“I hope you don’t think he called you the other night to rub it in, because that’s so not who Chris is.”
“What? Oh, no. Nothing like that.” Linc grew quiet for a moment. “Actually, he wanted me to record a couple of songs with them. Some things we wrote together back in high school. He said he just ran across them in a folder he was going through. He said the songs were better than he remembered.” Linc smiled wryly. “They must be, because I don’t remember they were very good.”
“Not Lennon and McCartney?”
“More like Beavis and Butt-Head. Anyway, he wanted to get together and maybe revise them a little, then record them in his studio. Maybe have me perform with them live sometimes, as like a guest guitarist.”
Grace’s jaw dropped. “I hope you said yes.”
“I would have loved to, but I have three good reasons to say no. Four, if you count my dad’s business, which I’ve pretty much taken over so the man can have a life. The next job up is yours, by the way. I’m sure you’d love to have me put that on hold indefinitely.”
“You want to do it, though.”
“Grace, I can’t even go there.”
“Wow. Just . . . wow.” She stared at him with a combination of admiration and disbelief. Had she ever known anyone so selfless? She was beginning to think this may be a man worth having, worth keeping. “Okay, let’s think this through. There has to be a way.” She tapped her fingers on the side of her glass. “Where’s his studio?”
“California.”
“Maybe you could go for a couple of long weekends,” she suggested.
“Sure.” His guard down, he sounded glum, as he was entitled. “Because Chris has nothing better to do than to plan his life around me.”
“You might be surprised. You know the old saying: if you don’t ask, the answer is always no.”
“Grace, even if he agreed to work with me Thursday through Monday . . . I can’t leave my dad with three kids for four days.”
“So leave him with Duffy and leave the girls with someone else.”
“There isn’t anyone else. That’s the bottom line.”
“You’re wrong. There’s your dad, and there’s me.” She bit her lip, thinking. “The kids are in school all day Friday and Monday, right? So it’s just Friday night through Monday morning they’d need to be with someone. Duffy could stay with your dad, and I’ll take JoJo and Bliss. My mom would love it.”
“That’s a lot to ask of someone.” He forced a smile. “And besides, Bliss hates you.”
“Pshaw. I’ll win her over.”
Finally, a genuine smile. “Does anyone really say pshaw?”
Grace laughed. “Listen, we could make this work for you.”
“No way I could ask—”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering. Let me be your bottom line.” Grace grabbed his arm. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something you’ve wanted to do for a long time. A chance to go back and say yes, like you wish you could have back then. Go ahead, Linc. Do it.”
“You sound like the bad angel, you know that?” He tapped his shoulder where a bad angel might sit.
“Oh, I’m a very good angel. Linc, the only thing holding you back is you.”
“I haven’t played in a long time.”
“Then I guess you’d better go home, dust off that guitar, and start practicing.”
He stood up and put his arms around her, and she leaned into him. He just held her for a while, and she knew he was trying to decide if he could make that leap of faith. She decided to take a leap of her own. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips.
If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. He kissed her without hesitation, as if he’d been thinking about it long before tonight.
When she finally pulled back, he looked down at her and asked, “You know if I do this, it’ll take time away from working on your house.”
“Do what you have to do. The house will be there, and so will I.”
Grace was in an exceptionally good mood when she came into the bookshop the following morning.
“Something going on I should know about?” Liddy asked.
“Nope. Just in a good mood.”
“Great. Would you take the register for me? I see Dylan’s here, and I want to show him what I’d like him to do this morning.”
“Sure.” Grace turned the iPad around and hummed as she watched Rosalita. She greeted the two women who were the first of the day’s customers with a big smile and pointed out the newest of the new releases that had come in over the weekend.
While the women walked through the shop, she opened the newspaper Dylan had left on the counter and scanned the front page. One article in particular caught her eye.
Motions Filed in Case Against Coach Accused of Assaulting Local Girls
Lawyers for Kenneth Bowers, the former girls’ basketball coach at Mid-Coast Regional High School, have filed motions seeking additional time in which to complete discovery while the defendant undergoes psychiatric evaluation. Bowers has been accused of sexual assault by members of the team going back to 2010. So far, ten former students have come forward to make allegations against Bowers, who began coaching at the high school in 2000 . . .
Grace was on the verge of throwing up. Her hands shook, and she tried to turn off the voice in her head that repeated what she didn’t want to know. She managed to get through the entire day, but immediately upon leaving the shop, she went directly to her mother’s and right up to her room. She opened her laptop and pulled up every reference she could find to Kenneth Bowers and the case against him. She made notes as she read, and she wept. The alleged assaults were believed to have begun in 2010, but the first victim to accuse Bowers came forward in 2019. Once her story was made public, other victims came forward.
Grace stared at the screen, trying to put it all together. When everything finally came into focus, a terrible truth was staring her in the face.
The first reported assault occurred in 2010, but Grace knew an earlier assault had occurred in 2003, because she knew who the victim had been.
But what to do about what she knew?
She went downstairs into the kitchen, where her mother was making dinner.
“Oh, Gracie. I didn’t hear you come in. I wish I’d known,” Maggie exclaimed. “I just finished FaceTiming with Daisy. And she was so cute! She was showing me what she . . .” Maggie glanced over her shoulder and stopped in midsentence when she looked at Grace. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”
“Mom, did Jessie leave a suicide note?” Grace asked quietly.
“What?” Maggie turned around sharply. “Grace, what in heaven’s name made you think about that?”
“Did she, Mom?”
Maggie nodded. “Yes. Jim found it in Jess’s hand.”
“Did Liddy tell you what it said?”
Maggie put down the knife she was using to chop onions. “It said, It’s all my fault. I should have told. I’m so sorry.”
Grace covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.
“Grace, what is going on?”
“Mom, I think I know why Jessie killed herself.”