“I’d love to—”
“But we aren’t staying over, Gran. Can I just borrow your truck and drop Millie off? Mine will be ready tomorrow afternoon.”
Gran scoffed. “Drop Millie off two hours away? That’s a four hour round trip. No way. She can sleep in the guest house.”
I squirmed. “Are you sure?” Did Uber come out here? Maybe I should try to call up a ride.
Gran waved her wrinkled hand. “Positive.”
“I think Millie would be more comfortable at her own apartment,” Ashton growled.
“Ashton Knight!” his aunt hissed. “Ever since Jenna passed you’ve had a thorn in your backside. Where are your manners?”
The entire table went quiet and his aunt seemed to have realized what she said, because she slumped over, head down.
Jenna.
He’d lost a woman named Jenna.
“I’m going to feed the chickens.” Ashton put down the stack of plates and stormed outside.
His cousins Jackson and Richie went into the kitchen to start on dishes while I played with the hem of my dress.
“I’ll call a cab. I don’t want to be where I’m not wanted,” I told the three women left at the table. Trudy, his aunt Maggie, and Gran all looked at me with pity.
His grandma’s hand reached out and clasped mine. “First let me tell you a story. Then you can go if you want.”
She looked at Maggie and Trudy nodded. They got up, leaving the dining room.
“Once upon a time, my daughter met the love of her live, Wayne, at the state fair.”
Ahh, so she was Ashton’s grandmother on his mom’s side. I’d wondered that.
“Wayne had a troubled childhood. No parents to speak of by the time he was seventeen so I took him in as if he were my own son and I’ll always see him that way.”
My heart pinched at her words.
“They fell deeply in love, got married, bought the bar and lived in the apartment above it.”
That made me smile. Imagining Wayne in his prime, owning the bar and living where I now did.
“And then they got pregnant with twins.”
A stone fell in my stomach as the smile was wiped off my face. Twins.
Jenna.She was Ashton’s twin? From what I’d heard and read, twins had such a special bond, it went beyond that of normal sibling relationships.
“When the kids were just two years old, my daughter found the lump on her breast.”
Tears lined my eyes and she squeezed my hand.
“I’m so sorry,” I told her.
She nodded. “Me too. She was able to fight it the first three times, but that last time she didn’t last long. It was stage four and … well, after that Wayne went into a spiral and I agreed to take the kids and raise them while he figured his life out.”
I gulped, suddenly uncomfortable with hearing Ashton’s story from his grandma. I wanted him to tell me this stuff but he never would. Who wanted to relive these memories?
“What happened to Jenna?” I croaked. Gran released my hand and wiped one of her eyes, catching a tear there.
