Chapter 21 Grayson
GRAYSON
Grayson awoke before dawn the next day after a night of tossing and turning. Without Leo’s monitor he couldn’t relax, but he didn’t want to knock on Evangeline’s door to get it.
So instead, he’d spent most of the night staring at the ceiling and praying for answers. And he was no better off now than he had been when he forced himself to lie down.
He got up quietly, showered and dressed, then slipped into Leo’s room so that when the boy woke he could take him before the monitor woke Evangeline.
Just being in Leo’s room brought a measure of peace back into Grayson’s worried soul. Even the scent of the space comforted him—baby powder, the gentle detergent Grayson used to wash Leo’s tiny clothing, and a light, milky scent that was like Leo himself.
Grayson watched his son sleep for a moment. Leo’s arms were flung out in abandon, his little bow of a mouth pursed like he was eating or blowing kisses in his sleep.
Lowering himself into a soft chair, Grayson let out a long sigh and watched the deep blue pre-dawn sky fade slowly through the window over the crib.
He must have dozed off for a few minutes, because he woke with a start to the sound of Leo chattering softly to himself.
Smiling, he got up and scooped the boy out of his crib, pressing a kiss to his soft cheek before grabbing fresh clothing for him and carrying him quickly and quietly out of the room.
He slipped down the stairs and grabbed the diaper bag from its place by the door. It didn’t sound like Evangeline had woken up, so he would just change the baby downstairs and then maybe she would sleep a while more.
It’ll give me time to think…
But as soon as Leo was dressed and taking his bottle, he heard soft footsteps in the hall, and there was Evangeline.
She wore jeans and a soft gray sweater, but somehow, standing in the hallway with a nervous expression in her bright green eyes, she was more beautiful to him than any woman he had ever known.
“Hi,” she murmured.
“Good morning,” he told her, remembering himself and shifting his eyes back to the baby.
Now more than ever he had to be aware of his behavior.
It sounds like you really like that guy, and the baby too, her brother had said.
He would have loved to hear those words in any other circumstance. But Evangeline was vulnerable, more than he had known. He needed to keep that in the front of his mind.
“Um, I was wondering if we could go somewhere today,” she said.
If she had been anyone else he wouldn’t have noticed that the pitch of her voice was slightly higher than usual, like she was nervous.
Does she know I overheard?
But maybe it was just that he’d left and not come home until after she was asleep. Thinking back on it now, he knew it had been wrong to leave her with Leo like that.
But at the time, his emotions had gotten the best of him.
“Of course,” he told her. “Wherever you want. Sorry I left you on duty so late.”
She nodded to him, her lips pressed together as if she were trying to stop herself from asking him where he’d been.
That was for the best because he wasn’t going to tell her anyway. Nothing had come of it.
“I’ll start some coffee,” she said, hurrying to the kitchen.
Later that morning, they headed out. Flurries floated down from a gray sky that looked as soft and pale as a kitten’s belly.
Instead of going east toward the village, they headed west, further into farmland, past red barns and fields with golden stalks peeking up through the blanket of snow.
“Why this park?” Grayson asked Evangeline.
She shrugged, her eyes fixed on the view out the window.
So the mystery would stay a mystery. Leo was too little to have a preference about a park. A walk around town or even up and down the driveway was usually enough to engage his senses and give him the fresh air that put color in his cheeks and helped him get a good nap.
Driving an hour out into the country in the wintertime to visit a different town park felt excessive to Grayson. But if it filled the day and melted the awkwardness between them, it was a small price to pay.
He leaned forward and turned the radio on, knowing the Christmas music always made her smile, and usually made her sing.
Darlene Love belted out a plea for her baby to come home for Christmas through the speakers.
“You want to hear me sing, huh?” Evangeline said, turning to him with a teasing smile that he felt in his chest.
He nodded slowly and she laughed, her eyes sparkling.
“You asked for it,” she said, bursting into song.
The wall between them was suddenly gone, and he smiled as he listened to her wail along with the radio as the houses outside the car got further and further apart.
When they finally arrived at the park in tiny East Washburn, Grayson looked around, trying to figure out what was so special about the place.
Evangeline carried Leo in the front carrier on her chest, and she was fussing with his hat, which kept trying to fall into his eyes.
“Easy does it, wiggly boy,” she murmured to him, smiling.
The park was spacious which made it picturesque.
But out in the country like this there was acreage to spare, so it probably wasn’t a bit unusual.
The entrance was at the top of a rolling hill with a meadow below that had picnic tables, and beyond those there were swing sets, slides, and a set of monkey bars—all pretty normal fare for a park.
“It’s nice,” Grayson said politely, turning to Evangeline to see which part of the park she was focused on, hoping for a clue as to why she wanted to come all this way.
Her eyes were on a family below. There were two tiny girls on the swings, both with dark brown curls. A woman with the same hair sat on a bench sipping coffee, and he figured that she must be their mother.
A man pushed each little girl in turn, much to the girls’ delight.
There was something familiar about him…
“Ellis?” he heard himself murmur.
The past and the present faded in and out for an instant as he remembered the laughing young man who had once been in his unit, and the impossible weight of him as Grayson dragged his unconscious body away from the burning wreckage that awful day.
And here he was now, a broad-shouldered young father, pushing his daughters on the swings as they squealed with delight and his wife smiled up at him.
“He’s here because of you,” Evangeline said softly.
Grayson shook his head automatically, but his eyes stayed on the family below.
“Those little girls are here because of you,” Evangeline said more firmly. “Their whole family exists because of you. You did that.”
Grayson gazed down at Calvin Ellis and his family. It didn’t make him feel any better about Isaac Jones. But something unlocked in his chest, and it made the weight he carried feel a tiny bit lighter.
“You know how many lives you saved,” Evangeline said quietly. “But I thought maybe it would be different to actually see one of them living that life.”
“You set this up,” he realized out loud, turning to her. “You knew he would be here?”
She bit her lip, but she nodded without breaking eye contact.
Knowing how he’d reacted to seeing those medals, he had to respect her courage.
“It… it is different,” he said after a moment, his eyes straying back to the family below.
Just then, Ellis noticed them and waved, a big smile stretching his face.
Grayson was waving back before he could overthink it.
“Do you want to see them?” Evangeline asked him softly.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “I think I do.”
“Let’s go,” she said.
He wasn’t sure why, but he reached for her hand as they headed down the hillside. Her fingers slid between his as if they had been made to fit together.
By the time they headed back toward Trinity Falls, the afternoon sun was at their back, casting shadows and lighting up the fallen snow with a golden glow.
“That was… good,” Grayson said.
“I’m glad you didn’t mind,” Evangeline said after a moment. “He was so excited when I reached out.”
“Ellis is a good guy,” Grayson said, smiling. “But how did you find him? How did you know?”
“Oh, I can’t take credit for that,” she said. “I asked Sam for help.”
“You asked Sam to find my unit?” he asked her, amazed that Evangeline had thought of it, or taken the time when he’d kept her so busy with Leo.
“She was happy to help,” Evangeline said. “And when she told me Calvin only lived an hour and a half away I knew I had to try reaching out.”
“I’m glad you did,” he told her, glancing over at the young woman who had quietly come into his life and made so many things better.
“I have to tell you something,” she said, her eyes on the fields out the window.
“Okay,” he said.
“I know you overheard my conversation with my brother,” she said.
There was no point in denying that.
“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” he said.
“I know that,” she told him, glancing over.
“Anyway, I’m sure you’re trying to figure out a lot right now, but I just need to say one thing.
My brother is a good man. He sacrificed everything to protect me when our grandpa died.
He left school and started working in the shop full-time so we wouldn’t end up in the system.
What you overheard, that decision he’s making now?
I wouldn’t want that to be the only thing you knew about Rory. ”
“You’re not responsible for his decisions, Evangeline,” Grayson told her.
“Well, he’s at least partly responsible for all my best ones,” she replied. “I wouldn’t have had any choices at all in my life if not for my brother. Any opportunity I’ve ever had has only been because of his sacrifices.”
Grayson nodded, and thought that over as they drove on through the sunny afternoon countryside and offered up a silent prayer.
Please let her brother make a good decision now.