Remy meowed, the sound sharp and scolding.
“You’re right,” I told him. “I hate it too.”
A knock at the door made all three of us jump. I paused, my heart stuttering.
Nobody ever knocked at this time.
I padded to the door and peeked out the side window.
Grandma.
I opened it and stepped aside. “Come in. I was busy wallowing in poor life choices.”
“Excellent,” she said, breezing in with a bakery box. “I brought emotional support pie.”
“Piper’s?”
“Of course, straight from her bakery. Chocolate chess pie, my favorite. Now tell me everything.”
I blinked. “Everything?”
She arched a brow. “Eliza Mae Darlington, I changed your diapers and taught you how to fake a fever to get out of school. You think you can keep secrets from me?”
I sighed. “Nate and I had lunch.”
“I know.”
“I told you, but I also told you not to tellanyone. I’m not used to anyone knowing about me,” I added in a whisper.
“I haven’t said a word about it. I know you like him a lot. I can tell,” she said, opening the box and handing me a fork. “I would never tell that kind of secret, not even to Joyce. Could you imagine that conversation?” She laughed. “Although she’ll figure it out soon enough. That girl has eyes like a hawk and a matchmaking soul.”
“I figured. She’s exactly like you.”
She sat beside me. “So, what’s the problem?”
I hesitated. “An ex. From before. He’s back. He’s opening a restaurant here.”
She went very still. “Thatex?Theex is Graham? He’s the dick?”
“The one and only. And Grandma, nobody knows about him and me—I mean nobody. It was a secret. Don’t say a word. It was bad?—”
“I won’t. I’ll keep your secrets, sweetheart.” She reached for her fork. “We’ll poison his coffee next time he comes in. A little laxatives never hurt anyone, and diarrhea will keep him busy for a couple of days. Keep him out of your hair while you bring Nate some cookies or something.”
I snorted. “We can’t poison his coffee. Oh my god.”
“Then we’ll add extra shots, get him good and wired so he’ll have to run the extra energy off.”
I let out a laugh that turned into a sigh. “I’m scared, Grandma. Of messing things up. Of not being enough. Of trusting the wrong person again.”
She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Eliza, sweetheart. You areplenty. And if someone can’t see that, it says more about them than it ever could about you.”
I didn’t answer. I just leaned my head on her shoulder and let her hold me.
For a few minutes, we sat there in silence, the pie growing cold on the table, the cats curled around our feet.
And in that quiet, I realized something. I needed to tell Nate the truth about Graham. Not because I owed him, but because I didn’t want to start something real or even something casual on a foundation of secrets. I wasn’t ready to get involved, not fully, but if there was ever a chance for this to go anywhere, he deserved to know.
Chapter 9
