The Stand Read online

  He’d said “we” like they were a team. In this moment, she could believe that, and she was grateful he’d been at the youth center today, even if she hadn’t wanted him there in the first place.

  ~ ~ ~

  Nathan sat in the waiting room. Across from him, a young mother held a sleeping baby, smoothing her hand over his head, worry lines creasing her face. Other than that, he was alone.

  He braced his elbows against his knees and made a project of memorizing the swirls on the carpeting. Anything to keep him busy until he heard how Grace was doing.

  If he hadn’t gone upstairs, Grace might not have fallen. If she hadn’t been upset with him, she might not have had to deal with the bees alone–or at all.

  “Nathan.”

  His head jerked up. He stood, relieved when Maddy and Kara rushed over.

  Maddy caught him in a hug. “Is she okay?”

  “Was it the star?” Kara asked.

  “She’s okay. It was the star.”

  He gave a nod when Riley arrived, hands shoved in his pockets. His hair looked like it had been run through by those hands dozens of times.

  “Where were you?” Riley asked him.

  Maddy took his arm. “Riley.”

  Nathan shook his head. “I was upstairs. I didn’t know something was going to happen–”

  “Well, something did happen–”

  “Riley,” Maddy said again, louder this time. “It’s not his fault.”

  “I should have been closer to her,” Nathan said.

  Kara gave him an exasperated look. “You didn’t know something was going to happen. You were still there with her, Nathan. It’s not going to help if we’re mad at each other.”

  “Tell us what happened,” Maddy suggested, keeping her hand on Riley’s arm.

  “Grace was painting. She was using the ladder and the extension to get the higher part of the wall in the living room. She said she saw bees. Lots of them.”

  “She’s allergic to bees,” Riley murmured, blue eyes troubled.

  “I know. Now.”

  “But you said she just twisted her ankle, right?” Kara persisted, glancing back to the nurse’s desk at the sound of the double doors opening. A man in a wheelchair came through. She brought her attention back to them.

  “I think she did more than twist it,” Nathan admitted. “She hit her head, too.”

  “Shit.” Riley closed his eyes briefly. Maddy turned and lifted on her toes to give him a hug. She whispered something Nathan couldn’t hear and Riley wrapped his arms around her.

  The double doors opened again. This time Grace came through, crutches at both her sides. The group reached her at the same time. Riley leaned in for a gentle hug, holding her close for several moments.

  “You know, you guys didn’t have to come here,” Grace told them once Riley released her.

  “What did the doctor say?” Riley asked.

  Nathan stepped aside and gestured for Grace to sit. She hobbled over, giving Riley a roll of her eyes when he tried to help her. She plopped down with a heavy sigh and rested her crutches on the seat next to her.

  “I broke it,” Grace said, gesturing to her foot. “Chipped a bone, not a big deal. See? I don’t even have to wear a cast, just this fun little brace and crutches–which are going to be really annoying at the youth center–”

  “Grace.” Riley’s voice was firm. He sat in the chair next to her. “You need to take it easy. The youth center will be there once you feel better.”

  “I feel fine.”

  “Grace–”

  “What about your head?” Nathan interrupted, trying to stop a fight. He caught Riley’s swift look but ignored it.

  This time, she lifted her hand and gingerly rubbed the spot. “No concussion. Just…a big knot.”

  Kara winced. “I’m sorry, Grace. Did the doctor give you a prescription? Some kind of medication for the pain?”

  Grace nodded. “But he said ibuprofen would work, too.”

  “We’ll pick it up for you after we get you home.” Riley stood. “Or do you want to come to our house for a while?”

  “No, home is good. But I left my car at Nathan’s.”

  “We’ll swing by to get it later.”

  Grace frowned. “What if I need it?”

  Riley moved to help lift her from the chair. “You won’t for tonight. We can get it later in the week or–”

  “Riley, stop,” Grace said, pulling her arm from his grasp. “I know you were worried. But, first of all, it wasn’t Nathan’s fault. And secondly, I’m fine. I just have to hobble around with these stupid crutches for a few days until my foot decides it wants to cooperate.”

  Riley rocked back on his heels, bowing his head.

  Grace turned to Nathan with tired eyes. “Can you please take me to the guesthouse? Then Riley can stop and get the prescription. That work?”

  He nodded, glancing at Riley. His friend looked lost, worried, and he felt guilty again. But there wasn’t much he could do about that now, so he helped Grace out the doors to take her home.

  ~ ~ ~

  Maddy could feel Riley’s tension, could almost see it radiating in waves off his body. She turned to him again. “Riley?”

  He released a deep breath, hands propped on his hips.

  “I’ll wait out by the car,” Kara said.

  Maddy gave her a smile as she passed but quickly turned her attention back to Riley. She lifted her hand to his cheek. “Are you okay?”

  He reached up and captured her hand in his own, and Maddy felt her heart twist painfully at the worry she saw there. “Honey, she’s fine.”

  Riley finally met her eyes. “I know.”

  She tuned out the overhead speaker, a nurse’s name being called to triage. “Please don’t be mad at Nathan,” she told him, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning her head against his chest. “You know something would have happened anyway. Even if you were there or I was there. At least she wasn’t alone.”

  She felt a measure of relief when he returned the embrace, pressing a hand to her back to hold her closer. He dipped his head to brush his lips at her temple. “You’re right. I just…wasn’t prepared. I thought she would be okay as long as someone was with her.”

  “Nathan was with her.”

  “I know.”

  “He feels really bad.”

  Riley sighed and leaned back some. He met her eyes. “I know he does.”

  Maddy tilted her head up and gave him a kiss, trying to ease his worry.

  He brushed his thumb over her jaw. “You’re right. Nathan was there.” He gave an ironic smile. “She probably gave him a hard time for it too, but he was there.”

  She took his hand, tugging him in the direction of the exit. “So maybe you could tell him you’re sorry so he doesn’t feel so guilty.”

  Riley glanced at her, brows raised. “Is that a suggestion?”

  Maddy smiled. “A strong suggestion, yes.”

  His face grew serious again as they approached the car. Kara leaned against the passenger side door, one foot crossed over the other. “Everything okay?”

  Maddy looked up to Riley. He clicked the button to unlock the doors and waited until they got in before he responded.

  “What was Grace’s wish?” he asked, starting the car.

  “She said she wanted to make something of her life,” Kara answered, her brow furrowing. “Or something like that.”

  Maddy turned in her seat, adjusting the seatbelt so she could see Kara better. “She’s been kind of quiet about that part. She was even back when we made the wishes.”

  “I think we need to figure out exactly what her wish was,” Riley said. “And be careful.”

  Riley reached out for her hand and she nodded. “We need to talk to Grace.”

  Chapter 11

  She took up the entire couch, back cushioned against the fluff of several pillows. Grace stretched her legs and winced at the throbbing in her foot.

  The afternoon turned
cool, the swell of a spring storm building outside. When the rain began to fall and thunder grumbled, Maddy knelt at the hearth and started a fire. The flickering was mesmerizing, making Grace’s eyelids heavy.

  Kara had made her take the pain medication the doctor had prescribed. That, the warmth, and the drum of rain on the rooftop, lulled her into a light sleep.

  Voices lingered at the edge of her consciousness. Maddy saying something about coffee and Kara murmuring her agreement. There was the sound of clinking in the kitchen, someone pulling out pans to make dinner. Another thumping sound she couldn’t quite place right away.

  Grace turned her head slightly when Kara pulled open the front door. She heard a muffled greeting, a deep voice. Grace forced her eyes open and shifted on the couch. She pulled herself into a sitting position just as Kara closed the door.

  “Who was that?” she mumbled.

  Kara turned with a grin. “Nathan.”

  Grace angled her arm across the back of the couch. “Why?”

  “He brought you something.”

  “Why?”

  Kara chuckled. “That was good medicine they gave you.”

  She frowned as Maddy appeared from the kitchen. “What is it?”

  Kara lifted her arms. “A computer. A laptop.”

  “Really?” Maddy looked down at it. “It’s so pretty.”

  Grace couldn’t help but smile at that. She looked to Kara. “Can you put it on the table?”

  Kara nodded and deposited the computer on the table in the tiny dining room off the kitchen. She came back over and seated herself in front of the couch. Maddy followed suit, amusing Grace by propping her chin in her hands on the cushion.

  “What?” Grace asked, adjusting her leg with a wince.

  “He really likes you,” Maddy murmured.

  Grace rubbed at her eyes. “It’s just a laptop. It’s for all of us, really.”

  “No,” Kara corrected. “It’s just for you. He said so. Besides, I already have a computer.”

  “It’s just to borrow.”

  “Sure.”

  “It’s for the youth center.”

  “Did you get a lot done this morning?” Maddy asked.

  Grace nodded, grateful for the safer topic. “We have all the pages laid out. Nathan is going to work on applying what we already have. I think it’s going to turn out really good.”

  “Good.”

  “And the rest…” Grace sighed, thinking of the painting she’d abandoned this afternoon and all the work they still needed to do.

  Maddy patted her uninjured foot. “We’ll get it done.”

  “I hope so.”

  “We will,” Kara joined in. “But don’t think about that right now. You need to take it easy for a few days.”

  “You sound like Riley.”

  “He’s right.”

  “He’s overreacting.”

  “No,” Maddy countered, “overreacting would be coming here and tying you to this couch so you get some rest. I think he’s being very reasonable by trusting that you’ll do it on your own without the drastic measures.”

  “So you two are both here just to keep me company?” Grace asked with a sly smile.

  Kara frowned. “Hey, I live here.”

  Maddy chuckled and raised her hand. “Guilty.”

  “Hey.”

  “I thought you could use the company, too,” Maddy continued. “But Riley felt better that I offered to come over for a bit.”

  “I guess it’s better than him hovering.”

  Kara leaned her arm against the cushion and looked up at Grace with serious green eyes. “He was pretty worried.”

  “Yeah, and he took it out on Nathan.”

  Maddy gave a soft smile. “He feels bad about that. He said he’d apologize to Nathan.”

  “Good.” Grace gazed at the fire, flames dancing. She caught Kara’s grin out of the corner of her eye and added, “He’s annoying, of course, but it still wasn’t his fault.”

  “I don’t think he’s annoying,” Kara said. “I think he’s cute. And nice.”

  Grace narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Of course you don’t think he’s annoying. He doesn’t follow you around and show up whenever you don’t want company.”

  “Maybe he just shows up when he thinks you need company so you don’t have to be alone–even though you think you want to be.”

  “Kara,” Grace warned her, lowering her voice, “just because he thinks I don’t need to be alone or you think I don’t need to be alone doesn’t mean either of you are right.”

  “Does it make us all right if I think that, too?” Maddy asked, voice sweet.

  Kara chuckled, caught Grace’s glare, and covered her grin with her hand. Grace swung her legs off the side of the couch, jostling her foot but too annoyed to care.

  “No, don’t get up,” Maddy said, rising to her knees. “Don’t be mad.”

  “I’m tired of sitting here,” Grace mumbled. She glanced around for her crutches.

  Kara nudged her over and sat on the couch next to her. “Let’s work on the star, then. Let’s see what we can come up with, okay?”

  Maddy joined her on the other side. Sandwiched in between her two friends and knowing she had nowhere else to go, Grace gave in.

  “Good.” Maddy stood from the couch. “Come sit at the table while I make dinner so we can talk.”

  Kara grabbed for the crutches but Grace shook her head. “I’m hopping.”

  Maddy laughed. “What?”

  “Hopping.” Grace lifted herself carefully from the couch. “Crutches are annoying. It’s quicker this way.”

  She hopped around the couch and to the table. She dropped into the nearest chair, flanked on one side by Kara and the other by the laptop she hadn’t bothered to touch yet.

  Why hadn’t Nathan come in? Why had he traveled all the way out in the rain just to deliver the computer when he could have done so tomorrow? Or he could have at least come in for a minute, said hello.

  Grace grimaced. And why was she thinking about this? Earlier today, she’d been so annoyed with Nathan she hadn’t even wanted to be near him. And now she was wondering why he hadn’t come in to visit.

  “The star,” Maddy said from the kitchen, setting a pot on the widest burner of the stove. “Remind us again exactly what your wish was.”

  Kara met her eyes, steady and curious.

  “You remember,” Grace hedged, laying her hands on the table and feigning fascination with them. “I wished that I could make something of myself…here in Serenity Falls.”

  Again with the half-truths. Grace just couldn’t get herself to say the rest of the words aloud. She had wished something about Serenity Falls. She loved Serenity Falls and wanted to stay. But everyone else insisted on leaving. First her father, then her mother. Then Riley had gone to college and she felt so alone, even with her grandfather here. She finally met her two best friends and only had a few years with them before they’d gone, too.

  Her wish, her real wish was to never let that happen to her again. To never again get so close to someone that it would hurt her to see them leave.

  Maddy leaned her elbows against the counter that separated the dining room from the kitchen. “That’s why I think the antique store might have been part of what’s going on with the star. If you wanted to make something of yourself through the store…”

  Grace waited as her voice trailed off. Probably trying to spare her feelings. Grace knew she hadn’t been able to make the store work like Grandpa had. She woke to that knowledge every morning, feeling like she’d failed him.

  “The store’s closed now,” she murmured, splaying her fingers on the table. “I don’t think it has anything else to do with the star. We have to deal with what’s in front of us.”

  “The youth center,” Maddy said with a nod.

  “Yes.”

  “And Nathan,” Kara added.

  Grace’s eyes widened.

  “She’s right,” Maddy said. “You have
to consider that also.”

  “But…” Grace shook her head, throat dry. She didn’t want Nathan to be a part of it. She wanted to deal with this on her own.

  Kara gave her a soft smile. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”

  Maddy pulled back from the counter. “How about dinner first?”

  Grace blew out a breath and kept her eyes from the laptop.

  She enjoyed Maddy’s quick dinner of chili and tortillas. They laughed, joked, talked about the past, but not once did any of them mention the star.

  Afterward, Grace hobbled to her bedroom, refusing to use the crutches. She heard a knock at her door shortly after she closed it.

  Kara peeked her head in and smiled. She came around the door and lifted the laptop. “Just in case.”

  Grace sighed as she set it on the end table. “Thanks.”

  She prepared herself for bed, but her eyes kept straying to the computer. To the reminder of Nathan’s kind gesture. Her fingers did a little dance over the top of it before she crawled into bed, adjusted her foot on a soft pillow and pulled the laptop over.

  She lifted the lid carefully, noting the computer looked new. Or it had been very well taken care of. She pressed the power button and listened as the machine hummed, images flickering on the screen.

  When the desktop came up, Grace noted a background picture of a flower, something he’d probably loaded on there for her because it looked nothing like the background he’d had on his computer. All the tiny–what did he call them? Icons?–lined up nicely on the left-hand side of the screen.

  She paused when she noticed she already had an email. It was from Nathan. She breathed in and clicked the box.

  Grace,

  I loaded everything you’ll need onto the computer. It should be easy to navigate but just let me know if you have any questions.

  Don’t get mad if I start to hover. Nothing has scared me more in my life than seeing you fall off that ladder. And try to understand there’s more drawing me to you than the star. But I’ll keep it to that if you need me to.

  Get lots of rest and don’t even think about going over to the youth center. The painting is done, so give yourself time to heal and relax.

  Take Care,

  Nathan