Protecting Her(63)

“Rachel.” I look behind me and see Grace Sinclair, Royce’s mother. She and I are on a committee for the leukemia society.

“Hello, Grace.” I look at the little girl standing next to her. “Hi, Sadie.”

She ignores me and focuses on the contents of the tiny pink purse that’s hanging off her shoulder. Sadie’s not friendly to me because her mother doesn’t like me. I’m convinced Victoria told her daughters to never speak to me. Whenever I see them at parties, Victoria and her daughters always avoid me, and if Garret is there, they ignore him too. Royce still speaks to me, but only long enough to say a polite hello and then he hurries off to talk to someone else.

“Sadie, say hello,” Grace says.

“Hi,” she mumbles, not looking at me.

Grace sighs at Sadie’s response, then turns to Garret and smiles. “Hello, Garret. How is school going?”

“Good,” he says. “I’m on a football team.”

“Football is stupid,” Sadie says, zipping up her purse.

“Sadie, that’s not nice,” Grace says to her. “Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s stupid.”

“So what are you doing way out here?” I ask, because Grace’s house is forty minutes away. Her Connecticut house. She and Arlin own several homes.

“This mall has a store that Sadie likes. It’s a candy store that has a large assortment of specialty candy you can’t find elsewhere. We’re headed down there now. You could come with us if you’d like.”

I smile. “Thank you, but I think Garret will get plenty of candy on Halloween. So is just Sadie with you?”

“Yes. Victoria has Emily and the baby. Sadie doesn’t have school tomorrow so she’s staying with grandma and grandpa for the night.”

I like Grace. She always seems genuine, not fake, like the other rich people I know. She’s extremely wealthy but very down to earth. She’s always been nice to me. Her husband, Arlin, is also really nice. I don’t know what happened to Royce. He didn’t turn out like either one of them. He’s even more obnoxious now than when I first met him. And he still talks down to women, even though he now has three daughters.

“Are you going to Royce’s party this weekend?” Grace asks.

“Yes. We’ll be there.” I try to sound enthusiastic even though I’m dreading this party.

“Then I’ll see you this weekend.” She smiles and holds Sadie’s hand. “We need to get our candy and head home.”

“Goodbye, Grace,” I tell her. “Bye, Sadie.”

As they leave, Sadie turns back and sticks her tongue out at Garret.

He rolls his eyes. “See? That’s why I’ll never like a girl.”

“You just need to meet the right one.” I put my arm around him and lead him out of the store. “Let’s go home. We need to get our movie night set up.”

“Yes!” He punches the air. “Movie night!”

We started movie night a few years ago. Pearce doesn’t like going to the theater because of the sticky floors and the people who talk during movies. So I started movie night at home, complete with a concession stand. I put up a folding table and set out popcorn, candy, and drinks. I even make a concession stand sign with drawings of the dancing popcorn and soda people that always appear before the movie starts.

We usually have movie night only on Fridays, but since it’s Halloween week, we’re having it every night this week and watching scary movies. For Garret’s sake, ‘scary’ is limited to Halloween-themed cartoons, mostly Scooby-Doo.

“Can I make the sign?” Garret asks as we’re driving home.

“You have to. That’s your job.” Lately, Garret’s been making the concession stand sign. We could’ve just used one of my old ones but he likes to make a new one every time.

When we get to the house, Garret races inside with his costume. I go to the kitchen to get dinner started. Pearce walks in a few minutes later.

“You’re early.” I give him a quick kiss. “It’s only five.”

“It’s movie night. I couldn’t be late.” He pulls me closer and gives me a longer kiss.

“Look at my costume,” Garret says from behind us.

We break apart and look at him.

“Do you like it?” I ask him.

“Yeah, it’s like a real uniform.” He goes up to Pearce and hugs him. “Hey, Dad.”