Page 50 of Cowboy of Convenience
“No. Thank God.” He gripped the steering wheel, trying to fight the sadness creeping in. “It just reminds me of when my dad got sick a few years ago.”
Evelyn stayed quiet, her silence leaving too much room for things he’d been holding in to spill out.
“He had a heart attack and my mom was already too confused to call 911 so he laid on the floor for almost an hour before I came in and found him.” At the time it had qualified as the worst day of his life. “His heart was damaged but they expected him to recover. Then pneumonia set it and—" He couldn’t finish.
And Evelyn didn’t force him to. Her free hand came to slide down his arm in a soft touch that somehow made it all easier.
Grady cleared his throat, turning her way as they stopped at a light. “Thank you for staying with me today.”
He’d offered to drive her home more than a few times. Evelyn refused every one of them, choosing to sit in an uncomfortable chair at his side as they waited to hear from doctors and made plans.
“You don’t have to thank me.” Evelyn barely smiled. “You deal with my grandmother and I’m positive that’s way worse than spending an afternoon in the hospital.”
“At least Gram-Gram is entertaining.” He latched onto the new topic, leaning into it and the break it would offer his overwhelmed brain. “Even if she’s a pain in the ass who likes to get her way.”
Evelyn’s lips flattened, rolling inward for a second before she let out a long sigh. "She has very definite ideas about the way my life should go. That’s why she’s here. I’m not doing what she wants."
"Do you think she wants you to move back to New York?" The thought bothered him. A hell of a lot.
She didn’t belong in New York. She belonged in Moss Creek.
"Probably." Evelyn scratched at a spot on her jeans, rubbing back and forth over the fabric. "There've always been expectations for me. That I’ll take on certain responsibilities in my family."
He understood that. Completely and totally. "I take it you're an only child too?"
Evelyn gave him a sad smile. "I'm the only child of an only child." Her head tipped back and she stared up at the roof. "There's no one else for her to push it all on. For a long time, I still thought I could get out of it. That if I just acted bad enough my grandmother would give up on me. But that doesn't seem to be happening."
"I don't know if you've noticed this, but Gram-Gram doesn’t seem like the kind to give up on anything." He faced Evelyn as they came to a stop light. "The woman can do a handstand, for God's sake."
“Right?” Evelyn huffed out a laugh as she shook her head. “Where did that even come from? I’ve never seen her do any sort of physical activity, let alone something that requires so much strengthandbalance.”
“That’s a little terrifying then.” Grady turned into the lot of the best Chinese restaurant around. “Who knows what else she’s capable of.”
Evelyn groaned. “I don’t even want to know.”
Grady parked and shut off the engine. “I say we stuff her so full of rice and egg rolls that she can’t move. Then we won’t have to worry about it.”
Evelyn gave him a wide grin, clearing a little more of the sadness clouding his mood. “I agree.”
Twenty minutes later, they were back on the road and his truck was filled with the scents of General Tso’s chicken and sweet and sour sauce. When they pulled in at Evelyn’s house, Gram-Gram’s rental car was parked in the driveway next to Evelyn’s SUV. He parked his truck right behind it, blocking her in just for fun, then helped Evelyn out, taking on both heavy paper bags of food.
There was no sign of her grandmother when they went in, so Evelyn sent him to the kitchen to unpack while she went in search of her. The old bitty was probably rifling through the whole house, looking for something to prove they were full of shit so she could get on with whatever plan brought her here.
A plan Evelyn thought involved dragging her back to New York.
The possibility had him dropping the bags on the kitchen table before following Evelyn down the hall, catching up with her right as she reached Gram-Gram’s door.
Evelyn lifted her brows. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
“I’m making sure Gram-Gram knows soup’s on.” Grady knocked on the door of the spare bedroom before grabbing the handle. It was time for Gram-Gram to get a taste of her own medicine.
He shoved the door wide. “Gram-Gram. Dinner’s—” The words died off in his throat.
Evelyn gasped, one hand coming to clamp over her mouth as she stared at the scene in front of them.
Her grandmother stood in some sort of open-ended tent-like contraption, wearing nothing but a paper bikini. Bernard stood in front of her, an airbrush in his gloved hand.
"What in the hell are you doing?" Evelyn continued to stare, jaw dropped, brows pinched together in horror. "And why are you doing it here?"
