"Style and Grace. Good morning!"
"Happy birthday to you..." Two middle-aged off-key voices creaked over from Ohio. "Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Grace (my Baby Bird), Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuu."
"Hi Mom, Hi Dad. Thank you. That was great."
“How are you doing, Sweetie?”
“I’m good, Mom. How are you guys doing?”
Grace chatted with her parents. She knew it was a special call because her dad got to talk too. Usually, if her dad was the one who called, it was at her mother’s urging. He would pass the time of day with his Baby Bird for about a minute and then say, “Your mother wants to say ‘hi’.” That would be the last of Daddy for that call. But on birthdays and high holidays, Daddy got to talk on the extension. That meant that the conversation was sprinkled with “Oh, don’t be silly, Tom” and “Now that’s not the way it happened at all”. Sometimes Grace got the feeling they were talking to each other and had forgotten she was even there.
“So how does it feel to be a quarter-century?” asked her dad.
“Tom, don’t say that! You’ll make her feel old,” scolded her mom.
“It’s okay, Mom,” answered Grace. “I guess I feel one day older than yesterday. It’s not that different.”
"And how is your young man?" Her mother was relentless. Grace did not miss the juxtaposition of herself being described as old and Nick being described as young.
"He's fine, Mom. He's more than fine. He's outstanding." Take that and deal with it, thought Grace.
"I saw a picture of him the other day..."
Grace's heart stopped. Oh, please let it not be THE picture.
"...in a magazine. He's very handsome."
Grace exhaled.
"I bought your mom one of their records," said her father. Grace smiled. They would never be CDs to her dad. They would always be records. He had a huge vinyl collection. He was the one with the ear for music. "It's very good. Millennium. I think I'll buy another one. Do you have any recommendation?"
"Get Black & Blue, Daddy. It's really good."
"Humph," grunted her mother. "Black and blue. What kind of name is that for a record? It sounds like a bruise."
Even though they were half a continent apart, Grace and her father exchanged knowing glances.
"Did you hear from Julie?" asked her Mom.
"Yes, I got an email and a card. She's off to the outback again. She sent the card quite a while ago with a note saying that she didn't know where she would be today. But I just got the email yesterday, so she must have satellite hookup of some kind."
Grace watched the second hand on the clock approach the five minute mark and mouthed the words along with her mother. "Well, this is costing money. We just wanted to say have a good day and your present is in the mail. I'm guessing you didn't get it yet, since you haven't said anything."
Grace smiled. She knew that her mother would have sent the gift yesterday. She knew it would be a card and a cheque. On the card would be the admonishment to 'get something nice for yourself' as if her first inclination would be to buy something ugly.
"I'll let you know when I get it. Love you both."
"Love you too, sweetie." "Bye, Baby Bird."
Grace disconnected and smiled to herself. She knew what was going on in Ohio right now. Her mother would chew out her father for every word he uttered and then she would dissect Grace's words with all the skill of a CIA code breaker. It gave Grace a little thrill of pleasure to know that the word 'outstanding' would be picked over and analyzed in a hundred different ways.
She looked around her apartment and took stock of her life.
A quarter century. Yeah, Daddy, when you say it that way, it does sound old. She looked down at her cast ruefully. And the old body wasn't holding up as well as it might either. She shook her head and thought about life. She was living in a dream apartment, doing a job she loved and was building a relationship with a man who made her heart soar. And Matt seemed to have finally accepted that her life with him was over. Maybe they could be friends again somewhere down the road.
Grace looked at the big room. Two vases of flowers told her everything she needed to know. Matt had sent twenty-five blood-red roses, all standing straight and tall, perfectly arranged. They were beautiful, but she preferred the bouquet she had received from Nick, a riot of color, shape and style, almost as if he had told the florist, send one of everything you’ve got. Even the cards…a stiff, Happy Birthday, Love Matt came with the roses and ‘…diamonds, pearls and party dresses to follow’, Love Nick with a smiley face accompanied the other bouquet.
On the counter sat her other Backstreet gifts, received at Howie's the day before. They had all been going to different evening events, but had met at Howie's for cocktails first. It turned out to be a mini-celebration of Grace's birthday and she was very touched by it. She had been toasted with champagne. AJ had ginger ale and she had one tiny sip of the bubbly before setting it aside.
Brian and Leighanne had given her a beautiful hand-made sweater. The color and style matched her perfectly. That Leighanne was some shopper! Howie and Janine gave her a gorgeous hammered silver and turquoise bracelet with a southwestern style to it. Nick had obviously mentioned her love of books. Kevin and Kristen had given her a first-edition signed copy of Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring. And from AJ and Sarah, she got a vegetarian cookbook and a chef's apron with a picture of a computer and the words 'Byte me!'
Nick's gift had been last, a heavy box, which she unwrapped to reveal the nine-video set of Ken Burns' documentary on the history of baseball. "You remembered," she whispered and as she ran her hands over the package, Nick explained to the others that this was one of those things she had always wanted but considered too expensive and frivolous. When she had that much money in her hand, there was always something more useful to do with it. The others nodded. They hadn't always been rich. Nick couldn't believe that anyone would want 20 hours of history, even of sports, but Grace was caressing the box like it held the Crown Jewels.
She was touched by the gifts, by the thought that had been put into them. It showed their love for Nick as much as anything else. As much as he didn't like to admit it, he needed their approval, especially Kevin's. And Kevin had given his blessing to them last night. The beautiful gift was not one that would have been bestowed on someone he considered to be merely passing through. When he had said his goodbyes, he had kissed Grace and wished her a happy birthday and then punched Nick on the shoulder and said, "Fine. You can keep her." High praise indeed, thought Grace.
She wasn't sure if she was looking forward to the next part of her day. Sunday at the Carter's. Nick had hinted that his mom was going to make up for her earlier treatment of Grace by doing a big birthday thing. Grace was to pretend to be surprised. Nick had been sworn to secrecy, but he had told her laughingly that if someone was going to be pissed at him, he would rather it be his mom than his girl. Grace smiled at the recollection of the feeling that swept through her when he said those words - his girl.
Grace turned to her computer. She had a couple of little things she wanted to finish. She looked out the window. A flash of movement caught her eye. Down by the bakery, someone had been leaning on a lamppost and had turned away when she looked. Were they looking up here, she wondered? The stance looked familiar but she couldn't place it. Oh, stop being paranoid, she thought. If you want to creep yourself out, all you have to do is open your email.
The email onslaught had continued unabated. Every time she saw one with the address 2969426@freenet.com, it made her skin crawl. But she found she had to open them. She should have just deleted them without looking, but she couldn't do that. There had been no more overt threats, but she had been called every filthy name under the sun. Oddly enough, there was no mention of Nick. No 'stay away from him' or 'leave him alone'. It was all about her, what a horrible person she was.
Oh no! There was one there from her...him...she didn't know. She clicked it open. Happy birthday, slut. Think you'll live to see the next one?
Grace couldn't breathe. Omigod! How did this person know it was her birthday? Who was this? She tried to push down the panic rising in her chest.
The ringing of the phone frightened her out of her wits.
"Hello," she said in a tiny voice. Somehow she thought it might be the emailer.
"Hey, there! Happy birthday!"
"Nick," she whispered.
"What's the matter? Is everything okay?"
Grace got a grip on herself mentally. "Yeah, everything is great. You are great! Last night was great."
After Howie's they had gone to dinner at Antonio's. Nick had told them what the occasion was and they had outdone themselves. All of Grace's favorite dishes. Antonio had insisted on giving them a bottle of wine on the house. Grace had one glass, as did Nick. He wasn't really a wine drinker. Rather than insult Antonio, they had offered some to the people at the next table who had accepted graciously. They were an elderly Italian couple and Grace was pretty sure they wouldn't be reading about it the next day on a fan site, but you never knew. The whole staff had come out with a little cake to sing Happy Birthday. Petey had stood sheepishly in the background trying to decide whether it would be more 'cool' to sing along or to be above it all. When he saw that Nick was joining in, he happily lent his voice to the effort.
After dinner, they had walked back to Grace's. By some tacit agreement, they said goodnight at the elevator. It had been a beautiful evening and neither wanted to end it by feeling frustrated and horny. One long, lingering kiss was going to get them both through the night.
"Are you ready for today?" he asked.
Grace groaned. "How bad is it likely to be?"
"I guess that depends on your definition of bad," he laughed.
"Cake?" she guessed.
"For sure. With ice cream."
"Balloons?"
"Maybe. Probably."
"Party hats?" She sure hoped not.
"Well, I don't know about that. I can phone and suggest it."
"Don't you dare!" she laughed.
******************************It was actually a lovely party. Grace tried her best to look surprised when they arrived, and she thought most of them bought it, but she knew by the scowl bestowed on Nick by his mother that Jane hadn't been fooled.
There was cake and ice cream...and balloons. But thank heaven, no party hats were forthcoming. They had a lovely meal, indoors this time, around the dining room table. It wasn't a barbecue, but a sit-down roast chicken dinner. Grace complimented Jane on the meal.
"And you won't be cleaning up this time," grunted Jane in thanks. "Birthday girls even outrank cooks in that department."
"Speaking of birthday girls," said Bob. "Don't we have presents?"
"Yeah!" yelled the younger ones and they sprinted from the table, returning with an armload of presents.
"Oh, this is too much," protested Grace.
"Nonsense," said Nick.
Grace proceeded to open the gifts, one from each family member. They were all lovely and reflected the personality of the giver. Now I'll be able to tell them all apart, thought Grace.
When she opened Jane's, she saw a silver baby spoon. She looked up at her. Tears shone in Jane's eyes. "I get that back, if..." Grace nodded, unable to speak. The younger kids rolled their eyes. Jeez, was it going to get mushy in here?
Nick handed over a heavy square package. "What's this?" asked Grace. "You already gave me your gift last night?"
"Read the card," he said.
Grace opened it. “The book is always better,” it read. She tore off the paper to discover the companion book to the video series Nick had given her the night before.
"First time in his life Nick ever bought a book," muttered Leslie under her breath.
"Thank you," Grace whispered, resisting the temptation to open it and start reading.
"There's one more," said Bob.
"This is the dumbest gift," said Angel. She was immediately shushed by the others.
Bob stood up and carried over a long thin box with a big red bow on it. Grace slid the ribbon off and took off the lid. She folded back the tissue paper and inhaled sharply. It was a baseball bat - a Louisville Slugger with the Cincinnati Reds logo on it. And it wasn't new. This bat had been used to hit a baseball. Grace ran her fingers along it. She looked up at Bob. "It's amazing," she said.
"Turn it over," he said, his eyes moist. Grace rotated the bat and gasped in surprise and joy when she saw the signature inked on the bat in black marker - Pete Rose.
"It's not even new," said Angel.
"You are the most wonderful people," Grace began. She looked Jane in the eye, "All of you. I can't thank you enough for this."
"Oh, hush now," said Jane, clearing her throat. "Okay, kids, clear the table. I'm sure Nick and Grace have better things to do than hang around here."
Grace and Nick looked at each other and shook their heads. "Nope, can't think of any."
"I wouldn't mind a look at the book before you go," Bob said to Grace.
Nick helped Grace to a comfortable chair in the living room and she watched as the Carter family bustled around her, nagging, playing, swatting each other. Nick sat on the floor at her feet and leaned his head against her good leg. Grace couldn't remember ever being happier.
