“Yeah, we don’t want to keep that firecracker waiting too long. She will curse us both out.”

“Uh, more like all of us. Keiran is coming.”

She lifted an eyebrow curiously. “Oh, wow. Grandma Lane will eat him alive. I can’t wait!” She rushed out of the room and moments later I heard the shower turn on.

I looked over at Pepé, who was in the corner curled up on his pillow sleeping. I hoped the little guy slept through whatever occurred in this room. I remembered the depth of her screams when I walked in on them weeks ago. Poor guy was probably traumatized.

I left the room and headed back downstairs where I heard two male voices speaking low. I cleared the living room doorway where they were sitting and their talking immediately stopped as they looked at him.

I shot Dash a withering glance before plopping down on the recliner. I felt their stares on me but they remained quiet.

“Are you two done man-bashing already?” Dash joked. I snorted and pulled out my phone to text my aunt rather than answer him.

However when he stood up and headed for the stairs my attention diverted back to him. “Where are you going?” I questioned, hostility dripping from my voice.

“Bro, get your woman out of my business,” he laughed. I ignored his insinuation that Keiran could control me even though we both knew he did.

“Leave her alone.”

“I’ll never leave her alone. You of all people should know that.” His eyes flicked to Keiran and back to me, suggestively.

“She doesn’t want you, Dash.”

“And yet she hasn’t told me no,” he grinned and I hated his cocky attitude.

“You could be the man you claim to be and give her what she wants.”

His entire demeanor changed in a flash. I watched his eyes harden and his jaw clenched leaving behind traces of the easy-going guy.  “I’m not interested in what she think she wants. But I do know what she needs and I’ll be the one to give it to her. The rest doesn’t matter.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

“I still don’t understand why you needed to come,” Willow griped from the backseat. Willow and I were finally on the road, heading to Red Rock plus two.

“Because it upsets you so much. You know…we were friends for a short time but when did you get so bitchy?”

“Right around the time your dick started showing…and I don’t mean the one between your legs.”

“Ssss, ouch. You burn me, baby. You burn me.”

If they kept up the bickering then I was in for a long ride. Keiran had yet to say a word to me since we left my house. I could tell he was pissed but I didn’t know what for and told myself I didn’t care. I peeked at him in the driver’s seat but his face was unreadable.

It was at least an hour and a half drive ahead of me with a bickering couple and a brooding lover for company. I pulled out my iPod and played the first song in the cue.

My favorite song, The Sweetest Thing, flowed through the tiny buds of my headphones. Nice.

* * *

We pulled onto the flowery estate of Whispering Pines an hour later and only then did I remove my ear buds. Sometimes I begrudged my grandmother the peaceful hideaway, although I could do without the smell of Ben-gay and antiseptic.

On these visits, I made sure to keep my appearance as close to the pictures my grandmother had in her room as possible. I was really young when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s so she still associated me with the image of the younger me. During each visit I brought her a new picture of me to make it easier. She also kept pictures of Willow since she often came with me.

“I need you two to stay away for a moment. She doesn’t know you so I don’t want to alarm her. She likes to take walks so I’ll bring her out so she can feel more comfortable out in the open.”

“Sure thing. I can’t wait to meet you in sixty years. I bet she’s hotter,” Dash grinned.

“You can’t seriously be considering flirting with a seventy-year old woman?” Willow’s voice dripped with disgust and a hint of jealousy.

“That depends on if you are seriously going to be jealous of a seventy-year old woman,” he countered.

And the bickering begins again.

I looked at Keiran who nodded his head once and headed over to a chess table currently occupied by an elderly man with a thick mane of snow-white hair.

I grabbed Willow and pulled her to the entrance to avoid another nauseating session of foreplay with words.

“Ugh, he just bothers me so much,” Willow groaned while I signed into the front desk before making my way to grandmother’s room.

“He doesn’t bother you, Willow. He affects you.”

“The difference O’ wise One?”

“His effect on you is only possible because of your feelings for him.” I pushed open the door while she sputtered and huffed. My grandmother was sitting by the window gazing out onto the front lawn and I wondered if she saw when I arrived or more importantly, who I arrived with.

“Who are those strapping young men, you two gals rode in with?” she asked without turning her attention away from the window. I had no doubt of who had her so transfixed.

“Strapping? Gals? Grandma Lane you get older every time we see you,” Willow jokingly stated.

            “Ha! I made be old but I still got it and don’t you forget it. If I was just a few years younger…” She ran a hand through her hair suggestively and I couldn’t hold in the bouts of laughter any longer. I didn’t get two steps inside but she already managed to make me smile and laugh all in one.

“Just a few, huh?”

“You girls come in here and let me look at you.” She turned away from the window to face us, finally and gave us a stern look.

We moved forward to the bay window where she was seated and each hugged her before taking a seat. “So why are they out there in the cold and not in here with you?”

“I didn’t want to alarm you because –”

“Yes, it would be most displeasing not to remember such fine, looking men. I’d never thought I’d see the day when you two would give in and get a man. I thought…spinsters for sure.”

“Is that so,” I laughed deeply.

“I’ll have you know –”

“Willow, Pepé does not count as a male friend. Though handsome, I meant someone of your own species.” She gave her an admonishing look that shut Willow down.

“Yes, ma’am.” She hung her head low and I tried not to laugh at her expense. Willow and Grandma Lane together was a trial.

“Now. Tell me all your news and make it quick. I want to meet those two.”

We spent the next twenty minutes or so catching her up on school and college plans. You know…the safe topics that people always stick too when dealing with a relative.

After catching up, Willow excused herself to get Keiran and Dash from outside leaving me alone with my grandmother for a few moments.

“So how is my daughter?”

“Good. She should be returning from her book tour on Monday and plans to come visit you by the end of the week.”

“Good, good. I need to get ahold of that wayward child of mine. Leaving a seventeen year old alone for so long.”

“I’m fine. Aunt Carissa trusts me.”

“Yeah well she shouldn’t. You’re a fine young woman, Lake. You are incredibly beautiful and smart. I may not remember much these days but I do remember what it was like to be seventeen and so should she.”

She looked at me knowingly with a mix of disapproval and empathy and I wondered just how much I was giving away.

“I can see it in your eyes, dear. When you walked in here you weren’t the same Lake. I assume it’s because of him?” She nodded toward the guys who were still sitting at the chess table engrossed in a game with the elderly man.

“Who?”

She shot me an impatient look for playing dumb. “Mr. Tall, Dark, and Brooding.”

“Yes, but not in the way you think.”

“And what way is that?”