Page 38 of My Secret to Protect

'Grandma, why are you awake?'

'You're asking that now,afterdriving out here?' my friend shakes her head as Bree hangs hers. 'I'm too damn hot and can't sleep so I got up. No point fightin' it when I have nowhere to be tomorrow, I'll sleep then.' Mrs. C says as she pours the hot, fresh coffee into three mugs before joining us at the dining table. ‘So, come on then, ask what you want to ask.’

‘Ask what I want to ask?’ Bree lets out an incredulous laugh before lowering her attention to her hands on the table. ‘Ask why you felt the need to ask someone I was involved with two decades ago to move in next door to me and pretend to be interested in me?’

‘I wanted you protected, Bree, and I wantedhimout of the picture.’

‘But, Arlo, really? What the fuck, Grandma?’

Oh, she did not just…

‘I’ll pretend you didn’t just curse at me in my own home, Breanne, because I know you’re stressed out, but you only get one pass. He’s the only one I trust with this.’

‘Him? He’s the only one you trust?’

‘You know I’m still sitting here, right, short stuff?’ I push calmly, and she glares at me, furious. ‘Bree, quit it with the attitude. Your grandma wanted to protect you.’

She sighs and seems to lose any strength and fieriness right in front of my eyes, and I see now just how drained she really is and how much she’s been hiding it. ‘So, you know, everything that’s been happening to me?’

‘I do.’

She hangs her head.

‘Whose idea was all this, to date me?’

‘Pretendto date you,’ I correct. I see the hurt in her watery eyes as she meets mine for just a moment, and I feel like a piece of shit. I have to switch it off. Now, more than before, I need to make the boundaries clear. ‘It was Mrs. C’s, but it was mine to not tell you.’

‘And the house?’

‘I put in a call to Berta Lawton. Her lazy ass husband had been talking about selling the house next door to you for years but couldn’t bother his ass to get it done, so I made an offer out of the blue and saved him a job. I bought the house.’

‘I don’t know how to process any of this. I just want to go home. Sell the house, Grandma. Your little plan is off. I’ll fix this myself, andhecan go back to his nice little city life without the hassle of babysitting a grown woman.’

‘You know my name, Bree, so you can use it,’ I say, and she turns to glare at me, but there’s no heat to it. She just looks… sad. ‘This guy wants you—the tone of the messages, the gifts, he thinks you’re his. We’re going to show him that you’re not,’ I explain.

‘You think dating you is the answer.’

‘Yes. We’llpretendwe are together, put on a show, and draw him out. If he’s obsessed enough with you to do this.’ I point to her phone on the table. ‘Seeing you with me will drive him crazy.’

‘He’s already crazy.’

‘Then it’ll drive him to be sloppy, one mistake from him, and we can pounce.’

She absorbs my words as Mrs. C reaches across the table for her granddaughter’s hands.

‘This is insane,’ Bree sighs. ‘How did you know where he even was?’ She realizes she hasn’t asked this yet and moves her attention between us.

‘We stayed in contact.’ Mrs. C releases Bree’s hands to pick up her cup. ‘Not a big deal and none of your business who I associate with, so close your mouth and soften your eyes.’

I smirk over the top of my cup as I raise it up and take a sip. I love Mrs. C.

‘How would this even work? My family knows I’m single. I can’t tell them about any of this and put them at risk, but I also can’t just say surprise, I have a boyfriend all of a sudden.’ She’s coming around.

‘The seeds are already planted, Bree. I made a point of showing an interest in you in front of them. Merv saw us on our date tonight, and I know you told your friends we were going out. It won’t be hard for them to believe the lie.’

She swallows at that, and I watch the bob of her throat with rapt attention.

‘I don’t feel comfortable lying to them.’

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