Colleen didn’t take her eyes off me. “I see. And you offered Penny a room in your house?”
“Yes, ma’am. She needed a place to stay, and I had an extra room.”
“Wasn’t that nice of you?” Her eyes narrowed, her voice and expression edging on suspicious.
“It was so nice,” Pen said, either dismissing or ignoring the tone in her grandmother’s question. “I don’t know what I would have done without him. I would have found a place to live eventually, but this worked out great. Theo’s moving to South Carolina, but we’ve already talked about it, and I can rent his house when he’s gone. I won’t even have to move again.”
Keeping her eyes on me, Colleen crossed her arms. I held her gaze, my expression neutral. I didn’t want her to get the wrong impression—thinking I was out to take advantage of her granddaughter—but I wasn’t going to let her intimidate me, either.
“South Carolina?” she asked. “When?”
“Next summer.”
“Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
“Are you currently in a relationship?”
“No.”
“How well do you know my granddaughter?”
Penelope tried to interrupt her rapid-fire questions. “Grandma, please.”
I answered anyway. “We met at the beginning of last school year when she transferred to the high school. We’ve been friends ever since.”
“Just friends?”
Keeping my eyes locked with Colleen’s, I leaned forward. “She’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had. So if the interrogation is to figure out whether I’m a danger to her, the answer is no. She’s safe with me.”
And she was. Sure, we’d given in to temptation and slept together. But that didn’t mean I was out to use Penelope. I cared about her. And I took our friendship seriously.
Colleen nodded slowly as she processed my answers. “Good. I’m glad to hear it.”
Something, or maybe someone, else seemed to catch Colleen’s eye.
She sat up straighter in her wheelchair and her lip curled in a sneer.
Maury Haven wheeled himself to a table nearby. He was in his eighties—at least—and was my great-uncle on my dad’s side.
He glared back, wrinkling his prominent nose as if he’d smelled something unpleasant.
“Maury,” Colleen said, her tone icy.
“Colleen,” he snapped back.
Penelope met my eyes and shrugged.
Maury pointed a remote at one of the TVs and changed it to a local news channel. The subtitles popped up, but he cranked up the volume anyway.
“Do you mind?” Colleen asked.
“Sorry,” Maury said, pressing the volume again. “Let me turn it up for you.”
It looked like Colleen was about to protest, but Penelope stopped her with a hand on her arm and pointed at the screen.
“Look!”
