

“Just that you’re trying to work things out with your husband and you’d appreciate her keeping in mind that you and Eric have a child that needs a family. She lost a baby; she’ll get it.”

“Maybe I should just pee all over him and mark my territory.” It was obvious she was going to have to do something, but her mother’s constant coaching was really getting under her skin.

“Really, Jill! Must you be so vulgar?”

“Eric and Scott are
mine
to worry about. I don’t need these phone calls, nor do I need you adding to the gossip around this town by taking reports from everyone who lays eyes on Eric.” Before her mother could respond, she said, “I have to go. Bye.”

She glanced at the clock. Eric didn’t go in to work until after he dropped Scott off at school on Friday mornings. She picked up the phone and dialed his number.

He answered on the first ring. “Glory?”

An electric shock shot through Jill from head to toe. She forced a smile into her voice when she said, “No, Eric, it’s Jill.”

“Oh, sorry.” There was obviously disappointment in his tone. Then he went on, “I just called out to Tula’s and got the machine.”

“Is there a problem?” She hoped he interpreted the near panic in her voice as concern.

“No. I just needed to talk to Glory . . .” There was a long pause. “You know, see how Tula’s doing today with her eye.”

God, the man was a horrible liar. Clearly she had to do something. “I was calling to tell you I can pick Scott up from school at lunchtime and run him to Tula’s. I know how much time you’ve had to spend away from the station lately. This way you can have an uninterrupted day at work.” At this stage of the game, the less incidental contact between Eric and Glory, the better.

“There’s no need,” he said. “I want to talk to Tula anyway.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to get ahold of her by phone sometime in the next few hours. There’s no need for you to take a chunk out of the middle of your day to run Scott all the way out there. I’m free at lunch today.”

“You’re going to have Scott all weekend; why don’t you take the time to run your errands? I’ve already planned my day around taking him.”

Jill’s chest tightened with frustration. She forced herself to say, in a cheery voice, “Good idea.” After a carefully timed pause, she said, “Tomorrow’s Saturday, why don’t we take Scott to the park in the afternoon. I’ll pack a picnic and we can talk about which doctor we should schedule him with . . . you know, make a game plan.”

There was just enough hesitation in Eric’s response to tell her he had other plans for tomorrow. She held her breath. Eric
always
put Scott first; that’s one thing she’d always been able to count on.

“Okay,” he said. “What time?”

“Pick us up at twelve-thirty.”

“I thought maybe we’d just meet there.”

“I suppose we could . . .” She let it hang there.

“Never mind. I’ll be there at noon.”

“Great. See you tomorrow,” she said, in her most upbeat tone. Then she hung up the phone and chewed on her thumbnail for a few seconds. This might be more difficult than she’d thought.

Eric decided to stop trying to reach Glory by phone. Once he’d thought about it, he realized that it might be awkward for her to discuss anything about last night—and that was the subject he most needed to discuss—with her grandmother within earshot.

As he sat at his desk ignoring work he should be doing, he couldn’t explain why he felt so nervous. It was almost as if he were waiting for first-date feedback:
Did she enjoy it as much as I did? Would there be a second date?

But he and Glory weren’t teenagers with a blank and unscripted future before them; they were mature adults with very complicated lives and other people who depended upon them. If they embarked on a relationship, it wasn’t going to be a smooth road. Challenges would come from both in and outside their relationship, from both the living and the dead.

Even as he realized how dangerously potholed it would probably be, deep in his gut he knew he wanted to try traveling that road with Glory. Trouble was, after the way she left last night, he didn’t think Glory felt the same.

Hence the nerves.

He was too old for nerves when it came to a woman.

“So knock it off,” he mumbled, and picked up a report he needed to review before he met with the mayor this afternoon.

The morning moved with unnatural slowness. The antsy feel reminded him of when he was a kid and had to wait thirty torturously long minutes after he ate to go swimming. The only time in his adult life that he could recall feeling like this was when Jill had been in labor.

Finally, the hands on the clock begrudgingly moved to twelve-thirty, time to go pick Scott up from school. As he drove to the church, he couldn’t help but wonder about Jill’s unprecedented offer to drive Scott out to Tula’s. Jill really seemed to be coming around. As amicable as their shared custody had always been, recently it had become strained. Today’s offer was the signal of better things to come, he just knew it.

When he entered the preschool, Mrs. Parks was sitting on the floor next to Scott. As unexpected relief washed over Eric, and he realized how tense he always was when he walked through this door, never knowing if he’d find his son in a total meltdown or in heartbreaking isolation while other children colored or sang songs.

Mrs. Parks looked up at Eric with a smile. “He had a good day today.”

Scott was playing with little wooden blocks, adjusting the line into precise order. He hadn’t shown interest in any toy except his pirate boat for weeks. He wasn’t allowed to bring the boat to school, but he’d never filled his time there with other toys.

Maybe this was a phase, as Jill insisted, and Scott was finding his way through it. Eric’s heart grabbed on to that hope.

With a knot of emotion in his throat, he knelt in front of his son. “Scott.”

Scott continued to straighten the blocks.

Mrs. Parks said cheerily, “I think it’s a good sign. He’s finally using some of our toys. And he hasn’t cried once all morning.”

Eric smiled as he picked up his son. “Tell Mrs. Parks good-bye,” he prompted, irrationally hoping that some recently closed door in Scott’s mind had reopened, and he’d smile and speak.

Scott laid his head on Eric’s shoulder and clung tightly.

“Good-bye, Scott. See you next week,” Mrs. Parks responded, as if Scott had actually told her good-bye.

When Eric buckled Scott in his car seat, he kissed his forehead and asked, “You hungry?” The kids had lunch at eleven-thirty as part of their social activities, but Eric always asked the question, hoping for some spark of response in his son’s eyes. And this time, there was one. Scott looked directly at him and gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

A giddy laugh bubbled from Eric’s chest. “Already had lunch, did you?” He ruffled Scott’s fine blond hair.

As he drove to Tula’s he thought just maybe the dark cloud had passed. Scott showed signs of improvement. Jill was cooperative. And Glory . . . ah, Glory. He wanted to leave the past in the past and look to the future.

He was whistling when he entered Tula’s kitchen.

“My, my, ain’t we in a chipper mood?” Tula teased with a smile.

He kissed her playfully on the cheek. “It’s a good day.”

“Ev’r day the good Lord gives us is a good day.” She shook a bony finger at him.

“How’s your eye today? What did the doctor say?”

“Said it don’t have nothin’ to do with the macular degeneration. Was just one of those fluky things. Clearin’ up nice now—he calls it ‘quiet’; my eye’s ‘quiet.’”

“So you can see all right?”

“Saw fine by bedtime last night. Glory makes too much of things. I’m old. Got to expect some wear and tear.”

He couldn’t help but wrap his free arm around her. “We should all grow old like you.”

Tula shrugged away. “Stop talkin’ nonsense.” She put her hands out toward Scott. “Give me my boy.”

Scott shifted to Tula’s arms without complaint. Eric watched him with a careful eye for any other outward signs of improvement, but Scott behaved as always with Tula—compliant but not interactive.

“Guess I’d better get back to the station.” Then he said, as if he’d just had the thought, “Maybe I’ll say hi to Glory before I go.”

Tula was settling Scott on his blanket. She straightened and looked at him. There was something that sparked in her eye, and Eric shifted uncomfortably.

“She ain’t here. Went into town.”

“Oh. Well, tell her I said hello.”

“Sure.” Her tone bordered on suspicious. The old gal didn’t miss a trick. He’d wanted to ask what Glory was doing in town, but Tula’s antennae were already picking up more than he thought was prudent at this point in time.

Movement behind Tula caught Eric’s eye. He was surprised to see Scott getting up from his pirate boat, moving toward Lady standing in the doorway. His little face was more animated than Eric had seen it for months. He put a hand on the dog’s back.

Eric whispered, “Look at that.”

Tula put a hand over her heart. “Land’s sake. I never seen him do that before.”

When Lady turned around and walked out of the kitchen, Scott followed.

Tula and Eric inched along behind. In a low voice, Eric said, “He had a good day at school. And he shook his head no when I asked if he was hungry. Maybe he’s coming out of his shell.”

Tula’s green eyes, eyes so much like Glory’s, looked up at him. They sparkled with gathered tears. “I pray to Jesus ever’ night. Maybe He sees it’s time.”

The thought of Tula praying faithfully for his son squeezed his heart with love. He could barely get the words out to agree, “Maybe so.”

When Lady lay down next to the box with her puppies, Scott plopped down next to her and put a chubby fist on her back again. They both seemed content.

Eric said, “I’ll call later and see how it’s going. It’s Jill’s weekend, so she’ll be picking him up.”

“All right.”

He started down the hall toward the kitchen.

Tula stopped him by saying, “Been forgettin’ to tell you, we’re havin’ a family reunion of sorts on Sunday—Glory bein’ back and all. There’ll be lots of young’uns. Might be good for Scott.”

In his mind, Eric could see Scott playing in Tula’s yard with a group of children. He was running and laughing, interacting like a healthy little boy. Oh, how Eric wanted that picture to come to life.

“It
is
Jill’s weekend.” He rubbed his chin, thinking of the tiny markers of progress he’d seen today. “But it probably would be good for him. I’ll see if Jill will let me steal him away for a few hours,” he said as he left.

Just as he reached his Explorer, Glory’s cousin Charlie pulled up in his gray-and-red Suburban.

“Hey, Eric.” Charlie stepped around his truck to shake Eric’s hand. “How’s she doing today?” He gestured with a lift of his chin toward the kitchen.

Eric didn’t know which surprised him more, that Charlie was in tune with a problem that didn’t sit at the end of his own nose or by the fact he was here without his five kids to dump on Tula. Eric was amazed that such a lazy-ass could have a single one of Tula Baker’s genes floating in his blood.

“She says she’s better; she saw her eye doctor again this morning.” He added, with just a hint of sarcasm, “Nice of you to stop by to see how she’s faring.”

The sarcasm was lost on Charlie. He grinned affably and shrugged. “Ran into Glory in town. She said she might be gone a long while and asked if I’d check in.”

“Must take a burden off your shoulders with Glory here now to keep a watch on Tula.”

Charlie laughed, the ridicule in Eric’s tone again whizzing right past his head. “Gran don’t need anyone to ‘keep watch.’” He shook his head. “Better hope she doesn’t hear you say such a thing.”

Eric waved as Charlie headed toward the house. Then he called, “Did Glory happen to say what she was doing in town?”

“Said she was going to the cemetery. She had flowers. Reckon they were for Andrew.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Eric got in his Explorer.

With his optimistic mood now dampened slightly, he turned around and drove back toward the road. Even though there was no traffic, he sat at the end of the lane for a long moment before he pulled out. Glory visiting her husband’s grave the day after she and Eric had sex for the first time didn’t bode well, not well at all.

When he returned to town, he cruised past the cemetery. The Harrisons had a special section near the entrance that was surrounded by an antique wrought-iron fence, the Harrison Garden. Eric saw Glory’s Volvo parked there. Then he saw her, on her knees with her head bowed.

With a stomach that ratcheted another notch tighter, he made himself drive on past and not intrude upon her privacy.

It had taken nearly an hour to gather her courage before she entered the cemetery. As Glory placed a bouquet of white daisies bound together with a pink satin ribbon beside the small marker on her daughter’s grave, her hands trembled and her chest felt too tight to draw a breath. This was the first time she’d seen the engraved stone; she had been too cowardly to return here after the day of the funeral. It shamed her that almost two years had passed, and she had not laid a single flower as an offering to the spirit of her child.