“Right.”
“Well, I just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you and tell you I love you. You’re still planning to take Grace out tonight, right?”
“I am.”
“So I’ll see you sometime tomorrow?”
“Probably late morning.”
“I love you, Darren. Have a good night.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
CHAPTER 5
The day Clancy was acquitted was Grace Alexander’s birthday. She and I had developed a romantic relationship that had begun very subtly during my trial and incarceration and blossomed over the past year and a half. It was also my weekend with Sean, but his mother had taken him to Dollywood over the fall break. I knew how much Sean loved Dollywood and the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area, so I agreed to forgo my visitation that weekend as long as she would let him stay an extra weekend the following month. They wouldn’t be back until Sunday afternoon.
On that Friday, Grace picked me up at my mother’s house around 7:00 p.m.—my car was dying a slow and painful death—and we drove downtown to Market Square. I’d made us a reservation at The Oliver Hotel, which I’d heard was quaint, had excellent service, and was a little pricey. There was a restaurant adjacent to the hotel called the Oliver Royale, and I’d also made us a reservation there.
“Did you hit the lottery?” Grace said as we waited for a bottle of champagne to be delivered by our waiter.
“I’m doing a lot better on the financial front,” I said. “Besides, this is a special occasion.”
“Really?” she said. “Care to share?”
“In a little while,” I said. “Let’s eat first and then take a walk.”
I was looking at her over a candle, and the light caused her green eyes to flicker. She was a lawyer, a criminal defense specialist who worked for the Federal Public Defender. Grace was beautiful no matter what she was wearing and whether or not she was wearing makeup or lipstick. But that night she was absolutely exquisite. I’d asked her to dress up because I was taking her somewhere nice, and she’d taken me seriously—strapless black dress and heels, blonde hair wavy and worn loose, makeup perfect. I had trouble keeping my eyes off her, and I was very much looking forward to helping her out of the dress later on.
“I heard about Clancy,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “It was inevitable. I knew Richie would chew James up and spit him out in front of the jury. At least the feds had the nerve to go through with the trial. They had to know they were going to lose.”
“How have you been sleeping?” Grace asked. “Still a lot of nightmares?”
“This thing with Clancy hasn’t helped.”
“I wish you’d go back and see Laura. She asks about you every time I see her. She really thinks she could help.”
“No, thanks,” I said as a bottle of Dom Pérignon, vintage 2006, was placed on the table in a bucket. “She said I should be anything but a lawyer. I’m a lawyer. I’m not a quitter.”
We sat while the waiter went through the ritual of opening the champagne, offering me the cork, pouring a small amount for me to taste, and then filling Grace’s flute and mine.
“To PTSD,” I said, holding up the flute.
“To overcoming PTSD,” she said, and I clinked her glass gently. The champagne was perfect, and I took a moment to enjoy the warmth as it slid down my throat.
“So what are you going to do?” Grace said. “Any strategy or plan for dealing with the PTSD?”
“Nah, I think I’ll just tough it out,” I said. “Eventually the nightmares will ease off. A lot of guys who have been in the service have overcome it. It just takes time. I’m not a big drinker, so that’s a plus, and I don’t do drugs. I’ve read some about it, and I think if I take decent care of myself and don’t fall into bad habits, I have a good chance of being okay eventually. Besides, sleep is overrated.”
Grace smiled. “You’re a nut,” she said.
“You’re right. I really am a nut, and now I have an official diagnosis to prove it.”
“I didn’t mean it that way. You know you can call me anytime. If you can’t sleep, just call and we’ll talk until you’re ready to try again.”
“Will you talk dirty to me?”
“I’ll say anything you want.”
She would have, too. She was one of the kindest, most considerate people I’d ever met. And she was fun and mischievous and sexy as hell. She was thoughtful and smart and athletic, and we shared a lot of common interests in things like books and movies and University of Tennessee sports. Music, not so much. She loved classical music. I’d tried to wrap my mind around Mozart and Beethoven and Chopin, but I just couldn’t feel it. I was more of a Southern rock and country guy. But outside of that, we were a great match. My mom was crazy about her, and Sean thought she hung the moon. Katie was so jealous of her I could tell she wanted to spit every time Grace’s name was mentioned, especially if Sean said something nice about her.
We took an hour and a half, lingering over an excellent gourmet meal, and polished off the bottle of Dom. When we were finished, we went outside and strolled through Market Square. We walked by a bench and I asked her whether she’d like to sit for a second. It was early November, but a warm front had rolled in and it was in the midsixties.
“How’s your mother?” she asked.
“She’s good except for the cat.”
“I hated to hear about Tink,” Grace said.
Tink was a tabby my mother had owned for eight years. She’d died suddenly of cancer a couple of weeks earlier, and my mother had taken it pretty hard.
“She’s had time to grieve,” I said. “I’m going to the shelter tomorrow morning to get a kitten. That’ll brighten her up.”
“You’re sweet,” Grace said.
“Can I ask you a question?” I said as we sat down on the bench. “What do your parents really think of me?”
Grace’s dad was a law professor, sharp as a tack, and her mom was a physician’s assistant. They lived very comfortably in San Diego. I’d visited with Grace twice, and while they seemed to tolerate me, I didn’t exactly get the sense that I was what they had in mind for their baby girl.
“They don’t really know you, Darren,” she said. “But they respect my judgment. I think they worry about you because they know what you went through. But they’re open-minded people, and they’re not judgmental. Why do you ask?”
I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a small wooden box. I dropped to one knee in front of her.
“Because I’m in love with their daughter and would like to marry her,” I said as I opened the box. It had a small LED light in it and revealed a one-and-a-half-carat diamond that had cost me a small fortune. Grace’s eyes widened.