“I’m sorry, Nick.” And I was. My brain, my heart, and little Ellie were all at war. Even I was disgusted by my skittish mixed signals. I never expected someone to consume me like this. I wanted nothing more than to give into what I was feeling, to really let go with Nick. But I couldn't. My heart ached to be back in his arms, but my legs wanted to flee.
His face fell as he nodded. My stomach sank. I missed him already, but something was terrifying me enough to hold me back.
“Talk to you later, Ella-Jane.”
“Goodnight, Nick.”
I shut the door and fell back into it after it locked. We’d catapulted from complicated to impossible. And I had no one to blame but myself.
“YOU SURE YOUcan afford this?” My grandmother crinkled her nose at me as we pulled in front of Taylor’s Flooring. I’d offered to pay for a new kitchen floor for months, but the stubborn little thing kept fighting me. That seemed to be the story of my life these days when it came to women. The short and feisty ones didn’t give me an inch.
“Si, Abuela.I got it covered.” I gave her yet another exasperated nod.
“The floor in there now is fine. Silly to spend money.”
I dropped my forehead against the steering wheel before stepping out of the truck. The linoleum was older than I was. It curled at the corners so badly, each of us had almost tripped at least once. When my father passed away last year, she put her house up for sale and moved into my sister’s downstairs apartment. We expected to fight her tooth and nail to get her to move, but she was surprisingly agreeable. I suspected she felt the same way we did, that there wasn’t a corner of that house we could look in and not see Dad. It was the place we grew up in after my mother died and it held a lot of nice memories. Since Dad died, none of us could see past the painful ones.
“You didn’t have to park so close. I can walk, you know. I’m not some helpless little old lady.” She pursed her lips as she marched to the storefront.
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me that.” I chuckled as I held the door open for her to step inside.
“Nick!” Evan rose from his desk and made his way over to us. He shook my hand and turned to greet my grandmother. “Hello, Mrs. Garcia.” He kissed her on the cheek and squeezed her hand. “You look beautiful, as usual.”
She shooed her hand at Evan as she nudged his shoulder. “You’re full of it, but I’ll take it.” She fell into the seat in front of Evan’s desk. “So, my grandson thinks I need a new floor and said we should come here. What can I get that’s cheap?”
“Abuela,”I groaned. “You don’t have to go cheap. I told you, I can afford it. I got promoted to lieutenant a couple of months ago. I have it; just pick what you want.”
She raised her eyebrows at Evan. “¿Ahora eres jefe?Excuseme.”
Evan cracked up as I rolled my eyes.
“Yes, I’m a big shot now, so pick out the floor you want. Please,” I begged.Buying my grandmother a gift shouldn’t be so damn difficult.
“Take a look at these.” Evan laid down some tile samples on his desk. “I asked Nick what you might like, and he said black and white—”
She sucked in a breath as she picked up the first sample. “Just like my old kitchen. In the old house.” The checkered ceramic square shook in her hand as she turned to me. I nodded back in agreement. It looked exactly like the kitchen floor in our old house. “This is exactly it.” Her eyes watered as she studied it from all sides.
“Then, that’s what you’ll get if it’s what you want.” I dropped my hand to her shoulder and squeezed. Her bottom lip quivered as she offered me a teary smile.
She reached up and squeezed my hand. “Gracias, Papito.”
My grandmother raised us while Dad spent his days at the firehouse. She deserved the best of everything, no matter how she fought me when I tried to give it to her.
“Shouldn’t take more than a couple of days to put in. Nick gave me the measurements already, so we’ll be in and out in no time.” Evan winked at us.
“Sorry, I’m late! I dropped Jack off at my mom’s so he wouldn’t get in the way.” Ellie breezed in and plopped her bag on the empty desk in the corner. As usual, she entered a room, and I was reduced to a love-sick puppy—every damn time. I leaned back on Evan’s desk with my arms folded, unable to take my eyes off her. She brushed the hair off her forehead and let out a deep sigh before she finally noticed me standing there. She had no clue how gorgeous she was or how she affected me. I laughed to myself as I took in her shocked expression.
“Ellie, you could have brought him.”
“No, Evan. If I’m going to get these invoices done, I need a good hour of no interruptions.” Her eyes darted back and forth from mine before she hesitantly made her way over to me. “Hey, Nick. What are you doing here?” Her brows pulled together as she looked between Abuela and me.
“I brought my grandmother to pick out a new kitchen floor. Abuela, this is Ellie. Ellie, this is my grandmother.”
Ellie took my grandmother’s hand in both of hers. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Garcia.”
“Likewise.” She gave Ellie a warm smile before turning to raise her eyebrows at me.
“I . . . didn’t know you worked here, too,” I stammered. I was as rattled as she was.
