and hauled ass the night Gramma died."
"I made a mistake."
"You've made lots of them."
"You're right. Let me make up for it. Your grandmother deserves a proper goodbye."
"You should have thought of that when you missed her funeral mass."
"Gracie, I'm sorry. I—" His words stopped cold as he focused in on Noah. "You're the Chase boy, aren't you."
Noah nodded and shifted his weight from his left foot to his right. "Noah," he said and extended his right hand.
Ben ignored it. "You're not welcome here," Ben said in a voice loud enough to be heard in Cape Cod. "Get the hell out before I have you thrown out."
Noah's face reddened but he stood his ground. "I'd like to pay my respects to Mrs. Taylor and to Gracie," he said, his voice steady and calm. For the first time Gracie saw him not as the boy she had always loved, but as a man.
"Your parents didn't think they had to come around. Why should you?" Ben was in his face, jabbing at Noah's chest with an angry forefinger.
"Mrs. Taylor was always kind to me. I figure it's the least I could do for her."
"Get out," Ben said, jabbing Noah again. "We don't need anything from you or from your family."
"Please!" Gracie stepped between them. She was shaking so violently she thought she would collapse. "He's here for Gramma Del. Don't take that away from her because you hold some stupid grudge against the Chases."
"Don't go poking your nose where you don't belong, Graciela." Ben stumbled over his words in a stink of Pepsodent and Johnnie Walker Red. "You don't know what came before."
"I don't care what came before. All I know is that you're drunk and—"
She should have seen it coming. He telegraphed his movements every step of the way but she was out of her head with rage and pain and couldn't see beyond the red mist swirling around her head.
The room fell silent. The crack of Ben's hand against her face seemed to echo in her head, driving out all thought. They were staring at her, the churchwomen, dockworkers, the crowd from Patsy's and the Gazette. Oh God, her friends from high school were knotted together, faces pale and wondering. This never happened before... I swear it. Don't look at me like that!
Next to her Noah sprang to life. He grabbed Ben by the lapels and lifted him off his feet and Gracie feared he was going to kill the man.
"He's not worth it," she said in a voice so cool and controlled she barely recognized it as her own. "Let him go. He's nothing but an old drunk."
She turned and started walking away with as much dignity as she could muster, given the circumstances. Her exit line would have been more effective if she hadn't broken down into tears on the last word but she made her point. She hurried across the grass, past the mausoleums and the office, across the parking lot toward her car with Noah close behind.
"Gracie!" He grabbed her before she reached the Mustang. "Are you hurt?"
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and laughed. "He couldn't hurt me if he tried. There's nothing he could do that could possibly hurt me."
"Let me see your face."
She pulled away. "I'm fine."
"Your cheek is red."
"It's nothing."
"He knows about us, Gracie. That's what this was all about."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"They all know." He told her about the confrontation with his father.
"I don't understand any of this. Why does your father hate me?" she demanded of Noah. "What did we ever do to any of them?" Bits and pieces of memory floated just out of reach.
"Why does your father hate me?" Noah asked "None of it makes any sense."
"I asked Gramma Del at least a dozen times and she refused to answer."
"All I know is that our parents used to be friends and—"
"What?" She felt like somebody had turned her world upside down. "Say that again! What are you talking about?" Their parents, friends? Impossible.
"They were friends. They all hung out in the same crowd. Your mother dated my father," he said, "way back in high school."
"That's ridiculous."
"No, it's not. I started thinking there had to be a connection. They all grew up here. They're all the same age. There's only one high school." He'd slipped into Simon's library while his father was napping and dug up the Idle Point High School yearbook . "Your mother and my father. Simon Chase and Mona Webb, king and queen of