“I’m sorry to hear all that—”
“Not… Not your fault,” he slurred, sending me a tired smile. “Sorry, it’s been a… difficult night. If I could just ask a favor… I need your help. I left my phone behind. Would you mind driving me to a hotel?”
“I can call you an U—”
“Nonsense!” Gran spoke up suddenly. I looked toward her and saw her sending me a look that told me not to dare argue with her. “It’s late, and he needs help. He needs a place to stay and we have one. There’s a spare bed down in the basement. He can sleep on that.”
“But Gran—”
“You’ve never been the kind of person to turn down someone who needs your help before,” Gran stated firmly. “Don’t you start now. Help him down to that basement.”
She turned on her heel to head back inside, and I heaved a heavy sigh as I stared at her retreating figure.
I hated to admit it, but she was right.
He needed help, and I was too tired to drive him to a hotel.
But then again, maybe letting a strange man stay in the basement when my gran, niece, and nephew were staying just two flights of stairs above wasn’t the brightest idea.
“We have guns,” I murmured. “This will be for one night, just until you’re reunited with…?”
“Nigel. Don’t worry, he’s probably already scouring the city looking for me. By morning, he’ll be here. Thank you, Quinn.”
∞∞∞
Gran beamed at me, her frail hands wrapped around a steaming cup as she watched me shuffle into the kitchen and squint up at the clock.
“Morning, Gran. Been to the market already?”
Lifting a wrinkled cheek for me to kiss as I passed by, she pointed to the kitchen door. “Waiting for the little ones. Jamal wants to join me this morning.”
I headed straight for the carafe, inhaling the aromatic blend. After last night’s activities, and with only a few hours of sleep, my body still felt sluggish. I poured the fresh liquid into a cup and pulled the sugar from the cupboard. After adding two cubes and a splash of milk, I joined Gran at the table. “It’ll do him good to get out. He spends too much time on those games.” Plus, if the kids were at the market, they wouldn’t bother Jasper.
“So, how did it go last night?” Gran asked.
I forced a smile. “It went great. Everyone loved the food! The entire evening was a success—”
“You know, I wasn’t asking about the gala.” She sent me a look. “Of course, that was a success. I told you it would be, and I’m always right about everything.” Maybe Amanda had been hanging around gran too much. Or vice versa. “I’m talking about Jasper. How is he?”
“He’s fine,” I whispered. “I guess he wasn’t lying about having an illness either… Getting him down to the basement was a bit of a struggle. I feel bad for him.”
It took us nearly twenty minutes to get him settled in the basement. He couldn’t walk without me supporting most of his weight, and he could barely take more than one step without wincing in pain. By step number ten, he was breathing so hard that I thought he was having an asthma attack. Despite all that, the man refused to admit that he was in pain.
I wasn’t happy about this whole situation. A strange man—A veryrichandprestigiousstrange man—staying down in my basement was the last thing I needed to have to deal with even though I empathized. Whatever his illness was, living with it couldn’t be easy.
Gran’s cocoa skin crumpled, and she sighed softly as she put her coffee cup down on the table. “Bless his heart. I pray the good Lord covers him with his grace. You did the right thing, Qwinny. Lord knows what trouble he would have gotten himself into without you there to help him.”
Ididn’t do anything. It was Gran’s idea to let him stay here. If it was left up to me, he’d be staying at that hotel like he suggested.
I lifted my cup to my lips, closing my eyes as the bittersweet liquid made a heated path down my throat. My other hand tugged on one of my locs as I gave a half-hearted shrug. “His caregiver should be here soon to get him.”
Before Gran could respond, the kitchen door burst open, a blur of movement rushing across the floor. “Tia Qwinny!” the little girl was shouting before I even had the time to say anything. “Can I have pancakes for breakfast?”
I grinned down at Janiyah, shaking my head as she looked at me with her best set of puppy dog eyes. “Good morning to you, too. I’ve got to get to work, but Gran will make you breakfast.”
The little girl cheered, her braids bouncing around her shoulders as she skipped over to Gran. I turned to Jamal, who’d slunk in quietly and taken a seat. “Hey, JJ. Pancakes sound good for breakfast?”
He nodded, his eyes glued to the dining table. “Sure.”
