Page 81 of Counter Attack

That’d been the standard greeting from her grandmother all Alex’s life. “I’m good. How about you?”

“I’m walking and talking, so I’m good. Coffee is ready. But as late as you got in, I figured you’d sleep in.”

“No time for that. I’m going into Chattanooga with Nathan this morning, and I have a lot to do at the office before we leave.” She hoped he still wanted her company.

Alex picked up the coffeepot and had barely gotten some coffee poured into her insulated cup when a text dinged. Her heart leaped into her throat when she saw Nathan’s name. With a shaky finger, she opened the text and breathed a sigh of relief. He wanted to know if she was going with him into Chattanooga.

Alex quickly responded.

Yes. What time?

I’ll pick you up at eight.

She sent back a thumbs-up emoji before taking her coffee to the table, where she took a tiny sip of the steaming liquid. “Oh, this is so good. I needed it.”

“Didn’t sleep well?”

Alex took another sip. “Not too well.”

“I laid a devotional on your table. Did you get a chance to read any of it this morning?”

“A verse or two.” No need to tell Gram it was only because she’d knocked the book off the table, and when she retrieved it, the very verse she didn’t want to read stared her in the face. Alex didn’t need anything that made her doubt her plan. Not when she was already questioning it herself.

“Which verses did you read?”

Let it go already.Not that she said the words aloud. “Only one, actually—the one about making plans.”

“Is that what has you so quiet?”

“I just need a jolt of caffeine.” Alex gulped her coffee. “Ow!”

She’d forgotten how hot her cup kept liquid.

“How many times have I told you not—”

“—to swig my coffee,” Alex finished for her grandmother. She sipped the cold water Gram handed her, soothing her burning throat.

Her grandmother sat in the chair across from her. “I was hoping you’d read that verse today.”

Alex braced herself for whatever “advice” Gram was about to give her. “Why?”

The older woman clasped her gnarled hands. “I see you going down the wrong road.”

They’d had this conversation before when Alex had dated a man her grandparents didn’t approve of. “Don’t worry. Nathan and I aren’t—”

Gram shook her head. “I’m not talking about you and Nathan. Or at least not exactly.”

“Then—”

“I worry that you’re focusing too much on this plan of yours to climb the ladder in the police department in Chattanooga.”

She’d never told her grandmother about the plan, only Nathan and Gramps, although Alex was pretty sure anyone she worked with in Chattanooga could see her end goal. Not that anyone had ever mentioned it to her.

“What’s wrong with it? I’d make a good commissioner.”

“Oh, honey, it’s not that you wouldn’t make a good one, but not if you continue in the direction you’re going.”

Alex gaped at her grandmother. Gram didn’t believe in her?

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