Page 63 of Make it Real
“He’s a really good guy. I like him a lot.”
Vague but enthusiastic seemed the best tack, for Gran and me. I’d always known he was charming, and his good looks were never in question. But his sweet heart had taken me by surprise, turning my own all squishy and soft in response. If I wasn’t careful—actually, who was I kidding? I’d already jumped head-first into a serious crush on Jed Evans, and all indications pointed to more of the same ahead. Too late to worry about theNo Divingsigns now.
“I can tell you do, sweetheart. He’s exactly the kind of man I’d hoped you’d find. A good one, ready and willing to step up and take care of you.”
I smiled, refusing to let my real response to that show on my face. The refrain that I needed to be looked after and taken care of just added to the nausea I had going on. Almost twenty-five years old, and she still saw me as the fifteen-year-old girl I’d been when Mom got cancer and she moved in with us. I’d needed Gran desperately through those years, but I was a whole grown woman now, and I didn’t need Jed to take care of me.
Need and want were very different things.
“Maybe Jed’s the one who needs me to take care of him, did you ever think of that?”
Her smile hit a little too close to patronizing. “That man doesn’t need a thing.”
Neither do I. But arguing over it had never gotten me anywhere.
“Actually,” she said, “I’ve been thinking about something Jed might need.”
I did not like where this was going already. “What do you mean?”
“Does he ever make sausage?”
“Does he ever…what?”
She rolled her eyes, patting a box on the counter. “Make sausage. I found this meat grinder under the cupboards. I know you never use it, but I hate to just get rid of such a good old grinder. Does he have a mixer set up?”
Gran took pieces out of the box, displaying various sizes of blades and attachments. I couldn’t remember ever seeing that thing, much less anyone using it.
“I’ve never asked him about meat grinding.” This whole conversation was ten kinds of wrong.
“Well, does he have a lot of fancy appliances? He might not want a hand-crank option if he’s got a nicer one.”
“I don’t have a clue what’s in his kitchen.”
The metal pieces rattling together formed an exclamation point on everything I’d just said wrong. She stared at me, surprise spelled out in her low eyebrows and thinned mouth.
“You’ve never seen where he lives?”
Way to stay on top of things.I scrambled to come up with a fake kitchen, but making up lies about his house seemed ridiculous when I’d already given myself away. “I haven’t been over there, no.”
“Callie Louise. It’s been weeks.”
“I can’t believe you’re encouraging me to go to a guy’s place, Granny.” Maybe a joke would play off my mistake?
“You know what I mean. You learn a lot about a person by seeing where they live. He could be a slob, he could have cockroaches, he could have a wife.”
“He doesn’t have a wife. I thought you liked Jed.”
“I do, but I think it’s a little worrying he hasn’t at least brought you by his place.”
Was it? I didn’t really know what the appropriate timeline for visiting a man’s apartment was. Probably a lot quicker when the dating—and everything that went with it—was entirely real.
Jed’s knock on the door busted up our conversation, thank the Lord.
“I’ll let him in.” Gran rushed to the door as though she hadn’t just hinted he might be hiding a wife in his apartment like Mr. Rochester. Either that, or a million cockroaches.
She threw the door open, and my breath caught. Sure, he was the most attractive man for miles around, but that wasn’t what left me so breathless. The way his eyes sought me out and how wide he smiled when he saw me made my heart flutter, that look that said he’d never been happier to see anybody. Maybe it was naive and short-sighted, but the idea thatIcould be the reason he smiled like that set my whole chest on fire.
He nodded to my Gran. “Evening, ma’am.” His eyes returned to me, sparkling brighter than before. “Callie Lou.”
