“Which is why,” my grandmother said, shaking away the cobwebs of memory that had settled over her for a moment, “I want you to do what you want with your life—regardless of what your grandfather or your mother think.”
“Grandma…” I trailed off. “That kiss was a mistake.”
Her silver brows rose. “Was it? It didn’t look or sound that way to me.”
My face flushed.
Grandma put her hands over mine and gave them a firm squeeze. “Look, I just want you to be open to things like that, sweetheart. Keep your heart open, if not for that hunk of an alpha and his team for someone else that will come along to take care of you.”
“What if I don’t need to be taken care of?” I asked stubbornly.
Grandma just grinned. “Lennon, we all need someone to lean on. No matter how strong we are. There’s a reason your mother is relying on you so heavily this time around, she’s missing the person she’d normally lean on during times like this.”
“Now,” she said, getting up with a little groan. “It is time for this old woman to get ready for bed,” she said as she gentlycupped my face in her hands and I inhaled her minty scent that was almost as familiar as my own.
“Keep your heart open, you never know who might want to come in.”
Then she was gone, leaving me on my own in the kitchen with just my thoughts and a plate full of rib bones.
Chapter Fifteen
The forest around Camp David was thick and lush as I climbed through the underbrush in an effort to clear my head.
Back at the lodge was too busy, too full of people enjoying their long weekend with asinine games of croquet and corn hole.
Hell, even Brooks, Zeke, and Maverick had gotten drawn into the laziness of it and were playing a game of cards back at the little cabin they’d given us to share when we had been taken off duty for the weekend.
But I didn’t want to be off duty.
The last place I wanted to be was off duty and alone with my own thoughts.
Ever since the night of the accident things had shifted amongst our little group and it was like we were all playing a game of chicken to see who would mention it first.
No one talked about the argument we had gotten into, no one talked about the lines that had been drawn between me and Brooks and Zeke and Maverick, and no one sure as hell talked about Maverickpurringfor Lennon in the SUV and soothing her panic attack.
No one talked about it but I sure as hell hadn’t stopped thinking about it.
I also hadn’t stopped thinking about the way she had looked coming out of the bathroom covered in her brother’s vomit with the same look in her eyes that I used to wear when I took care of my and Brook’s mother after she went on a bender.
And that pissed me off.
Of all fucking people Lennon Holloway shouldn’t have to deal with shit like that. She should have been insulated from all of the shitty parts of the world thanks to her family and they couldn’t even do that for her.
In fact, instead of protecting her it just seemed like they expected her to shoulder the load for her brother and everyone else in the family.
I’d watched it happen right in front of my eyes two days ago when they had convinced her to take on hosting an entire damned delegation dinner by herself, and while I didn’t know what exactly went into running one of those things, I knew it couldn’t have been easy.
“Bullshit,” I muttered to myself as I stomped through the forest, my apparent walk turning into a march as the greenery grew thicker.
“And what, might I ask, is bullshit, young man?” A familiar voice stopped me dead in my tracks as I nearly slipped on the leafy undergrowth.
I whirled around to find Farrow Holloway perched on a log with a rolled cigarette in between his fingers.
The scent of it reached my nose and I reeled back in surprise.
“Are you smokingweed?” I asked incredulously before tacking a respectful but hurried, “sir,” on the end.
Farrow tapped the soot off of the end of what I now recognized as a joint and grinned. “If I say yes are you going to snitch on me?”
