At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories)(82)

"Ruth Marlow," she said in a whisper.

"You knew?"

"I saw the yearbook a long time ago," she said.

"Your mother was a beautiful woman," he said, memory softening his weathered features. "Prettiest girl ever to come out of Idle Point."

"I've heard... things," she said, forcing each word out with increasing effort. "That my mother was—" How do you ask your father if your mother, his wife, had been unfaithful to him?

"She was a good mother," he said fiercely. "The best. She loved you with her heart and soul and she would never have done anything to hurt you."

"I know but—"

"When we found out she was expecting you, everything changed. After all those years of praying for a miracle, we had one right there growing in her belly—" He stopped for a moment as the memories threatened to overcome him. "I didn't ask," he said fiercely. "She came to me with a miracle. I wasn't about to ask why."

Or how. He didn't say the words but Gracie heard them just the same. Simon had been telling the truth. She had often wondered how he could hate his own child, the child of the woman he loved, and maybe this was the answer. Her birth had brought Ben back into the picture for good.

"The day of the accident," she began, her voice quavering. 'Where was she going?"

Ben looked at her curiously. "You had an appointment with the pediatrician. One of those six-month checkups. The doctor said he had never seen your mother look happier or more beautiful."

"You're sure we were on our way home?" she persisted. "You're positive?" Simon had said that she was on her way to be with him, that the three of them were going to run away together and leave Idle Point and everyone in it far behind.

"Yes," he said. "She stopped at the convenience store for a quart of milk and the chocolate donuts I like. Eb found them in the back seat."

Gracie's knees gave way and she grabbed for a kitchen chair. Truth mixed with lies. Lies mixed with truth. She saw clearly now how much Simon must have hated her. Her birth had put an end to his dreams of a future with Mona. Whatever else her mother had done wrong in her life, in the end she had chosen to stay with the man who had loved her unconditionally right from the start.

Ben helped steady her. "I shouldn't have told you all of this," he said, looking so much older and sadder than he had a few minutes ago. "We weren't saints, your mother and I, not by a long shot, but in the end we found our way back to happiness because of you. You were the one who turned us into a family."

He placed his hand on her shoulder. She reached up and placed her hand on top of his.

"I love you, Graciela," he said, his voice breaking on her name.

"I know," she said, leaning her head against his arm and closing her eyes. "I know you do." She tried to tell him how she felt but the words weren't there. Not yet. But for the first time in her life, she knew it was only a matter of time.





Chapter Fourteen





Ben had headed out around two o'clock to a bachelor party given by his A.A. friends from Bangor. He asked her to tell Laquita that he would pick up the wedding favors from the printer while he was there. Gracie finished the pies around four-thirty. There was something comforting about rolling dough and arranging the strips in a latticework pattern the way Gramma Del had taught her to do. It made her feel connected to family and tradition and after so many years away from home that felt good.

She set the pies to cool on the counter then cast a sharp look at Pyewacket. "You wouldn't would you?" she asked the sleeping feline then set up a barrier just to be sure. Laquita had called awhile ago to say she'd swing by around five o'clock to pick up Gracie so they could shop for a wedding outfit for her which meant Gracie had less than thirty minutes to shower and change.

Apparently there was more to being her father's best man than she had realized. There was wardrobe, for one thing. Laquita had suggested that she wear a variation on the bridesmaid dresses and when Gracie asked where she could purchase one on such short notice, Laquita had laughed and said she'd show Gracie after work.

"Very funny," she said when Laquita pulled up in front of the big house on the hill that evening. A wicked wind drove the rain into the windshield at an alarming rate making the brightly-lit house look like a haven. "The Chases are selling bridal wear these days?"