Free Healing Grace by Lisa J. Lickel Page B

stored the summer toys and came out with an old rubber ball starting to lose its bounce. Grace found a ragged knit cap, which they stretched over it.
    “Perfect! Let’s make supper. Race you inside!” She pretended to grab at Eddy who giggled as they ran through the brittle leaves in the yard. They raced up the porch steps.
    “Stamp your feet, son!” They left their damp shoes at the door and went inside to the light and warmth of her cozy kitchen.
    Ted stumbled in at dark. She heard the hesitant footfalls on her front porch, turned on the light, and met him at the door. His expression needed only one look before she turned to distract Eddy with her computer. She quickly found some children’s games and set him down before it, ignoring his wide-eyed wonder. The computer had been off limits before.
    “Let’s see if you can beat my score,” Grace gushed out. He complied for once without question.
    Ted had made it through the living room and grabbed at the entrance to the kitchen with a shaky hand. “Hey…there, Eddy.” He lurched with the next step he took. “I think I need…”
    She grabbed him before Eddy saw his near tumble and led him to her room, struggling mightily with his tall frame to direct him down the hallway and angle him across the bed. She deftly pulled the cover back before he landed, making the bedstead creak. His shoulders settled in slow motion and she waited while he adjusted to being prone. When she knew he wouldn’t be sick all over her bed, she gently untied his boots and lifted his emaciated legs, accidentally coming into contact with his skin above the socks. A familiar tingle began along the webbing between her thumb and forefinger and she pulled quickly away, breathing hard and fast. How could she have forgotten? So far away from Woodside... She’d never tested the gift, of course, but assumed it wouldn’t work here. Definitely didn’t want it to. No…she’d never try it, for she would surely fail. There were other ways to take care of him. She had the knowledge—she could always use her training without the gift.
    Ted moved restlessly, hissing in a breath. “I don’t know if your hands are warm or cold,” he rasped.
    There was no alcohol smell on his breath; nothing else strange to indicate this behavior. Perhaps a reaction to medication? Some sort of stroke? What had happened? “What’s going on? Did you take something?”
    “Nothing I shouldn’t.” He flashed a half-grin. “So tired. I forgot to eat lunch.”
    “Rest, then. I’ll be back in a little while with some food for you.”
    He grabbed for her hand when she turned to leave. “Wait!” His voice barely rose above a whisper. “Wait. I want, I—thank you—I want you to know that—” His voice trailed off and his shoulders began to shake.
    Grace sighed and grabbed a straight chair and pulled it close. What had caused him to lose control like this? She hadn’t been able to cry about anything in two years, despite all she’d gone through. She might have wanted to, but she’d dammed tears behind her lids, where they belonged. Weren’t men the bastions of stoicism? Jonathan had never shed a tear that she recalled. Certainly her father never had.
    She gently dislodged her hand from Ted’s convulsive grasp. Her legs itched to run again; right now she’d like nothing better than to run from this little family with their strange problems. Everything had happened so fast. She wanted to be left alone to build relationships for herself at her own pace. Excuses drizzled through her mind—all the reasons she should leave Michigan and go somewhere—anywhere else. Somewhere safe.
    This house had been too good a deal. She moved too quickly to purchase it. She hadn’t explored the neighborhood enough. The real estate agent misled her when she said the brothers next door wouldn’t bother her. How wrong she had been. They both bothered her in different ways. She wasn’t a mother any more, not a wife, not a