Emma frowned and shook her head, “Why do you say that Gramps?”
“You know why. I wasn’t there for your mother and I was too stubborn to be here for you.”
“Gramps! Don’t be like that, you’ve been with me for the past twenty-two years of my life, you are here with me now, and that is all that matters, so how about we move from the past?”
“Twenty-two huh? You really are twenty-two now, my dear girl, I missed that and I also missed your graduation,” Maxwell shook his head and blinked moist green eyes.
“Gramps, come on, you got on a plane, damning your phobia, just to get here in time. It must have been horrible but you did it for me. You have nothing else to apologize for. I am so very sorry for disappointing you, Gramps.”
Maxwell smiled and he kissed the top of her head. When he sat back, he said, “Don’t apologize. You only made the decision to have kids a little earlier. My words hurt you right? I am sorry. my girl.”
“Enough with the apologies, Gramps, let’s talk about something else, all right? How’s the ranch? How are things over there?”
Maxwell Price stared at his granddaughter for a while, as if trying to make up his mind on what he wanted to say. Finally, he said, “Are you going to tell me what happened with the boy? The one who is supposed to be your babies’ father?”
Emma straightened up on the bed and her grandfather helped arrange the pillow behind her. Then she shrugged and said, “Turns out he really was a bum who didn’t care about my babies. He was with me because he somehow found out about the ranch and all we own. He hitched his wagon to me thinking of all he was going to get. I broke up with him a few months ago. And he was only too glad to be free of the burden when he found out that you disowned me. He knew that he was going to get nothing no more and he could not keep up the farce anymore.”
“Hmm... Maria sure is intuitive. He left the impression of being a gold digger on her and she could not stop worrying that something was amiss,” Maxwell observed.
“Sorry for making you both worry.” Emma patted her grandfather’s hand.
He nodded and then, “Maria also said something else, she said you were scared of this boy. Be honest with me, Emma, did he ever hurt you? Physically? Emotionally?”
Emma broke the gaze and nodded, unable to meet his eyes anymore, “He hurt me a lot Gramps. But please don’t do anything, all right? I just want to shut him out of my life completely and move on. He is no longer a part of my life and I really want it to remain so.”
Gramps sighed and he nodded. “Fine, for you, I'll do nothing but if this vagrant ever comes close to you or the twins, he will experience my wrath, I promise you this.”
Maxwell stood up and hugged her.
Emma was trying to get some sleep when the door to her private room opened. She looked and saw that it was Carrie. Carrie approached slowly and sat beside her.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Uh huh,” Emma replied, stifling a yawn. “I am trying to get some sleep though.”
“All right, go on and sleep. I'll be here.”
Emma quirked a blonde brow, “Do you know how creepy that sounds?”
“Oh really? But if it was a strapping young man who you were head over heels in love with, who said he would watch you sleep, it wouldn’t have been a problem, huh?” Carrie asked sarcastically.
Emma chuckled and she shook her head. “You are a crazy one, Carrie. Anyway, I doubt I'm having any love in my life for a pretty long time. I tried it and it did not work out. Right now, I just want to focus on my kids, Gramps, Maria and the family business. That is what my life is going to be all about from now on, family.”
“I know you’re going to be very happy with all that, dear, but you need love.”
“Come on, Carrie, the wound is still very fresh. Why don’t we have this conversation in a few years’ time, try to be more considerate, jeez.” Emma rolled her eyes.
Carrie crossed her arms and she scoffed, “Fine, we’ll have this conversation in a year, happy now?”
“I didn’t say a year, I said...” Emma started saying then she sighed and shook her head. She did not have the strength to argue with her friend and she could not just up and walk away. So she settled for saying, “Sure.” Sometimes, it was best to just go with it in that moment.
“So when are you returning to Texas?”
“Oh, I can’t leave immediately. I would like to wait for about a month before flying with the twins. And driving is out of the option because the ride will be just too long.”
“So, Gramps is going to stay for so long? How about the ranch? I thought he never liked leaving it in the care of others,” Carrie said thoughtfully.
“Yeah, we’ve talked about it. He actually does not mind staying but hey, we don’t have anyone that we can trust well enough to hand over the reins of the ranch, and that is something that I am bound to work on. We have got to have good workers that we can rely on and trust enough. There is going to be lots of retraining and overhauls and...”
