Grace Anne - By Kathi S. Barton Page 0,11

into a corner. After this party I’m sure that you’ll never see me again.” Grace looked over at Trace and the other children. “Do you ever wonder what they think about when they play together? What could be going through their minds when they get up in the morning?”

Joey looked at the children and then back at Grace. “Mostly I just enjoy them. Their laughter and their antics. Trace is such a joy and I see him more than any of the other grandkids. He and Michael lived here with us until about six months ago. Michael now has a house closer to town and Trace comes to the offices when he gets out of school. It works out well for the both of them.”

Joey waited for her to ask about Trace’s mom. When she didn’t, Joey wondered about it. But then she didn’t have a clue what the relationship was between them, and it didn’t look as though she was going to get any information from her. She watched Michael as he talked to his brothers. He seemed to keep his attention on Grace as well. Joey thought about Trace’s mother.

Victoria Hamilton had been a force to be reckoned with. Joey had never thought that Michael and she suited. They fought constantly and, when they were not fighting, they were arguing. Michael had told her there was a difference in the two, though Joey had never been able to figure out what it was. There was still loud voices and name-calling. But when Victoria had told Michael she was pregnant and was getting an abortion he’d made arrangements to keep the child.

He’d paid her a great deal of money to not terminate the pregnancy and if she delivered, then he would pay her a million dollars. She’d agreed and had even signed over all rights of the baby to Michael. Eighteen months after Trace was born she had been killed in a boating accident that took the lives of two others. It had been nothing more than an accident.

“I really should be going,” Grace said as she stood up a little while later. “I’ve called a cab. I have a lot to do tomorrow.”

Joey was about to protest her leaving when Marshall, the butler, came to say there was a taxi at the gate for Miss Waite. Smiling, Joey thought she’d just let her go and not tell her son. Walking Grace to the door, she told her that she was happy to meet her and wished she’d come back soon. With a firm handshake and no reply, the girl left. She was just shutting the door behind her when Michael came into the hall.

“Where’s Grace? I looked around and couldn’t find her.” He continued to look around as he continued. “I thought maybe I’d ask her to spend the night so that Trace could spend more time here tomorrow.”

“She left,” Joey said as she walked away. “She said she had a lot to do tomorrow and she—”

“What do you mean she left? How? And why did you let her get away?” He grabbed his coat and yelled at Trace he was going out. “I swear, that girl needs to listen to—”

“Michael Allen Cunningham, you wait right there.” He stopped moving toward the door when she snapped. “What do you mean, ‘let her get away?’ I didn’t realize that you’d kidnapped her and that I was somehow your accomplice.”

“She is the girl that…she won’t sell me the building and I thought that—”

“That you could what?” She saw him flush and realized he’d hoped to persuade her using other ways to sell it to him and to sleep with him. “You didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?” He looked to the door, whether to escape or to go after Grace she wasn’t sure. “I need that building and I mean to have it. And if I can go out with a beautiful woman while I’m doing it, then what’s the harm?”

For whatever reason, Joey thought maybe it was more than just a building for both of them and she secretly hoped that Grace held out for as long as she could. Without a word to her son she went back into the living room. Five minutes later he came in as well. She thought maybe she’d have to go and see this building and its owner soon. Very soon, if her son was perusing her this hard.

~~~

The offer on the building was going to make disappearing so much easier. She had money, of course,