Joshua's Grace

Chapter 10 (1)

Grace was late to the lunch date with her parents. She had been packing for a Christmas vacation she was taking with Sasha. And Grace had forgotten the time. Subsequently, even though the drive up to Auckland had been relatively traffic free, she was still running late.

"Hi mum." She hugged her mother, "Sorry I'm late."

Her mother greeted her with the cryptic response, "Hi hon. I'm sure he'll make a perfect son-in-law."

Grace stilled the panic button that was automatically triggered by those words. She couldn't be talking about Joshua could she? No. Remonstrating with herself about paranoia setting in, Grace shrugged off her jacket and hung it on the coat stand. Grace hadn't seen him since their fight. He hadn't phoned her but he had sent her yellow roses every day last week. There had been no message, just his name boldly scribbled on the card. She'd waited for him to phone. To arrive at her door step, at her office. No sign. Just the yellow roses every day.

Angie put her arm around her daughter's waist, as Grace looked questioningly at her mother. "Who?"

"They're on the deck." Angie smiled. Grace frowned.

Who was on the deck? When Grace stepped onto the deck, she was momentarily stunned into limbo. Joshua was sitting sipping beer with her father. The last thing she had expected was to find him here, at her home, looking as if this was a common event. Grace flashed her mother a look: traitor, it said. Her mother smiled nervously.

"I'll start carvingthe roast." Angie disappeared back into the house. 

Grace looked pointedly at her father and then Joshua. Here he was, sitting on the deck, sipping beer from a bottle, having a conversation with her father, as if this was all perfectly natural. There was nothing normal about this set up. Nothing. That much was obvious. So they were now in cahoots with each other. The question was, could she handle it without another bout of primadonna syndrome.

"Grace." Her father got to his feet and came to hug her, "You're late." He admonished as he kept his arm around her shoulder, as he sensed her rising panic. She was ready to bolt. He kept a firm hold.

"Sorry." She said mechanically, her eyes on Joshua. Ben felt her trepidation ease, fractionally. Ben dropped his arm and quirked a look at Joshua. The look went unnoticed by Grace. She was making a big show of looking Joshua straight in the eye.

"Well, I'll just go help your mother. After all it is my roast she's carving." He escaped before Grace could stop him. Another traitor. Still she kept her eyes trained firmly on Joshua. She couldn't stop staring at him, and at least her heart wasn't thumping loudly against her chest. She was breathing calmly, holding his gaze and trying to remain in command of all her faculties. The majority of which seemed to be diminishing quickly. She decided to lean against the balustrade, some degree of support was necessary, her legs were giving way.

This was a perfect end to a perfectly odd week. A week that had started with a troubling message. The note had been postmarked Auckland and the message was terse and written in block capital letters. The words flashed up as if she was seeing them in reality: "Bitch. You took mine." Grace had frowned at it for a few minutes then binned it. She hadn't shown it to anyone and had fleetingly thought it might be Lysette. Lysette was Joshua's problem. She'd let him resolve it. Now she found herself presented with a perfect opportunity to ask him to do something about it. If only she had the courage not to make a hash of this.

Take it easy, becalm, act normal. Not a chance.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed. So much for acting normal. But then hissing at him angrily was normal conversation for the two of them. That thought almost had her giggling hysterically.