As she stepped off the curb, he shoved away from the Explorer as if to intercept her, but she circumvented him easily enough.
“Excuse me,” she murmured and unlocked her car. She might have been talking to a stranger.
Throwing her purse into the passenger seat, she slid inside, welcoming the feel and smell of the familiar leather. But when she pulled on her door, she realized it wouldn’t close because he was holding it.
She looked into his face, and let every ounce of the derision she felt for Stillwater’s spoiled, selfish, insensitive men show in her eyes. “Is there something I can do for you?”
The look registered. He stepped back as though she’d slapped him, but didn’t release her door.
“I just wanted to say—”
“Don’t bother.”
“But—”
“I know you, remember? I’m sure you and your friends can recall a great many things about me, and I don’t blame you for not being impressed. But I also remember a great many things about you and am equally unimpressed. So save your feeble attempts to be a nice guy for someone who can’t see the shriveled heart behind that phony smile.”
With that, she glanced pointedly at the hand holding her door, and he finally let go.
Kennedy watched Grace pull out of the lot. Obviously, she wasn’t the “I’ll do anything to make you like me,” girl she’d been in high school. He wanted to believe she’d confused him with Joe, or maybe Tim, but he knew she hadn’t.
As he climbed into the driver’s seat of his own vehicle, he remembered Joe bragging to the varsity football team that he could get Grace to have sex with him anytime, anywhere. To prove it, he’d convinced her to meet him in the locker room after the game the following Friday.
Kennedy hadn’t stayed for the show, but he’d listened as avidly as everyone else to the gossip that had circulated afterward. He’d even laughed when Joe explained how he’d promised to take her to the prom only to stand her up.
“I never laid a hand on her,” Kennedy said aloud in an effort to ease his troubled conscience. But his conscience wouldn’t relent. Maybe he hadn’t been directly involved—but he hadn’t done much to stop the others from calling her names, had he? He’d been there, standing next to the guys who’d nudged her or tripped her. He’d chosen to ignore it when they slipped a pincher bug into her food at lunch. He’d only intervened when Raelynn was there.
Raelynn…God, he missed his wife. He’d never known anyone so sweet, so perfect. She used to plead with him to make his friends stop mocking Grace, to persuade them to leave her alone. For Raelynn’s sake, he’d stepped in now and then. But his own mother often spoke of Grace’s family as if they had no right to breathe the same air as decent people, and he’d taken his lead from her.
His regret tasted bitter as he shut his car door and started his engine. There’d been times he’d felt sorry for Grace, but mostly he’d tried to pretend she didn’t exist. The way she’d stare at him with so much longing in her eyes made him uncomfortable. He hadn’t been mature enough to realize that he had a responsibility to help her. Or maybe he simply hadn’t cared enough to bother. No one had cared. Except her family. When Molly reached high school and walked into the girls’ bathroom one day to find her sister with Tim, she went home and told their older brother. Clay came to school the next day and broke Tim’s nose.
Clay’s involvement finally scared off the guys who were using Grace sexually. But the damage had already been done. The name-calling and other cruelty continued.
His cell phone rang. Kennedy glanced down at it, surprised to see his mother’s home number listed on his caller ID. Camille was supposed to be at the community pool with the boys. What were they doing home already?
He punched the Talk button. “Hello?”
“Have you heard?” she asked.
“Heard what?”
“Grace Montgomery’s back in town.”
No kidding. He pictured the woman who’d just accused him of having a shriveled heart and a phony smile. She’d been attractive in high school. It wasn’t her looks that had marked her as an outcast, only her neediness. But now she was even prettier. Eyebrows that had been too thick were now slender and arched; teeth that had been slightly crooked were perfectly straight. She still had the same olive-colored skin, ice-blue eyes and dark, thick hair. The contrast was striking, but it was her high cheekbones and stubborn chin—both of which had been too severe for a young girl—that really set her apart. Beyond her stunning figure, of course. She’d developed before all the other girls, which certainly hadn’t helped her situation growing up.
“Kennedy?” his mother prompted when he didn’t answer right away.
“I know she’s back,” he said.
“Who told you?”
“I just ran into her at the pizza parlor.”
“Someone said she’s driving a BMW. Is that true?”
He knew his mother would feel better if he told her Grace’s car was one of the smaller, less expensive models, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it—for that reason. “It’s true.”
“How do you think she got it?”
Did it matter? Why shouldn’t Grace have something nice? “I have no idea,” he said.
“I can’t imagine. District attorneys don’t make that much. Especially assistant district attorneys. Maybe she married for money, like her mother, and now she’s back because her husband’s already gone missing.”
“You’re being ridiculous, Mom,” Kennedy said with a heavy dose of annoyance. “The reverend wasn’t exactly a millionaire. If Irene Montgomery married him for money, she sure didn’t get a lot.”
“She got the farm, didn’t she? Clay still lives there.”
Kennedy could see they were heading for an argument and changed the subject. “Why aren’t you at the pool?”
“They closed at five for cleaning.”
“So the boys got to swim for only an hour?”
“That’s long enough, isn’t it?”
He could imagine Teddy’s disappointment after having waited all day. “I’m on my way. I’ll see you in a minute.”
“Will you be staying for supper?”
“No, I want to get home.” He’d been doing well lately, adjusting to the loss of Raelynn. He’d been thinking about other things, worried about his father and swept up in the campaign. But tonight he felt his wife’s absence like a gaping hole in his chest.