Giving It All (21 page)

“Are you sure? Emily is sleeping, but Hunter…”

“Hunter will help me make sure no one tries to take your spot, won’t you?” Mrs. Anderson asked the bouncing three-year-old.

“Yes, ma’am!”

“I’ll help too,” Billy said.

“There, it’s all set. You get the chairs and the cooler and we’ll hold down the fort.”

“Great. Nadya, I’ve got a chair for you too.”

“Oh, thanks. I was just going to sit on the grass, but I won’t turn down a chair if you have it. I’ll help you carry everything.”

“Boys, you mind Mrs. Anderson and Miss Ellie. No running into the street or running off because you see a friend.”

“Yes, sir,” they both said.

“I’ll be right back. Em should sleep for a little while longer, but if she wakes up, there’s a bottle already made in the insulated pack in the bag,” he directed Ellie.

“Got it. Go on now before you miss the whole parade.”

Ellie settled the stroller with the sleeping Emily so the sun didn’t shine on her face and watched Mrs. Anderson ride herd on the Michaels boys. Mrs. Anderson didn’t try to contain them, but instead put a bag down marking off their area and told the boys to run back and forth between the bag and her chair so no one would sit there.

When they’d get tired of that, she’d
accidentally
drop change from her purse and have the boys searching the grass for the pennies and nickels. They were on their third game of Simon Says when Nadya and Bill got back.

“Man, I think everyone in town is here,” Nadya said. “J.T. is going to have his hands full controlling this crowd if things get out of hand.”

“A lot of folks will head out after the picnic. We’ll leave the dancing to you youngsters and watch the fireworks from the comfort of our front porch.”

That sounded like a good idea to Ellie. She’d much rather watch the fireworks with a glass of wine on her own balcony with Grant than be surrounded by half the town.

Stop being selfish.

Ellie pushed down the part of her that wanted to keep Grant to herself and stomped on it. He was a hero, and the rest of the town wanted to see him just as much as she did. He deserved to bask in their attention, not be hidden away because she was feeling insecure and having high school flashbacks.

“Where’s Peter? I thought he’d want to be up front too,” Nadya asked.

“He’s taking pictures for this week’s
Dale Weekly
. He said he’d catch up with us during the picnic. I’ve been so busy I haven’t done more than text with him in the last two weeks. It’ll be good to actually talk to him in complete sentences.”

They got themselves settled and chatted a bit while they waited for the parade to start. The weather was perfect, not too hot and no humidity. A rain shower last night had cleared out a lot of the pollen flying through the air, making the day seem brighter and definitely less green.

Emily started to stir, but before Bill could get up, Ellie waved him off. She just loved holding the baby and feeling her soft little breaths right next to her cheek. Ellie held the baby so Mr. Anderson could offer his finger for her to play with. The two of them laughed as Emily tried to stick it in her mouth.

“I think she’s probably hungry,” Ellie said. “Good thing we have a bottle right here. I don’t think your finger would satisfy her for long.”

Ellie got the bottle and Emily reached for it greedily. The boys played around them, laughing as Bill pretended to be a dinosaur or a dragon or some other creature that made a lot of noise and liked to eat little boys.

“Whew, now I know why we had our kids when we were young. Those two wear a body out just watching them,” Mrs. Anderson said, sitting back in her chair.

“I don’t know, you seemed to have them well in hand. I wish I had a pad and pencil so I could take notes,” Ellie said.

“Grant was just like Hunter, full of spit and vinegar. I swear he could run around all day and night without a nap by the time he was three. But I was in my twenties then, it was much easier to keep up with him.”

“Oh, look, here comes the chief in the squad car. The parade’s starting,” Nadya said.

The boys bounced up and down and clapped as the police chief waved to everyone and threw handfuls of candy, but Ellie only had eyes for the red convertible driving slowly behind the squad car.

Grant sat up straight and tall in his gleaming uniform. He’d been given a blue honorary parade marshal sash and a red carnation boutonniere. Ellie’s heart almost burst as she watched him coming closer. Her eyes prickled with unshed tears when Mrs. Anderson grabbed Mr. Anderson’s hand and sniffed into a tissue.

“Doesn’t he look so strong now? Remember when it was all he could do to get out of bed? He got that determination from you, Ed. If he got back, you will too,” Mrs. Anderson said.

Oh, that did it. Tears ran freely down her cheeks right along with Mrs. Anderson. She balanced the baby in one arm and held Mr. Anderson’s other hand. The three of them cried together as Grant went past.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Grant couldn’t wait for the parade to end. His cheeks ached from smiling and his back had tightened up with the stress of being on display to the entire fucking town. The only thing that was keeping him from jumping out of the car and bolting home was knowing Ellie was waiting at the end of the parade for him.

He could see the gazebo ahead, which meant he was almost done. Once he got out of the car, he’d have to sit in the reviewing stand and watch the rest of the parade, but at least he wouldn’t be listening to the cheers for him and feeling like a phony. It was hard to remember what Ellie said about him being a hero when he felt like anything but.

His gaze was caught by a flash of red and he saw Nadya Sarov waving and clapping next to Bill Michaels and two boys that had to be his, they looked just like him. Next to them, his mom sat holding his father’s hand and Ellie was on the other side holding a baby.

Longing washed through him, hitting him so hard it felt like a fist to the chest. He wanted to capture the moment in time and hold on to it forever. Three of the people he loved most in the world, together, for him.

Emotions tore through him, almost knocking him off the backseat of the convertible. When had Ellie slipped inside his heart? Sure, she was important to him, and he loved being with her, but Love with a capital L? How had that happened?

The car lurched to a stop and the crowd cheered as he got out and walked to the reviewing stand, trying to shake himself out of his daze. Ellie stood, adjusting the baby onto her shoulder so she could wave and cheer too. The noise and the people faded into the background. He couldn’t focus on anything but Ellie standing in the sunlight watching him with eyes that glowed with emotion.

Instead of turning to climb up the stairs to the gazebo, he made a quick left and grabbed Ellie over the line of caution tape keeping the crowd back. Being careful not to crush the baby, he pulled her to his chest and kissed her, trying to tell her without words how much she meant to him.

And the crowd went wild.

He let her go without a word, smiling to himself as she collapsed in the chair as if her legs wouldn’t hold her any longer. If she hadn’t been holding the baby, he might have scooped her up and run away with her.

Which probably would have pissed off half the town, so maybe it was a good thing she’d had the baby on her shoulder. As he took his place in the reviewing stand next to the members of the committee, Mary Ellen whooped with laughter.

“That was the best thing to happen since J.T. carried Nadya across the street during the silent auction last summer.”

“I think it was completely inappropriate for a Founders’ Day parade. There are children around,” Pansy said, her arms crossed over her barely concealed chest.

“You’re just jealous because it wasn’t you he planted one on.”

“As if I’d be jealous of that string bean. A real woman has curves.”

“Ellie’s more of a woman than you could ever dream of being, and it has nothing to do with her cup size,” Grant said, getting irritated at the bickering going on over him. “Hey, here’s the fire department. Did Dale get a new tanker?”

Pansy sank back with a huff and Mary Ellen subsided, but Grant could see her still smiling like the Cheshire Cat. The rest of the parade passed by the reviewing stand, but he didn’t see any of it. His gaze kept straying to where Ellie sat next to his folks. His mom had the younger Michaels boy in her lap, and his dad appeared to be listening intently to whatever the older boy was saying. But Grant only had eyes for Ellie. She looked so happy holding the baby and pointing to things. She didn’t even seem to mind when the baby spit up on her. She just used some wipes and blotted it up.

Whenever her gaze would turn toward the gazebo, she would stare straight at him, her eyes soft and warm. Her smile lit up her face and had a hunger stirring in his gut that no amount of potato salad and hot dogs would fill. He wanted to run back to the house with her and tell her how he felt, what he’d figured out, but he had to wait for the never-ending parade to finish.

Were people circling back and going through the parade again? What the hell was taking so long? He didn’t think there were enough people in Dale to have this many marchers and still fill the town green. What had they done? Hired people from other towns to march?

Son of a bitch, they had. There was the Canton Marching Band, complete with color guard and twirling flags. Clowns and a horse brigade came next. Since when did Dale get big enough that out of towners
wanted
to be part of Founders’ Day? Man, things really had changed over the last decade.

Eventually, the parade came to an end with the town council marching straight up the gazebo steps. The chairman shook Grant’s hand and thanked him for his service before addressing the crowd.

Grant listened with half his mind elsewhere. He made sure to nod and clap at all the right times, but his attention was on Ellie and the warmth he felt in his chest every time he saw her. How could he have been so stupid not to recognize his own feelings for her when they were right in front of his face? Why had it taken seeing her with his parents at the parade to bitch slap him with reality?

His timing sucked.

He wanted to grab the microphone from the droning chairman and shout to the town that he loved Ellie, but she deserved a little better than that. For Christ’s sake, he hadn’t done one romantic thing for her yet. He could at least buy her a flower or something. When he’d asked Chastity to marry him, he’d had a limo filled with roses and champagne and they’d driven along the coast with the sunroof open. He hadn’t picked Ellie so much as a daisy.

Ellie isn’t Chastity. She doesn’t need the props. She just wants the honest emotion.

Sometimes his subconscious was a hell of a lot smarter than his active mind. So Ellie didn’t need the grand gesture, but she did deserve a little more than having him just blurt out the words that were filling his heart.

He was still puzzling the best way to tell her he loved her when the chairman handed him the microphone and the crowd let out a roar.

Oh, shit. He’d forgotten he was supposed to say a few words. Everything he’d prepared flew out of his head. Instead of mooning about Ellie, he should have been practicing his speech. Time to wing it.

“Happy Founders’ Day, Dale!” He looked over the crowd on the town green. People of all ages gathered around on blankets and camp chairs. There were babies being rocked by parents and grandparents, little kids running around, teenagers sitting off to the side trying to look cool, and his parents sitting right in front of him, pride shining through them.

For him.

“When Mary Ellen asked me to be the honorary grand marshal, I almost turned her down. I didn’t feel like I deserved such an honor. It’s been ten years since I’ve spent any time in Dale and a lot has happened in that decade.”

He paused to look at all the faces staring up at him. Some were familiar, some were not, but they were all part of the fabric that made up his past, and hopefully, his future.

“As I made excuses as to why I shouldn’t be given the honor, someone reminded me that you all are the reason I served in the Navy in the first place. When I was injured, you were the ones who sent cards and letters and flowers and even stuffed animals. I got care packages while I was in Afghanistan that had my whole team jealous. By the way, Mrs. Farley, if you ever want to go into the bakery business, I know plenty of soldiers who’d be lining up to buy your cookies.”

“Give me their addresses, I’ll make them each a batch,” Mary Ellen’s mom called out and the crowd laughed.

“I bet you would. And that’s the reason I proudly served my country. I went overseas to protect all the towns like Dale where people go out of their way to help others, who make enough casseroles to feed a third-world nation when someone gets sick, and have bake sales for the library. I don’t know if the founders realized what a great town they were creating back in 1753, but I’m sure they’re all looking down, proud of what they accomplished. Thank you, everyone.”

He handed the microphone back to the chairman and took a deep breath to get his emotions under control. That wasn’t the speech he’d prepared, but it was what he felt in his heart. The townspeople didn’t need to hear about his trials, they needed to know they were appreciated, and he hoped he’d done that.

By the volume of the applause, he thought he’d managed to get his message across, loud and clear.

“If I hear how good I look in this uniform or how I haven’t changed a bit one more time, I think I might run screaming down Main Street,” Grant said as yet another member of the Garden Club walked away. “I wish I had brought clothes to change into so I wouldn’t stick out here like a beacon.”

“You could always change when you bring your dad back home,” Ellie offered, collecting his empty paper plate to bring to the trash can.

“Good thinking. Although, I’m afraid if I go in the house, I might not come back. I feel like I’m in a fishbowl.”

“Join the club,” Nadya said. She sat on the picnic blanket and dragged J.T. with her. “At least everyone staring at you
likes
you. Sometimes I’m still afraid an angry mob is going to come after me with pitchforks and torches.”

“Exaggerate much? You’re almost as big a hero as Grant is. After all, if you hadn’t brought your brothers’ business into town, there’d be a lot more people moving out to find jobs,” J.T. said.

“And if you’d sold your land to that developer, there wouldn’t even be a town anymore,” Ellie added.

“There are some people who wanted that development. It would have created higher-paying jobs than the trail-riding business.”

“In the short term, yes, but once the houses were built, the jobs would be gone again. The trail-riding business is a constant source of income, if somewhat less lucrative,” Ellie said.

“I just love it when she sounds all businessy,” Grant said, pulling her to his side while everyone laughed.

“How did two stupid Joes like us end up with such smart women?” J.T. asked.

“I’ve been told anyone with estrogen turns to mush at the sight of a man in uniform,” Grant answered.

Nadya shot a glittering look at her husband dressed in his police uniform. “I agree. Although, being such smart women, I think we like seeing a man
out
of uniform much more. Wouldn’t you agree, Ellie?”

“Absolutely.”

Grant felt his dick twitch at the look Ellie turned on him. She wriggled a bit and he knew she was thinking about sex, which made his cock harden even more.

“Grant, honey, I think we’re headed home. Dad’s just tuckered out and I’m ready for a nap myself,” Mrs. Anderson said, wheeling Mr. Anderson to their picnic blanket.

“I’ll bring the car around.” Grant stood and pulled Ellie up with him. “Will you be okay while I take care of my folks?” He hadn’t liked the way Pansy had been shooting glares at Ellie all afternoon. What was wrong with that woman?

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked, clearly puzzled.

“No reason. I’m just used to having you with me.” He couldn’t put a finger on what was bothering him, but something had him on edge.

“Then hurry back.” She smiled and went on tip-toe to kiss him. “Nadya got me thinking about you out of uniform,” she whispered in his ear.

“Hold that thought. I shouldn’t be gone longer than half an hour.”

Grant kissed her again and then turned to his mom. “If you give me the keys, I’ll take a load of stuff to the car and bring it back here.”

“I’ll go with you, you might need some help getting the car over here with all the barricades,” J.T. said.

“Appreciate it.”

It took a while for them to wind their way through the maze of picnic blankets, kids playing ball and well-wishers who wanted to shake his hand, but eventually they made it to where his mom had parked the car. Several other couples his parents’ age were getting into their cars as well.

“It looks like things are thinning out,” Grant said, taking the chairs from J.T. and putting them in the backseat. They’d need the trunk space for the wheelchair.

“A little bit. I imagine folks with young kids will be leaving before too much longer as well. There’ll still be plenty of people here for the dance and fireworks, which will make things interesting for my crew.”

“I bet.”

“Have you thought any more about joining the force? Chief Birch told the men today that he was retiring in June. I could really use someone with your experience.”

“To be honest, I haven’t thought about it. A lot of stuff has been going on with my folks and the store. Give me a few weeks to get some of those issues cleared up and I’ll give it some serious thought. Do you have any information I could look at to get a better idea of what’s required in the police academy?”

“Funny you should ask. It just so happens I have an application in my cruiser. I’ll drop it off at your parents’ house the next time I swing by.”

“I’m not promising anything,” Grant warned.

“No pressure, just take a look. I think you’d be surprised at how well it would match up with your skill set.”

“We’ll see. Hey, would you do me a favor and keep an eye on Ellie while I’m gone?”

“Sure, but why?”

“I don’t know, I just have a bad feeling, you know?”

“Who would want to hurt Ellie? She takes care of half the town.”

“I don’t know,” he said again. “But I don’t like the looks Pansy’s been shooting her. Like it’s Ellie’s fault I don’t enjoy having Pansy shove her hand down my pants.”

“At least she hasn’t shown up at your house in nothing but some lace and high heels,” J.T. said with a mock shudder.

“Thank God for small favors.”

“I’ll keep my eyes open for trouble of the female variety. Pansy had a hate on for Nadya for a while too, but Nadya shot her down. She’s a tough chick for a contract lawyer.”

“Ellie isn’t as tough. Or at least I didn’t think so before.”

“Don’t worry, Mary Ellen’s around too, and she’s been looking for an excuse to tear into Pansy since Nadya left town after high school. She’ll protect your Ellie.”