A Convenient Proposal - By Lynnette Kent Page 0,65
enjoy them, to actually forget the defect that had so diminished her existence.
And now Kathy wanted her to use that flaw? To celebrate her disability as a model of how to cope? To pretend she didn’t wake every morning in despair because she couldn’t hear the birds sing?
“I—I’ll think about it,” she managed to say without screaming. “It’s an…an interesting idea.” She grabbed the check off the table. “I’ll take care of this, but I have to be…somewhere in just a few minutes.” Leaning in, she kissed the air beside Kathy’s cheek. “Take care.”
That was one lesson Griff hadn’t needed to teach her, Arden decided, driving out of Sheridan at a speed considerably over the legal limit.
How to run away.
ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON, Griff found himself returning to the office from a farm call on the same side of town where the house he’d once owned was located. Out of curiosity, he took the still-familiar turns leading to his former address. He intended just to see the place and how it was being taken care of, and then drive on.
The first change he noted was color—he’d painted the siding a soft yellow and the shutters bright blue, but the new owner had wanted a mellow green with white. Even in winter, he could tell the landscaping had been improved, with trees and shrubs enhancing what had once been a plain grass lawn. But then, he’d planned for Zelda, with her green thumb, to design the plantings after their wedding.
A car sat in the driveway, a silver compact similar to the make Zelda drove. As Griff approached, he realized it wasn’t just similar—it was the exact car Zelda drove. Then he glanced at the mailbox—a bigger and prettier style than the one he’d put up. Lettered on the side was the last name of the residents: McPherson.
Griff slammed on the brakes and stopped the SUV beside the driveway, shut off the engine and stalked to the front door. Pushing the bell with one finger, he didn’t release the pressure.
As the door opened, an irritated woman’s voice said, “I hear you, I hear you. My goodness, what is your—” Zelda stood on the other side of the screen, staring at him. “What do you want?”
At that moment, he saw honest fear in her eyes. Zelda, the girl he’d known since grade school, could actually believe he might hurt her.
His anger leached away. Shoulders slumped, he blew out a breath. “I drove by to see the place, then realized you were living here. I only want to talk, Zelda. Can I come in?”
Because she knew him, she could recognize the change in his feelings. “Sure, Griff. Come on in.”
The living room contained furniture—some of which he recognized from Zelda’s old apartment—and boxes. “We’re still moving stuff in,” she explained, gathering wrapping tissue off a chair so he could sit down.
“You haven’t been living here since…June?”
She sat down on the coffee table, the paper clutched in her lap. “No. I—I couldn’t.”
“I see.” No wonder Al had been so worked up. “I didn’t know the name of the buyer. I just got a check from the lawyer. So I was surprised when I saw the mailbox.”
“Your family didn’t tell you?”
Griff shook his head. “Maybe they thought I knew. Maybe I should have—I wasn’t paying too much attention back then.”
Zelda nodded. “I didn’t tell people around here for a long time.”
“But why would you and Al want to live here? Why not get a house I had nothing to do with?”
She hugged the paper in her arms a little tighter. “We missed you, Griff. Both of us, all the time. We betrayed you, and yet we still loved you and wanted you in our lives.”
Hard stuff to hear. Griff gripped his hands together between his knees, staring at the floor.
“Al found the house first, saw it was for sale and told me about it. I came by myself and I just about died, seeing all the work you’d done for me. So Al and I decided we owed it to you to live here.”
Griff looked up. “You do know that’s weird, right? I mean, you came here to tell me you wouldn’t marry me, and now you’ll be living here with the guy you dumped me for. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense.”
“Probably not.” Zelda’s smile was sad. “I always loved you, Griff. I always loved Al, too. You asked me out first, he stepped aside, and everything just kind of flowed from there. I