“Don’t be. I love Papa and Granny Quinn. If I had been lucky enough to be a grandmother, I would have wanted to be like yours.” Oh sweet mercy, had she said that out loud? What was wrong with her? Maybe Mo wouldn’t catch the implications. No. He was frowning. She was doomed.
“Given up on being a grandmother, have you?” The question was far too casual for her to believe he was as disinterested as he sounded.
She took several sips of coffee to give herself time to answer.
His response was to raise his eyebrows and hold eye contact until she broke.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve given up on it, but I have to become a mother before I get to be the cool granny. And I’m not getting any younger. I have to find a man, date him, fall in love with him, and have him fall in love with me, get engaged, get married, and then get pregnant. And realistically, I need to do all those things in the next five years. So, again, I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but the odds aren’t in my favor.”
Mo muttered something under his breath. It sounded almost like “screw the odds,” but she wasn’t sure. Out loud, he said, “Been on any dates recently?”
Again, his delivery was so close to casual that she almost believed he didn’t care about her answer. Maybe if she’d met him in college and they’d gone their separate ways, it would be different. But they’d grown up together. She knew his tells. Why did he care so much about her answer? Because, she knew, he did care.
It didn’t matter. The answer was simple. “Nope.”
“You’ve been asked out though. That guy asked you out yesterday. Or was it the day before? Whenever. The one on the walking path. Bob.”
“I’m asked out a lot by people who know nothing about me and are interested in me for what they perceive are my connections, which is laughable because I don’t have the connections they think I do. Or they’re interested in my looks, which is flattering but shallow. It’s not that I don’t care about my appearance or put effort into it.” She paused and ran a hand through her hair, belatedly realizing she was giving off scarecrow vibes at the moment. “Well, normally I do.”
Mo nodded. “Of course. But, please, continue.”
“But appearance is fleeting and mostly out of our control. We can have proper hygiene, stylish haircuts, trendy clothing, and make the most of what the good Lord gave us, but that isn’t much of a reflection of who we are. In my case, I have an image tomaintain, and I guess you could argue my efforts in maintaining my image is indicative of who I am as a person, but it’s still only a tiny fragment of who I am.”
Mo nodded in apparent agreement.
“So when someone who doesn’t know anything about me expresses their burning need to get to know me, I generally assume that it’s based only on outward things. And it’s okay if that’s the starting point, I guess. But I don’t have the time or energy for casual flings with people who are more interested in the exterior. Not that my interior isn’t banged up. But that’s what makes me who I am. That’s the part that’s truly interesting. That’s the part that I want someone to see and know.”
She hadn’t meant to say all of that.
Mo pinched his lips together before smiling at her with the radiance of an entire galaxy. He let out a deep, contented sigh. “I have missed you, Bronwyn. Truly missed talking to you.”
“I would think after that monologue you’d be regretting it.”
“Not a chance.” He winked at her. “Come on, then. Let’s get ready. Aunt Carol says you have to drive.”
Bronwyn frowned at that. “Why? I mean, that’s fine, but I thought you were given the all clear.”
“I was. She’s being overprotective.”
“Ah. Makes sense. That’s where Cal gets it.”
“Right?”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t been over.”
“Oh, he has been. Meredith chased him off earlier. I had four text messages when I woke up. Check your phone. You probably do too.”
Bronwyn went to Meredith’s room to grab her bag and her phone.
And when she checked the latter, she wished she hadn’t.
Twenty-Eight
Mo was having about as much fun as possible for a man with a headache threatening to take him to his knees.
Talking to Bronwyn almost made him forget that he hurt from head to toe.
He’d expected her to look at her phone and roll her eyes in amusement at the texts he knew Cal had sent her.
