12. Grace
Grace
So I was officially a judgmental bitch. A judgmental stuck-up bitch. Fuck, Julia was right—I had terrible instincts.
I’d assumed that Caleb was just a bartender.
Oh, how I was wrong. He not only owned Bar, he’d bought it off Owen when he was twenty-eight.
Caleb said that Owen gave him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and he took it.
He used up every penny he had and sunk it into Bar, no doubt making it the place it was.
The more I got to know him, the clearer it was to me that Caleb was a hard worker, someone who didn’t want to let anybody down.
As he spoke about his staff and how they were like family to him, he did so with such passion, I was almost jealous.
I had nothing in my life that gave me that sort of fire.
We kept our conversation light as we went through the mini golf course.
He had this way of alleviating my fears and anxiety. I didn’t want to live like I was waiting for the rug to be pulled out from me, but hated feeling out of control.
It had been so long since I’d played mini golf and never as an adult.
I was experiencing a lot of firsts with Caleb, it seemed.
The only other time I’d played was when I went to Coney Island with Julia right after our parents separated.
I was fourteen and she’d just turned seventeen.
I thought she was so cool for sneaking us out of the house.
Not that sneaking out was that hard since it was only the housekeeper we needed to hide from.
I remembered feeling so normal. Like the teenage girls you saw on TV. It was almost liberating. Not at all like the prim and proper lifestyle I was used to. We played carnival games and laughed about all the cute boys who walked by.
When we passed a souvenir shop, Julia insisted on buying me something to commemorate our day of freedom.
I remembered the gleam in her eye when she saw trinkets for charm bracelets.
“Grace, come quick!”
I ran over to the little stand where about a hundred charms hung neatly on a wire rack. Some had letter initials on them, others little emblems depending on your interest. Julia grabbed a couple off the display before I could see what they said.
“These are perfect. You always wear your charm bracelet.” Julia pointed to my wrist where my silver bracelet hung. She held out one of the charms she’d selected so I could see, and I took it from her.
I twirled the metal piece, taking in its shape and the words written across the front—it was half a heart with “best” engraved on it.
I presumed that Julia must hold the other half, the side with “friends” displayed on it.
She was right—it was perfect. Perfect for Jules and me.
But of course, I was concerned about the quality.
I bit my lip. “Are you sure it will match okay?” I asked hesitantly. “This is a limited edition, you know!”
Julia punched my shoulder. “Jacqueline, cut the shit! Seriously, sis, do you want to end up with a stick up your ass like Mom? Stop living the lie. You know life’s not about expensive or limited editions,” Julia admonished, dragging me to the register to pay.
“Earth to Grace!” Caleb called, laughing and waving one hand in front of my face, while the other held a golf club.
“Oops. I’m sorry!” I smiled sheepishly. This guy must’ve thought I was nuts. Half the time I was zoned out, and between that and my half answers, I had no clue why he was sticking around.
Caleb walked toward me to close the gap between us. “Now, I believe you made a bet. Are you caving that easily?” he taunted, his face mere inches from my own.
His entire presence was too much at times.
Between his scruffy five-o’clock shadow, piercing blue eyes, gentle touch and disposition, and his smell, I lost my head regularly.
Goddammit, the man smelled like a cologne ad but not in that super overwhelming way.
No, it was more of a natural musk. Manly, strong, and hot.
“Did you check out again?” He laughed, moving back a little to examine my face.
This time I wasn’t letting him get away so easily. I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him toward me, effectively crashing his mouth to my own.
I typically never made first moves with guys, but with him, I threw all my learned behavior and etiquette right out the window.
His hand cupped my face, holding me right where he wanted me. As he massaged my tongue with his, I might have let out a small moan, but it was trumped by a blaring ringtone, making me groan.
I reluctantly stepped back to look down at the caller ID and immediately cringed.
Jacqueline.
I’d been avoiding her calls since I booked the reservation at the bed-and-breakfast.
“I’m so sorry,” I stressed, holding my phone up, and backed away from Caleb’s all-encompassing presence. “I have to get this.”
Caleb gestured with the golf club for me to take the phone call. I really loved how understanding and patient he was. But I knew I had to pull it together and start acting like a normal person.
As I walked far enough away from earshot, I slid the button on the phone. “Hello, Mother.”
“Grace Marie Harrington,” she shrieked while I held the phone a distance from my ear. I was going to go deaf at this rate.
“Mom—” I started but there was no point. Once Jacqueline got going on a rant, there was no stopping her. My dad used to say, “Let her go.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t call me back.
I swear, sometimes you are so ungrateful.
What did I do to have two children hell-bent on disgracing my name at every turn?
You reject all of my overtures to help you handle this mess you made.
Instead, you’re doing what you’ve been doing for almost a year.
Wallowing and throwing yourself a pity party,” Jacqueline ranted, her flawless facade cracking.
I hoped she caught herself quickly. I wouldn’t want her to become the next one to have a scandal.
I heard her sip something on the other end of the phone—no doubt, her usual gin and tonic. Except barely any tonic made it to the drink. She was definitely a lush; that was for sure.
“Mother, I’m sorry for not calling you back. I’ve been busy. I’ve been doing some soul-searching,” I defended. Maybe honesty would work.
“Soul-searching? What program are you in now? Did you take my advice and go to that horse therapy ranch in Montana?” Jacqueline babbled, throwing all of these outlandish ideas on the table. “I know you’re not at The Plaza. They said you gave up the penthouse.”
“Mom, I’m not in a program. I’m upstate. I met someone, and I really like him.”
Bomb dropped.
Pause. Silence.
Only the sound of Jacqueline’s breathing on the other end of the phone signaled that she hadn’t hung up.
“A guy?” Jacqueline asked, taking another sip of her drink. “In Upstate New York?” I could picture the disgusted look on her face.
“Yes.”
Jacqueline grew quiet again. A moment passed before she spoke, and I used that time to glance at Caleb who was staring at me intently. From the distance, he mouthed, Everything okay?
I looked at him fully, and it was at that moment that my mother decided to speak in a low murmur. “You’re just like your sister.” It was said so quietly, I almost missed her statement.
Her admonishment caused panic to rise in my chest. The walls began to close in. I pushed down the uneasiness that settled in my gut—not here, not now.
“Mom, I have to go. I’ll call you sometime next week.” I rushed the words out and hung up before she could say anything else to trigger me.
I nodded at Caleb, who was still staring at me expectantly, his eyes intense and filled with concern. Damn, I had never seen that kind of passion in the color blue before.
Pocketing my phone, I practically ran toward him.
“Are you okay?” Caleb asked, rubbing my arms up and down. The motion was quite relaxing.
I smiled and said, “Yeah, everything’s fine.” I grabbed my club from the rack where I’d left it and was about to take my swing when something stopped me.
Caleb steadied the club that I didn’t realize was shaking from my nerves. “I didn’t ask if everything was okay. I asked if you were okay.” His eyes bore into my own. It was like he really knew me. And that terrified me.
“Sorry, I was thinking about my sister.”
“You have a sister?” He raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“Yes. Last time I played mini golf it was with her.” I gulped, hating to talk about Julia but feeling comfortable enough to share a little.
“My parents were knee-deep in their divorce proceedings and things became unbearable. Julia loved testing my mother. They clashed constantly, and with my dad gone, I was left in the middle.”
“That had to have been hard for a young kid.”
I nodded in agreement. “Julia hated high society, and from her teen years onward, she rebelled hard against anything my mother pushed her toward. I conformed because I saw the messes Julia made and how her reputation suffered. Once she turned eighteen, shortly after her debut from hell, she got the first installment of her trust fund and hightailed it out of our penthouse.”
In true Julia fashion, she got drunk before showing up at the debutante ball, a coming-out party for high society.
And as if that wasn’t enough, she brought cocaine into the dressing room.
One of the chaperones alerted my mother what was going on, but it was too late.
Julia made her entrance into high society high as a kite.
Julia’s date switched her walkout music from something appropriate that Mother had picked out to a popular hip-hop anthem.
Julia danced provocatively against her date before Jacqueline, and whatever boy toy she was pining over at the time, ushered her out of the ballroom.