Chapter Nineteen

"Did you bake these yourself, Grace?" Vincent asked as he sampled yet another triple fudge brownie the next day.

"Yes, I did. I used my grandmother's recipe," Grace replied.

"And where is your grandmother?"

"She is down at the stage listening to music."

"If these are your grandmother's recipes then why isn't she down here helping to promote them?" Beverly asked from where she sat in a lawn chair flipping through one of the cookbooks that Grace and Patricia had put together.

"My grandmother has dementia," Grace replied with a friendly smile as she handed a balding man with a big belly his bag full of cookies. "Some days she resembles her old self but most days she is either a child or reliving some moment in the past."

"Oh.." was all Beverly said in response before burying her head back in the cookbook.

"That's three dollars a brownie, dad," Vince warned with a smile as he walked into the booth and swooped down to give Grace a quick kiss.

"You called me dad," Vincent stated, blinking several times. Grace watched with amusement as the two men studied one another and Vince rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"How many of those have you eaten?" Vince asked, turning the conversation back to the brownies.

"Three I believe," Vincent replied.

"Five," Beverly spoke up. "He has eaten five of those calorie-ridden gems. Soon I will have to go back to the inn and get his sweatpants because the buttons on his trousers will burst."

Vince shook his head and raised his brow at his father. "Pull out your wallet because you've gorged yourself out of fifteen dollars."

"Nonsense! He can have the family discount," Grace cut in with a wink as she went about setting out some saran wrapped rice crispy treats. "Two dollars a brownie."

"What a gem you are," Vincent beamed as he pulled out his wallet and fished out a ten dollar bill.

"Gem," Beverly snorted, never looking up from the cookbook. "She's marrying our rich son, she doesn't have to worry about money."

"Mother..." Vince warned.

"She's right, Vince," Grace cut in. "You are very rich and you're most definitely mine." She stood on her toes and kissed his lips tenderly.

Grace felt his lips attempting to curve beneath hers and Beverly harrumphed loudly before slumping down lower in her chair. "You are wicked," Vince whispered as their kiss broke.

"I have not yet begun to get wicked," Grace assured him. She pulled away from him and crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned against the tent pole. "So when is Patricia coming in today?"

Vince closed his eyes and Grace saw his mouth moving as he counted down silently from three. "Please tell me she is not talking about that horrid secretary of yours!" Beverly exclaimed just as Vince got to the number one.

"Yes, mother, the horrid secretary is coming today. She should be here sometime this evening."

"I've always liked that woman," Vincent stated as he sat down and pulled Widget into his lap.

"Please, you have only liked her since she got you that horrid dog!" Beverly spat. Grace nearly laughed. It would seem that according to Beverly Griffin nearly everything in the world was horrid. "That woman is mouthy, vulgar and she dresses like a two cent hooker. Honestly I think that's the only reason Vince has kept her around all these years. She looks good when she props her miniskirt clad legs on his desk."

"Actually," Vince countered. "I keep her around because I love to watch your head explode when you're forced to be in the same room as she is."

"It isn't like you to be so spiteful," Beverly sniffed. "I think being around these low-class people has had a negative impact on you."

"Low-class people," Grace ground out under her breath as she roughly bagged some cookies for a man who worked at the school.

"Honey, those cookies didn't do anything wrong," Vince soothed as he rested his hand gently on the small of her back.

"No, but if I'm this rough with your mother then you may get angry," Grace replied, flashing a fake, toothy smile.

"I wouldn't get angry with you," Vince assured her. "Though I might sell tickets to the show."

"So tell me, why is Patricia coming to this rundown town?" Beverly questioned, unaware of the conversation between Vince and Grace. "She seems a woman who would prefer a faster way of life."

"She's coming to help us get ready for the wedding," Vince replied, deciding this was as good a time as any to watch his mother's head implode.

"Wedding?" Beverly hissed. "I wasn't aware you had asked her yet. I don't see a ring on her finger!"

"That's because you won't give it to him, dear," Vincent replied absently, looking quite sleepy after his brownie binge.

"When is this wedding?" Beverly questioned, barely managing to keep her voice level.

"Sunday," Vince replied.

Beverly's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. "Sunday? As in three days from now?!"

"That's right," Vince nodded.

"Vince, you are making a mistake," Beverly warned. "You haven't known this woman long enough to marry her! She is a single mother. A poor woman with nothing who has had to scrimp and save. How do you know she even loves you and doesn't just see you as an easy way out of her problems?"

Vince felt the last of his patience snap. His head began to pound as he glared at his mother and fought the urge to throttle her head. He felt Grace stiffen beside him but before either of them could say a word, Vincent rose to his feet.

"I believe you just overstepped those boundaries that Vince mentioned earlier, dear," he warned.

Beverly glared at her husband. "I will not stand by and watch my son make such a horrid mistake!"

"What mistake would that be? Falling in love, marrying and building a life with a woman who wasn't born into money the way he was?" Vincent asked calmly. "Because if that is his mistake than I'm afraid I made the very same one forty plus years ago when I walked into that diner in Jersey and caught sight of that feisty waitress who ended up spilling my coffee on me."

The color drained from Beverly's face and her eyes took on a faraway look as she remembered the day her husband was speaking about. Vincent smiled. "My mother told me I was foolish to fall in love with such a woman. She said that woman was nothing but a vulture. That she was someone who had nothing to offer me and simply wanted to use me for my money without giving me anything real in return."

"Your mother was a horrid woman, God rest her soul," Beverly whispered.

"Beverly, dear, you know how much I love you and I know how much you truly love me and our son, but right now you sound an awful lot like that horrid woman."

Grace looked over at Vince and saw the man looked quite shocked as his wide-green eyes looked back and forth between his parents. Grace turned her attention to Beverly who let out a groan and covered her face with her hands. In a move that was quite out of character for the prim and proper lady, she looked at her husband through her fingers and shook her head. "Oh my God, Vincent, I've turned into your mother...."

Vincent merely nodded, grabbed another brownie and sat back down in the chair, wrestling with Widget who was attempting to sniff the chocolate treat.

"I'm.. I'm going for a walk," Beverly whispered before turning quickly and leaving the booth.

Vincent and Vince shared a look clearly arguing without words about which one of them was going to go after her. Grace sighed and shook her head. "I'll go get her."

"Are you sure?" Vince asked skeptically.

Grace nodded. "I'm sure."

"You should take Widget," Vincent offered. "She's quite good at defense."

Grace couldn't help but smile before she walked into the small crowd in the same direction that Beverly had taken. The festival was pretty slow this time of day because of work and school. It was easy enough to find Beverly. The woman's tailored clothes stuck out sharply among all the denim and camouflage.

"Beverly, are you okay?" Grace asked, jogging to catch up with the woman.

Beverly didn't look at her but she did slow her pace to allow Grace to fall in step beside her. "Do you actually care?" Beverly demanded quietly.

"Of course I do," Grace replied. "You're Vince's mom."

"You're a much nicer woman than I am," Beverly admitted.

"You were just worried about your son," Grace assured her. "I understand that."

"No, I was worried about his father and I. I was worried about what people would say when they discovered our son was giving up everything to be with a woman who they would say was beneath him. I was thinking of everything that you lacked in what I wanted for my son and in doing so I failed to realize that you are everything my son wanted for himself."

"Um.. Thank you?" Grace mumbled, unable to think of anything else to say.

Beverly stopped walking and turned to face her. Grace met her gaze and for the first time she saw something other than disdain in Beverly's eyes. "Don't thank me! Forgive me!" Beverly insisted. "When I first met Vincent I was a lot like you. I didn't have a child out of wedlock, mind you, but times have changed." Beverly folded her hands in front of her. "I worked two job back then to support my mother who was dying of cancer. I was born and raised in Jersey. I was loud, mouthy and opinionated. Then one day when I was working a double shift in that roadside diner, who should happen in but a fancy dressed, slick talking city man."

Beverly smiled at the memory. "Now I wasn't the type of woman to be impressed by a man like that but this man was different.. .there was something in his eyes when he looked at me that got me all tangled up in knots. And Vincent was telling the truth. I was so beside myself that I did spill his coffee all over his thousand dollar suit and do you know what? Instead of getting angry he just laughed and invited me to dinner."

Beverly sighed. "Needless to say we fell in love but his mother hated me. Every change that she got, she was putting me down and telling me how far beneath her son I was. And so I changed myself. I conformed to be just what she wanted me to be for Vincent. Now, forty years later, it would seem that I have become her."

Beverly shivered and Grace waited patiently for her to continue. "My son loves you and he loves your daughter. I have never seen him happy the way he is when he is around you both. You seem to be a kind and yet strong woman and exactly what Vince needs. While I still think this is moving awfully fast and, while you've both made it clear that it's not required, you have my blessing."

"Thank you, Beverly," Grace replied, feeling as if a giant weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Life would be so much easier if she and Beverly could at least get alone.

"Now let's get back to our men," Beverly urged. "Before my dear husband eats your entire supply of brownies."

***

"I have to go pick Cadence up," Grace said, checking her watch later that day.

"I'll go with you," Vince quickly volunteered.

Grace shook her head. "I need you to stay and run the booth. Meg said she'll run it this evening but I need you to run it until she gets here because it'll be four or five."

Beverly stood up. "I'll accompany her."

Vince raised a brow. "You seem to be getting along better."

"We've reach an understanding," Grace replied with a smile and Beverly nodded in agreement.

"Okay. Tell Cadence that I'm up for another ride on that spinner she liked so much last night."

"Are you sure?" Grace teased as he pulled her into his arms. "You were green for quite a while after you got off of it."

"That was just because I hadn't been on one in so long," Vince promised. "Tonight, I'll outlast her."

"I'm not sure you can outlast the gremlin on carnival rides," Grace warned. "She is a professional and takes her year training very seriously." Vince smiled and kissed her gently. "Remember to check on Ester now and then. She's still listening to music," Grace reminded him.

Vince nodded. "I'll take care of things," he promised.

Grace smiled up at him before pulling away and waving for Beverly. "Let's go then, Beverly. I promise Cadence will be a bit less scary this afternoon minus all that face paint."

"You seem to have picked well, son," Vincent said as the women walked away and he stood up.

"I'm surprised you've been so open and quiet about all of this since you always wanted me to marry a woman who would improve the Griffin name," Vince admitted.

"Yes," Vincent agreed. "And I believe she will."

Vince's phone rang and Vince answered it without checking the I.D. "Hello?"

"Well hello to you too, boss," Patricia answered, her tone hard, which told Vince one thing--Patricia was very, very irritated.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Oh no!" Patricia snapped. "Everything is one hundred percent a-okay and life is perfect because me and my passenger will be arriving in your town in approximately an hour."

"Passenger?" Vince questioned. "Did you bring a date?"

"No, my dance card is reserved for Uncle Pete," Patricia assured him. "The passenger I am referring to is more like a fungus only much less welcome."

"Stop being such a bitch," another female voice snapped.

Vince's heart slammed to a stop and he found himself smacking his chest in an effort to get it working properly again. He would recognize that voice anywhere. "Please tell me that is not Brittany."

"Fine. It was not Brittany."

"Yes, it was," Vince argued with a groan. "Why in the name of all that is holy did you bring your loony cousin?!"

"I'll have you know she is a step cousin and twice removed on top of that!" Patricia informed him.

Vince pinched his nose between his finger to ward off the headache he could feel coming. This wasn't going to go over well with Grace--hell, it wasn't going over well with him! "Then tell me, why did you invite your step cousin, twice removed to come to my wedding? You know that she can't get within one hundred yards of me without attacking me."

"She doesn't attack you, boss," Patricia countered. "She's just affectionate."

"Oh I'm attacking him," Brittany vowed. "I've already picked that man as my first husband."

Vince didn't laugh because he knew the woman wasn't joking. That woman had a knack for showing up everywhere and she didn't care what means she had to use to come on to him. This was just great! Grace and his mother were getting along and his fear that his mother would scare Grace off had been eased only to be replaced by the worry that Grace would be furious and call things off when Brittany showed up.

"Patricia," Vince ground out tightly. "What on God's green earth made you invite her?"

"I didn't, of course. She overheard me on the telephone speaking about coming to Clifton for you wedding..."

"Which isn't going to happen!" Brittany piped up.

"..And I just figured it would be better if she came with me instead of coming herself."

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Vince mumbled.

"Exactly sir."

Vince hung up without another word and attempted to will his head to stop hurting.

"Trouble?" Vincent asked as he hooked Widget's leash onto her studded collar and sat her on the ground.

Vince nodded. "Brittany Turk."

"Oh..." Vincent said flatly. "Trouble with a capital T."

"The only woman that mother would have been more horrified to find out I was marrying," Vince agreed.

"Let's hope you and Grace are solid," Vincent warned. "Because if anything can crack a foundation, it's a woman with an agenda."

Vince felt his worries grow but on the outside he smiled and nodded confidently. "We're solid. There's nothing to worry about."