Brightening up, Grandma Nance asks, “Are you bringing her to Sofia Sol’s wedding?”
“Oh, wow, that’s next weekend, isn’t it?” Checking for traffic in the right lane before merging, I tap my tongue on the back of my teeth. “I was hoping to take things slow. I think she needs it. Our beginning was a little rocky.”
Making a tell-me-about-it sound, Grandma says, “Nothing was more rocky than the start your grandfather and I had, and look at how we turned out!”
This is news to me. “What d’ya mean, I thought you guys lived the fairy tale?”
“Fairy tales take work, Nicholas. Just ask her to come. She’ll say yes.”
“It’s moving kind of fast. We haven’t even had our second date yet.”
“But just think, if you stay together you will regret not having had her there. With those bikers and our family all together for the first time? Your grandfather has been biting his nails, just between you and I. Don’t tell him I told you that. I, however think it’s going to be fun! Tell her we’re not scary.”
“Yeah, right. To you, maybe.”
“Is this girl fragile?”
I frown, the memory of her just now, and of her before, so different. “No, but something happened to her.” I turn the wheel into a parking space right in front of my building. Need to shower, myself. I am ripe. Cryptically I add, “And if it happened to any woman, they wouldn’t want to be dancing around, meeting a family as big as ours.”
After a pause, Grandma’s voice is quieter. “Nicholas, did someone…” She stops, doesn’t want to say the word.
“She fought him off, he didn’t get far. But he ruined her name in the circles that would hire her, said it was her who came onto him.”
A gasp comes through the phone. “Oh my gosh! And she’s a nanny? The wives would surely blacklist her for good!”
Angry all over again, my temper shows in my tense voice. “Exactly. He lied, Grandma. I guarantee she didn’t do anything. If you knew her—”
“I don’t have to know her! I know you, Nicholas Cocker, and if you believe she is telling the truth, then of course she is!”
“Wow, Grandma. Never heard you so fired up.”
Huffing, I hear her slam a hand on something, probably her kitchen counter. “Well I am tired of people like him! It’s not just men, either. Women can do some shady business when they want something that wasn’t meant for them. I’m sick of it. When you get as old as I am, believe me, tolerating bullshit is no longer attractive.”
Impressed, I jump out of the car. “I’m right there with you.”
“That’s why you called?”
Strolling through the courtyard, I nod to one of my neighbors who’s outside watering her plants. “Yes, I was hoping you knew who he was. Madison’s at home napping—she’s really drained and I didn’t want to drag her down into it. You haven’t heard anything in the rumor mill?”
“I’m also too old for gossip. The ladies at the club know better than to whisper in these ears. But I’ll poke around. They’ll be happy to spill the beans if I show even a hint of curiosity. I’ll call you if I find anything, Nicholas.”
“Thank you,” I exhale, throwing my keys on the sofa. “I thought about calling Mom, or any of my aunts who go with you to those club events, but why not start at the top.”
She chides me as I head for my bedroom to pick out some clothes for tonight, “Don’t butter me up. You’re not off the hook. I’ll expect you at lunch with Ethan and Charlie soon. But not until after the wedding. I have too much to do before then. I’m going to root around the gossip tree now. I’ll call you either way with what I find out. Lunch though, you promise?”
“I promise. And hey, I’ll even do you one better.”
“Oh?”
“I’ll ask Maddie if she wants to be my date for the wedding.” On a smile I add, “I think you’ll like her. She’s different.”
“Then I’ll love her. Different is always better, that’s what I always told my boys. We have enough same in the world. ”
CHAPTER 31
M ADISON
P adding out I hear Denise’s favorite show streaming from her iPad. “You still here, D?”
“Where else do I have to be?” she calls back.
Smiling I walk over to the living room, see her on my sofa with Bucky beside her. “You two look comfy.”
She surveys me. “Your eyes are clearer. Get some good sleep?”
“Yes. I set the alarm but I can’t believe I actually slept all the way until it went off.” Petting my dog I smile into his sweet face. “Guess I needed it.”
With her curiosity unable to be contained a moment longer, she asks, “So what happened with you and Nicholas?”
I hold her excited look for a beat before answering, “He wants to date me—I think just me.”
Her eyebrows rise as she squishes her lips with appreciation. “He stepped up, huh? Interesting.” On a shrug she admits, “I knew he would.”
On a laugh-snort, I argue, “Yeah, right!”
“I knew it all along. He just needed a second to get his act together.”
“Uh huh.”
“That’s why I told him you were a wreck and needed him, when I ran into him at Piedmont.”
“Yeah, sure you did.”
She shrugs, stifling a smile, watching me climb onto the couch, snuggling up to Bucky, the three of us taking up every inch of space now. “Well?”
“Well what?”
Closing her iPad she cries out, “Tell me everything he said! Duh!”
I grin, and while I absently scratch behind Bucky’s ears, the story unfolds, all details included.
She shares with me what happened at the park, too, interjecting pertinent moments here and there.
And when she tells me that he implied he’d be sticking around for a while with his You might have company exit-line, I cast a smile to Bucky’s sleeping face.
“It’s all because of you, boy,” I whisper.
“I think it was before that, Maddie.
