Chapter 13
Thirteen
“ P lease sit down. Would you like some coffee or tea?” Mrs. Donegan indicated the kitchen table.
It was a little bit chilly outside, but Trevor would have preferred to sit out on that beautiful front porch.
Of course, the memories were harder out there than they were in here.
They spent precious little time in the farmhouse.
Mrs. Donegan had made them treats galore over the summer.
They’d usually eat them outside. Sometimes on the porch, but more often, they ran in, grabbed their treats, and then ran back out to the barn loft or even down the steep trail beside the cliff to the lake.
“I’d love some tea, please,” Grace said.
“I’d take some coffee, if it’s not too much trouble. I already had a cup today, so don’t make anything special for me.” He typically only drank one cup a day, but for Mrs. Donegan, and to make her smile, he would drink two.
She seemed happy to have people to serve, to visit with, to talk to. And she seemed almost gleeful at the idea of his dad and Grace’s mom being together.
“You two were together for a while in high school, weren’t you?” she asked as she shuffled around the kitchen. When she was younger, Trevor would have called it bustling, but now…it was more li ke a slow shuffle.
“We were for a while. Until I ran off. It was a mistake on my part. But enough of that,” Grace said, all in one breath, as though she didn’t want to have to talk about that any more than she had to.
And he didn’t blame her. He didn’t really like talking about it either, at least talking about the end, when she left him. He wouldn’t mind talking more about how they were together and the memories that they had.
He wondered if she remembered anything. Did she feel the same way he had when they had been talking by the gate?
The feeling that it was perfectly right for them to be together?
That she was the one for him and always had been?
That’s what he felt. He always felt that way around her.
The idea that Claire would say that she had stolen him made it even more ludicrous, considering that he never felt like he belonged to anyone but Grace.
“Oh. I almost forgot. Here I am holding this. I made this for you,” Grace said, pulling out the egg apron she carried and unfolding it on the table.
Mrs. Donegan turned around and put a hand to her chest. “My goodness. That’s for me?”
“I’d heard that you sold your cows not long ago, but you still have chickens, and I thought this might be something you could use. I got the idea for it online, so… I guess I don’t know if it’s practical or not.”
A cute little redness brightened her cheeks, and Trevor wanted to run a finger over one of them, to tease her a bit, to bring it out more, or just to make her smile. He resisted all of those urges. That wasn’t his right.
It used to be, but it wasn’t anymore.
“Oh my goodness. Isn’t this nice,” Mrs. Donegan said as she lifted the apron and held it up to her front.
“Happy birthday. I know it’s a day early, but I just wanted to give you something.”
“Wow. I haven’t seen you for years, and you remembered my birthday.”
It looked like Mrs. Donegan was close to tears. Trevor stepped in.
“And I made you this. It could use a little decoration, but it might be cute for you to hang somewhere. In fact, if you figure out where you want it, I’ll hang it for you.”
He hadn’t been planning on saying that last part, but the idea of Mrs. Donegan with a hammer was kind of ludicrous, although obviously the woman still went out and collected her own eggs, so she must be a lot more capable than what he was giving her credit for.
Still, she put a hand on her chest again, and her eyes really did fill with tears. He hadn’t said anything, and tears made him especially uncomfortable.
“My goodness. All of this bounty in one day. This is beautiful. Is it a real birdhouse? Could I put it outside and birds will nest in it?”
“I think so. I don’t see why they wouldn’t. It would have to be a bird of a certain size and type, obviously,” he said, indicating the size of the hole.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but I thank you both from the bottom of my heart. You…made a time of year that is sometimes difficult for me special.”
“We have a lot of great memories growing up here. Playing with Claire and the rest of our friends here. Of the treats that you made for us, and of the way you made our summers special. It was just something that I wanted to do.”
“Same. I guess I wasn’t as close to Claire as Grace was, but she said it perfectly. I have great memories here, and it makes me happy to see you smile.”
“My Benny died on my birthday five years ago. I was moping around the house this morning thinking about what a terrible birthday it was going to be, and then you two show up. Maybe Benny sent you.”
“Well, if he did, I would have been freaked out, so I’m glad that I wasn’t aware of it,” Grace said, and Trevor held his breath until Mrs. Donegan laughed.
He had forgotten what a great sense of humor she had.
But it was obvious that Grace had said just the right thing, and instead of crying, Mrs. Donegan was laughing.
Grace was so good at stuff like that. She complemented him beautifully, because he could make small talk, but she could turn the conversation and fit it to the person that they were with.
He loved that about her, the little things she remembered, the way she cared about people.
“Tell me about your parents,” Mrs. Donegan said as she poured Grace a cup of tea and then set a mug of coffee in front of him before pulling out a chair and sitting down with her own cup of steaming coffee.
He reached out to put a little cream in his while Grace spoke.
“We were just as surprised as you seem to be. I didn’t even know they were talking to each other. But… I’ve been out of town for a while.”
“And I don’t get off the farm as much as I should.
I barely went to church at all this winter.
I was afraid I was going to slip on a patch of ice and fall down and break my hip and then my kids would send me off to a nursing home.
I’d love it if someone would come and live with me.
” She said that last part softly, almost as though she didn’t really realize she was saying it out loud.
“I haven’t seen Claire in years. Where is she?” Grace asked, not responding to her comment directly but maybe wondering why Claire hadn’t come back.
“Oh, she’s happily married with kids and enjoying the life that she’s living in the city,” Mrs. Donegan said, waving her hand in the air as though it didn’t matter and wasn’t important and as though she hadn’t just said she wished someone would come live with her.
“I suppose she comes back to visit,” Trevor said, hoping that he was right. Because it could disintegrate into sadness and negativity if she didn’t.
“They all do. Periodically. More than I should expect, I suppose. Since I’m just a boring old lady and they have much more interesting lives away from here.”
“I don’t recall you being boring,” Grace said right away.
“I haven’t been bored,” Trevor added, wishing he had the right words to make her feel better but knowing that this was something that everyone had to go through. Almost everyone. The idea that the kids were gone, the grandkids were gone, and maybe they weren’t as relevant as they used to be.
“But your mother has found happiness again. Are they thinking of getting married?” Mrs. Donegan asked, after visibly composing herself .
“I guess we’re wondering the same thing. We just found out recently and are adjusting. It’s so weird to see my mom with anyone but my dad.”
“And it’s tough for me to see my dad with anyone but my mom. Grace and I were just talking about how it’s been an adjustment for us.”
“I think anything like that is an adjustment.” She sighed. “Your mom was a lot younger than I was when she lost her husband. Perhaps I would have been interested in trying to find someone.”
“It’s not too late. I’ve heard of people your age and older finding someone and being happy.”
“I suppose I would have to move somewhere. Because I’m not currently in the path of any older gentlemen who might be interested in getting married again.” Mrs. Donegan seemed to have forgotten about her sadness and smiled gently.
“Well, I’m an eligible gentleman, and I somehow stumbled into your kitchen this morning. The coffee is delicious, by the way,” Trevor said. A little gentle flirting with an eighty-year-old lady wasn’t completely terrible.
She laughed, like she enjoyed it, and Grace smiled as though she appreciated his attempt at being kind as well.
“If you just came in here to flatter me, Trevor, I’m wise to your ways. Remember, I knew you when you were getting your diaper changed.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Trevor said, trying to pretend he wasn’t embarrassed, but he could feel the tips of his ears warming and figured they were red.
Yeah, after looking in Grace’s laughing eyes, he figured they were beet red.
Still, it was hard for him to look away, because the laughter on her face was so compelling to him.
It drew him and made him want to get closer.
Yet, he wasn’t sure they could turn their relationship into a friendship.
Were they friends? Or were they just two people who used to date, who were dealing with the fact that their older adult parents were interested in each other?
“You’ll have to let me know if anything exciting happens.
After all, everyone loves to hear a good love story.
” Mrs. Donegan smiled, and while Trevor didn’t consider himself a great romantic, he supposed it was true that everyone loved to hear a great story with a happy ending, and love stories typically were. At least for a while.
He thought about Grace and what she had been through with her ex-husband. And to his shame, part of him was happy about it. After all, it was because her ex-husband had cheated and left her that she was available.
But she had been through so much. He highly doubted that she would be interested in striking up a relationship with him. How long had she said it had been? A year?
He didn’t know how long it took to heal from that type of thing, but as devoted as Grace was, as hard as that betrayal must have been, it would probably take her a while.
He was sure she would be a better person. She was deliberately trying to do that, to take what she had been given, the life that she had in front of her, and to make something beautiful out of it.
He admired that. So many people, when bad things happened, questioned God, shook their fists at Him, and got angry that He would allow something so terrible to happen to them.
But she seemed to be seeing that terrible things didn’t have to have terrible results.
It was a perplexing but truthful thing to say that a lot of times the best things happened out of, or because of, the worst things.
They chatted at the table a bit more, but before he knew it, his coffee cup was empty, and they were standing, with him promising to come and put up the birdhouse wherever Mrs. Donegan decided that she wanted it, and both of them promising to come see her again.
Since he was moving into town, he could keep that promise, and he really hoped Grace would do it with him.
Because it seemed like everything he did with Grace was better than doing it with anyone else.