Page 21 of Waiting for Her

“Grady? What did she mean?Are you okay?”

She gives me the look. The one that says she’ll know if I’m bullshitting her.

“It was nothing, Ma. Go enjoy your new grandson.”

“Don’t bullshit me, kid.”

A laugh threatens to bubble up out of me at her calling me kid, but I know better. In the twenty-six years I’ve been alive, I’ve never been able to lie to her. Not once. It’s freaky how much the woman sees and can read between the lines.

I sigh and shake my head, looking at my feet. I scrub the back of my neck before returning my eyes to hers.

“Saw Bri tonight,” I mutter.

Her bright blue eyes that match mine widen and her hand covers her mouth.

“How did that happen? Where were you? What did she say? Did she confront you? Talk to you? How did she look?” I raise my eyebrows at her rapid fire of questions, and she steps back, taking a deep breath with a small head shake, seeming to steel herself.

“Sorry. It’s not at all what I expected you to say. How are you?”

“I’m good. I promise. She uh…”

I hesitate because I don’t really know how to tell her she’s going to be tagging along with me for the next several weeks.

“She what?” she asks impatiently, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot.

Bri may have broken my heart, but my mom still loves her, probably would be throwing a damn party just to see her again. But if we got back together too? She’d jumpstart some wedding planning. Regardless, I’m still her baby boy. She’s going to be on my side no matter what.

“She’s the one assigned to do the feature on the team.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. When the PR team contactedSI, they told them they needed someone who would do the team justice, who understood our program and…” my words trail off, but my mom doesn’t hesitate to finish.

“In walks Bri. Aside from you, I don’t know anyone who understands it better,” she murmurs her agreement. She takes my hand and walks us to a different waiting room than the rest of the family is congregating in, guiding us to a couple chairs, we both sit. I lean my head back against the wall behind us and turn my head in her direction. “And you saw her?”

“Yeah. She showed up at Brandon’s show, and Mia kind of put her in her place. Well, before she went into labor and her water broke all over the bar floor.”

“I bet she did,” she says with a smirk. “She’s always felt protective over you.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “Mom,” I pause and close my eyes and breathe in deeply through my nose, trying to center myself. When I look back into my mom’s eyes, they’re swimming with emotion. “It was… a shock. To say the least. She…” I sigh and look to the ceiling. “Damn, Mom. She’s still so freakin’ beautiful, it took me back six years, like no time had passed at all. How is it she still affects me this way? Why can’t I move forward?”

“You’ve been waiting for her to come back since the day she left, son. I know it’s hard to admit, but it’s the truth. You may still be angry, bitter even, but like it or not, you never fell out of love with her. Even when you and Kennedy started spending time together, it was like you were holding back. No girl has ever been the same for you. There’s a strong chanceno onewill ever be.”

Mom’s pretty good about reading my mind. Freaky woman. “How pathetic am I, huh?”

“Not pathetic, honey. She was your best friend, your first love. It took you a long time to come to terms with how deeply you loved her, but when you finally admitted it, I know that was it for you. She was your one and, let’s face it, you’ve never been one to give up. Just because you broke up doesn’t mean that connection breaks. She’s in your heart, it’s not easy to let go.”

“Seemed pretty damn easy for her,” I grit out harshly.

Always. So. Bitter.

Her eyes soften, and she tucks her right leg under her left leg as she shifts toward me. “You gotta let the anger go.”

“Like she let me go, huh?”

She sits quietly for a few moments. Probably reading my thoughts and knowing I’m full of shit.

Because the truth of the matter is, Iwantto be angry, but I can’t find it in my heart to be.

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