“And she got a house and a successful business out of it,” Ashanti said. “Some women get nothing but heartache.”
“She held it together well, because I never would have suspected that there was anything but love between them. They weren’t the most affectionate couple, but who wants to see their grandparents being overly affectionate? But there was love there, you know? I never once thought that they didn’t love each other.”
“Maybe shedidlove him. Love is complicated.” She lifted both shoulders in a shrug. “Again, that couldn’t be me. But I’m sure your grandmother had her reasons for tolerating his behavior for all those years. What about your mother?” Ashanti asked. “Mrs. Frances talked about her before. She’s in California, right?”
“Henderson, Nevada,” Thad said. “She moved a few months ago.”
“Do you think she knew about it?”
“I doubt it,” Thad said. “Unlike my grandmother, I’m pretty sure my mom would have told me and Nadia. She never held anything back about my dad’s cheating and I just can’t see her doing it for Gramps. She would have been straight with us.”
They reached the end of the park’s walkway. Thad hunched down and rubbed Puddin’s head.
“The big question is what to do about all our new Alabama cousins. Nadia isn’t ready to talk about it. She regrets ever starting that genealogy project.”
“Doyouregret it?”
He waited several beats before he finally answered.
“I don’t know. Ignorance is bliss, but being ignorant about something isn’t always for the best. My mind always goes to the most practical issues, like what if one of my nieces needed a kidney or something. It’s good to know we have family out there that could possibly help, right?”
“Um, I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
“It’s selfish,” Thad said with a gruff laugh. “But I’m trying to find the positives in this. Maybe I just need more time to process it.”
Ashanti stooped next to him and ran her fingers along his jaw. “One positive is that it wasn’t the devastating blow to your grandmother that you thought it would be. This could have been so much worse.”
He smiled. “You do have a knack for always finding the bright side of a situation. I love that about you.” His expression sobered as his focus settled on her. He cupped her jaw. “I don’t want to scare you, Ashanti, but there are a lot of things that I love about you. Like, enough to fill the Superdome.”
“It doesn’t scare me,” she said as she leaned over, capturing his lips in a slow, sweet kiss that she wished could last all day.
But it couldn’t. Because she had forty-eight hours of work to fit into the next ten hours.
They spent the return journey discussing the additional candidates Ashanti had spent her morning reviewing. She stillexperienced a pinch of anxiety in her chest when she thought about accepting that huge order, but decided if she called it nervous excitement instead anxiety it would make it easier to cope.
“I need to get back home,” she said once they reached their cars. She looked over at Thad and asked, “Do you want to come over?”
His brows arched. “Are your sisters there?”
“Yes. Are you up to meeting them? Officially?”
He pulled in a deep breath, glanced at the bridge, and then back at her. “Does meeting your sisters mean what I think it means?”
Ashanti nodded. “It does.”
There was no mistaking it now, what flowed through her veins was pure anxiety. They both knew the significance of her offer. She’d told him before that she would not introduce him to the girls if she wasn’t ready to go all in.
She was inviting him into her life. Fully. Completely. No turning back.
“Are you okay with that?” Ashanti asked.
The lion’s share of her anxiety melted away at his smile.
“I am exceedingly okay with that,” Thad said. He stepped up to her and wrapped his arms around her. “I am so,sookay with that.”
Ashanti looked up at him. “I have to warn you, they can be a bit much. You’ve kinda met Kara already, and I’m sure she made an impression in just those few minutes.”
“She is the reason I will never even think of leaving Puddin’ in my truck unattended.”
