Shit.He was right.
My chest tightened as I remembered how weusedto talk every week.Before work got crazy.Before I’d started working longer hours.Before I’d started skipping calls with her because of late nights at the office.If I were being honest, my calls with Nana had been more like once a month for at least the past year, maybe even longer.
“Fine.But we still speak often enough for her to tell me she retired over six months ago, don’t we?”
“My granddad ran his restaurant until he physically couldn’t do it any longer.He never even said he was struggling.The man kept showing up, moving slower, pretending nothing changed, until he simply couldn’t go on.”Greg looked away and scratched Mr.Fluffy’s head.“So, I don’t know.Maybe Nana didn’t want to admit to you that she needed to step back.Maybe she didn’t want you to worry.”
Maybe Nana had wanted to protect me, but I wasn’t sure.I’d hoped this visit would help ease some of the guilt that had been eating at me from not visiting, but now?Now I knew a single weekend would never be enough to make up for any of it.
“Ready?”Greg tipped his chin toward the door, then frowned, looking down at himself.“I wish I’d dressed nicer.”He smoothed his clothes.“I didn’t imagine I’d be meeting Nana for the first time wearing jeans and my winter jacket.”
Laughing, I shook my head at his dismay.“No one told younotto wear a suit.You’re the one who said you didn’t want it to get wrinkled on the drive.”
He scowled, still brushing imaginary dust from his shirt, but didn’t argue.There wasn’t much he hated more than a wrinkled suit.
“Alright.”I inhaled deeply.“Let’s do this.”I raised my hand to knock, but the door swung open before my knuckles grazed the wood.
“Liam!” Nana’s surprised squeal and huge grin got me right in the heart.She threw her arms around me, and I was transported back to when I was ten years old and sneaking her famous shortbread cookies from the counter while they were still too hot to eat.The memory was so vivid, my tongue practically burned.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?Come in, come in.You are a sight for sore eyes.”She shuffled back, motioning us into the apartment.
“Oh, and you must be Greg.”Nana clapped her hands.“You look exactly as I imagined.Well, don’t just stand there.Come here and let me get a good look at you.”
She launched herself at Greg, wrapping him in a tight hug before cooing over Mr.Fluffy like he was the best thing since sliced bread.
“I can’t believe it took us this long to see each other face to face.”She directed the comment at Greg, but a pang of guilt shot through me anyway.She was right.Ithadbeen too long.
“You know Liam.”Greg chuckled before shooting her a conspiratorial wink.“All work and no play with that one.”
Nana cackled as though a man who worked his ass off to pay his debts was hilarious.Still, I took it with as much humility as I could muster.
It was no secret I put in twice as many hours as anyone else in the company.But I wanted to pay back every cent Nana had given me for school, so I would work as hard as I had to.And thanks to all the extra hours I’d worked, that day would arrive soon.
“Did you meet Maya on your way in?Isn’t she a lovely girl?”
Lovely girl was one way to describe her.Sexy honey badger with anger management issues would have been more accurate.
“We met,” I said, remembering the way she glared at me.Saying we met seemed inadequate for a life-altering event that felt so much more monumental than merely meeting someone.Laying my eyes on Maya Parker for the first time was arevelation.
I damn near swallowed my tongue when I flicked that light switch and got my first good look at her.With her wet hair tied in a knot on top of her head, skin-tight leggings displaying an exquisitely rounded ass, and a cropped t-shirt that readI like big books and I cannot lieflashing the slightest strip of bare skin, it was like she’d walked right out of the file in my head labelled “Liam’s ideal woman”.Casual.Sexy.Cute.Hilariously annoyed.
But the most fascinating thing of all?Maya looked at me as if I’d stolen candy from a kid and laughed.Like I’d shaved my undercarriage and decorated the bathtub with the clippings.Like I’d left a single square of paper on the roll in the only bathroom after a shared meal of fast-food tacos.And the angrier she’d gotten, the cuter she’d looked, and the funnier I’d found the whole situation.By the end of our conversation, I was nearly choking from holding in my laughter.
It was like watching a potentially rabid raccoon on a rampage.Destructive with a hint of danger, yet somehow adorable at the same time.
We just met.She couldn’t possibly hate me this much already, could she?All I’d done was call her Pipsqueak.And calling her Pipsqueak wasn’t that bad.Or maybe it was?She had threatened to kill me over it, after all.But even that was kind of sexy, which probably made me weird, but so be it.I couldn’t help that I found it cute when she said she would kill me in my sleep.
“Unfortunately, we met Maya under less-than-ideal circumstances.”Greg grimaced, no doubt remembering the fiasco that transpired when we were in the store.“Mr.Fluffy spooked the gigantic cat downstairs.He poked Maya full of holes when trying to escape to the top of the nearest bookcase.”He paused before addressing Nana.“Do you have a first-aid kit?We should make sure she gets those wounds cleaned and bandaged.”
“I’ll do it.”The words were out before I could stop them, the sudden desire to see Maya again hitting me like a punch to the gut.“Is there still a first-aid kit in the stockroom?”
Nana had barely finished nodding before I was flying out the door.After a quick stop at the workstation to grab the needed supplies, I stepped into the front of the store.
Maya stood behind the coffee counter, using the copper robot-looking contraption to make a drink for the bearded, scruffy-looking guy who sat at the counter in worn jeans and a mended flannel shirt.
The way Maya smiled at him made my stomach drop.
Who the hell wasthisguy?
