“Didn’t Duke’s parents buy him a car?”
Birdie rolled her eyes. “A car way too expensive for any kid to be driving. Yes.” A soft look came over her face. “But our Dukie never cared much about that kind of thing. He had a lot of good memories with Bart in that truck. A lot of good talks in there over the years. Bart sold it to him when Duke was in high school.”
I could only nod, putting a few of Duke’s puzzle pieces into place at her words.
“Tell me about your family.”
It was almost like I had expected this question from her, a natural progression of our conversation. Birdie seemed different here, without Bart, who was so insistent on taking care of her. Though one of her eyes was especially cloudy, a sweet wisdom showed on her face. She would have sensed me holding back my answers, so I didn’t. “It was just my mom and two sisters. I’m the oldest.”
She nodded. “And you live in Salt Lake?”
“Yeah, in an apartment downtown.”
“And what about your dad?”
“According to my mom, he was around a bit for my first year of life, until he turned eighteen, then he left.” My mom had kept a blurry photo of him and her from high school for me, but that was all he’d been to me. A blurry picture.
She gasped lightly, indignant of my past. I smiled, if only to reassure her that it wasn’t a big deal. I had never known the man, so how could I miss someone I never had? I glanced down at the photo album and swallowed.
“Do you have any memories of him?”
Why did I suddenly feel like crying? It wasn’t like I ever thought of him. “No. I don’t remember him at all, but I knew my grandma, and she used to tell me a few stories.”
“I don’t understand how people can leave their children like that.”
I could. That was more real to me than the photos I saw of Duke’s childhood. Those pictures looked like something out of a children’s magazine I’d find in a doctor's office—full of sunshine and happiness.
“Well, Nora with an N…” Birdie smiled, her voice cracking in the most pleasant way. “What are your intentions with our Duke?”
She sensed my deer-in-the-headlights reaction and added, “He’ll never tell us, so I thought I might get a few answers from you.” Her crooked fingers pressed lightly on my arm. “Woman to woman.”
I breathed out an awkward laugh, my fingers twisting together underneath the table. “He’s my boss, so…”
“Wrong answer. That man drools over you.”
I drew my hands up to my cheeks to cover the flush. Her chuckle was deep and rich and warmed my soul.
“How did you two meet? In the office?”
Duke was going to kill me, but I wasn’t about to lie to his grandmother. “We actually met a few years earlier at a basketball game.”
Her eyes widened with excitement. “Wait. Are you the girl from the kiss cam?!”
An embarrassed smile lit my face as I ducked my head, surprised Duke would have told his grandparents. “Yes.”
She stared at me in slight disbelief. “His friends teased him a great deal about you, you know that?”
My cheeks warmed at her confession, and I immediately tried to push past the feeling. “It was quite the night.”
“So I heard.” She nodded, a shine in her eyes. “So what are your intentions?”
My heart dropped. I had hoped we’d moved on from the awful question.
“He’s my boss. We’re just friends.”
Birdie shook her head. “Sweetie, I may be almost blind, but you are not just friends.”
My foot began to twitch uncontrollably at her knowing stare. “The thing is, I don’t usually date.”
