Moose tugged hard against his leash. “Look,” Cash said, “I’m running really late. Moose should already be at the adoption event. I’ve got to go.”
The thought of Moose being paraded around at an adoption event for strangers to paw over him and decide if he was worthy of their home gave me the willies. I hated the idea of him going to another home anywhere. I didn’t want things to change.
The last few weeks had been perfect. Whether it was the late-night walks the three of us would take around the complex or cuddling on Cash’s couch with a movie playing and Moose’s enormous head lying on my foot, we’d become almost like… family.
“Does he have to go this week?” I reached out and ran my hand along Moose’s back as he continued with his fit of barking.
“Yeah, that’s part of the fostering deal.” Cash’s long strides took him to the end of the breezeway in just a few steps.
“We’ll talk later.” I called after him.
He paused for a moment without looking back at me, tension stiffening his back. He turned his head slightly to the side. “Sure. Later.”
And then he disappeared around the corner.
I stood there, gaping at the corner of the building as if staring at it long enough would bring him back.
Cash was gone. The barking had stopped. Was this what my life was like before Cash became a part of it? I was empty all the way down to my toes. Not even music could fill the void I felt. This time it was too deep. A woman needed more than music to live on.
Somehow my feet found their way back into my apartment, and I closed the door behind me. A fresh wave of tears pricked the corners of my eyes when I saw the pile of blankets on the floor—the ones I’d left there for Moose’s visits. What if today was the day someone adopted that big lug and I never saw him again?
A knock at the door had me drying my eyes with the hem of my shirt and bounding over to see who it was. It had to be Cash. Surely, he couldn’t take what was going on between us any more than I could. We’d have our chat—now, not later—with Moose lying at our feet, and all would be right with the world before lunchtime.
I took a second to steady my breath before turning the knob. With a huge smile tugging on my cheeks, I flung the door wide. “I knew you’d come back!” As soon as the words left my mouth, the smile fell away, my eyes drinking in the image of the snowy-haired woman standing in front of me.
“Of course, I was coming,” Grandmother said. “We both agreed that we needed to talk. I was in the neighborhood and supposed sooner was better than later.”
I stepped aside to let her in, not quite sure that I agreed. Sure, sooner was better than later when talking about things like ice cream, presents, or surprise checks in the mail. But this chat belonged firmly in the “better later” category, right in between root canals and colonoscopies.
“Please sit down, Willow,” she said behind me. “I have a lot to say, and I think it best that we get to the point.”
I did as she said, folding my hands in my lap, ready to take everything I had coming to me.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
“What happened last night was unacceptable.” Grandmother stood in the middle of my living room with her brows furrowed and her hands clasped behind her back.
I took a deep breath and settled into my seat, bracing myself for the lecture to follow—the lecture I completely deserved.
“The same old pattern of behavior reared its ugly head again,” she said. All I could do was nod my bowed head in agreement. She was right. I’d behaved shamefully and deserved every stern talking to in the world.
“And… and…” Her voice quivered. Great! As if lying and attempting to swindle my own grandmother hadn’t been enough to win the “worst granddaughter in the universe” award, just talking to me was enough to make her cry. I lifted my gaze to meet her eyes and winced at the tears I saw pooling there.
“Grandmother—” She raised a hand to silence me.
“And I’m sorry,” she said.
I almost fell off my futon. All I could do was stare up at her, blinking my eyes way too much.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated, “and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
After a few moments of stunned silence, I pulled myself together. “I am totally lost. I’m the one who concocted a pack of lies. I’m the one who ruined everything. Shouldn’tIbe the one apologizing?”
Grandmother sat next to me and placed a hand on my back. It might have been the first time in my life that she’d initiated physical contact with me, but it warmed my insides just the same. Then she asked a question. “What was the first thing I did when things started to go wrong last night?”
I shrugged. “It’s all kind of a blur, to be honest.”
“I pulled my checkbook out, that’s what.”
