“Are you ready?”
His gorgeous, earnest face was hard to resist. It was probably a good thing he had no interest in me or I’d seriously make super bad choices.
“Sure.”
I slung my bag over my shoulder and followed him out. In a gentleman move, which I should have come to expect, he opened the passenger door and gave me a hand up into the cab of the truck.
“Thank you,” I said, as my heart might have fluttered some.
I bit my lip and stared out the window, trying to ignore the attraction I felt toward him.
Instead, I pulled out my phone to see if I had any updates from my dad since the last time I checked fifteen minutes ago, only to find nothing.
“Is your grandmother okay?”
Color me surprised, I glanced over at him. Did he have a heart?
“I don’t know actually,” I said.
“I hope she is.” I might have stared blank-faced at him before he spoke again, not noticing my look. “You must be really close.”
“We are. She’s the only person in my life who’s accepted me.”
“Not your mom?” he asked.
“Mom cares in her own way. But she’s not a take your child to the playground and push your kid on a swing or even a kiss your scrapes and bruises kind of mom. She’s a teach you how to count and how to read, but if you have problems with a boy, send you to an all girls’ boarding school kind of mom.”
“Boarding school?”
Judgment curved his eyebrow.
“Yeah, boarding school.” I shrugged it off. “It’s not like I know how to fly a plane.”
For a second, there was quiet until we both started to laugh.
“Touché,” he said.
“What about you? Are you close to your dad?”
His jaw tightened and I almost backed off the question.
“My mom split when I was six or so.”
“Why?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“When she married my dad, she thought she would be living a different kind of life.” He shrugged. “Dad cut ties with his family and Mom didn’t want to struggle in life. It’s just been Dad and me ever since.”
Everything soured for a second while his situation and mine sank in.
“He seems like a really nice guy. Your dad, that is,” I said, hoping to break the tension.
“Too nice, which doesn’t make for a great businessman.”
There was certainly history in that statement, considering his tone.
“My mom is just the opposite. She’s pretty cutthroat.”
“Yeah?” he said, with faint amusement. “What does she do?”
“Mom is all about the numbers. She’s an accountant. That’s how she and my dad met.”
I closed my lips quickly, not wanting to admit to the affair that transpired creating me. To Mom’s credit, she hadn’t known he was married, which seemed impossible. But she didn’t follow the society page headlines.
“My mom is all about the numbers too. She’s what some would call a ‘gold digger.’ That’s how she met my dad.”
I tried not to laugh, but his deadpan statement warranted it. I covered my mouth to hide it.
“It’s okay. It is what it is. She’s happy, I guess,” he said.
“You don’t talk to her?”
His jaw flexed again. I’d put my nose in his business. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer that.”
“Like I said, she’s all about number one and that’s not me. It was a clean break. She got what she wanted, a rich husband and sons to replace me.”
It hit me how callous I’d been as I remembered what the shopkeeper had said. I wanted to ask about why he didn’t bring clients to town and if it had something to do with his mom. But I managed not to.
“Her loss,” I said instead.
We were quiet then. I could have told him my life story, but I didn’t want it to come off as if I was trying to one-up him. We both had shitty family situations. At the same time, we had someone in our corner.
Mine was my grandmother. I did believe my mother loved me, but in the back of my mind, I wondered if I was just a bad reminder of heartbreak for her. She always seemed happiest when I wasn’t around.
The problem was, after Grant laid himself bare, I had to see him not as some heartless hero. If I looked back over our time together, he came off as arrogant true enough, but he was also my savior. I wouldn’t almost be to Manhattan if not for him.
I hadn’t realized I’d fallen asleep until he whispered my name in my ear. I opened my eyes and realized that wasn’t quite true. He was sitting straight in his seat and saying my name.
“We’re here.”
I glanced around and noticed the hospital doors. It had been a good thing that I’d told him that somewhere before I dozed off.
“How much do I owe you?” I asked, reaching for my purse.