Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 97337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“She said…she said she feels a lot better knowing the type of person I am. And that even though she doesn’t agree with us one hundred percent, she’d hold off on any more judgment.”
“Come again!” Now my heart was beating wildly for a whole other reason.
You see I know my mother. I know that if we have her on our side then come what may, she’d go to bat. Now I feel like a heel for my earlier thoughts. It’s hard being the son of an over protective mother. I wonder how much dad had to do with her change of heart.
Just then my phone rang in the bedroom and I left her long enough to answer it. Thinking it was mom I answered without checking the readout. “Drake, I expect you here for supper this evening. Bring the young lady with you.”
“Nana?” Well shit! She hung up.
How could I have forgotten about her? Her voice hadn’t given anything away but if I was afraid of mom’s reaction there are no words for how I feel about my dad’s mom, the matriarch of the family. Things could go either way.
I tried to remember that I’m her favorite person in the world, and all the things we’d done together as far back as I could remember, but right on the heels of that I started thinking about how much liquid cash I had in the bank.
Once I reassured myself that between stocks and savings I had about enough to float for a year and some, I was able to breathe easy again. Now I have to go back and tell her that we’d be driving across town later to see my grandma. Twice in one day might just be too much for her to deal with.
“Lizzie, that was my grandmother, my dad’s mom, she wants us to come to supper later.” She just nodded her head and I went to sit next to her and take her into my arms.
“It’s okay, we don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I felt sick even saying the words, knowing the shit storm that would ensue if I even thought of cancelling.
“No, it’s okay. After meeting your mom I’m not as scared as I was before. She had very valid questions Drake. Questions I would imagine anyone in her position would ask. She didn’t attack or accuse, I guess because she had most of the answers already before she came here. I never thought I’d be grateful for my messed up childhood.”
She gave me a shaky smile, but I didn’t know what she was talking about. “What do you mean?” She shrugged her shoulders and dropped back against the couch.
“Whoever your mom hired was very good he got all the answers. She knows everything.”
“She knows about my parents dying, my time with my aunt and cousins, how I did in school, what I’ve been doing in the last five years since I left high school and went off to college before moving here, everything. I didn’t know it was possible to go digging into someone’s life that thoroughly.”
“She found out things about me that I didn’t even know, like the fact that the neighbors didn’t like the way my aunt and her kids treated me. Or that my mom’s friend had been worried about me ever since I moved away. I never knew so many people were in my corner.” I wiped the tears I was sure she didn’t know were falling from her eyes and pulled her into me.
“Of course you had people in your corner baby, who wouldn’t want to love and protect you? You’re my China doll remember.” She clung to me, her hand fisted in my shirt and I felt all the knots ease. Now if I could just figure out which side of the fence nana was on my life would be set.
I was tempted to drag her back to bed to work off the angst I was feeling, but she had work to do and so did I. Mom’s parting shot about seeing me home later seemed to infer that I would be leaving her here alone, which is something I’m still not prepared to do, not even to keep the peace.
Mom’s hang-ups were one thing, but putting her in danger was something else entirely. I needed to have the Robert situation taken care of before I’d feel comfortable doing that.
I can’t forget, even though I’d learned that he was nothing more than a bottom feeding asshole, that he’d had the gumption to attack her once already.
So there’s no way I’m going to sleep on this guy. The security cameras helped to ease some of my worry, but not enough for me to leave her all the way over here on her own. While she was doing her thing I hid out in the bathroom and called Drew for an update.