Page 1 of Out on a Limb
Chapter One
Collette
THIS WAS GETTING ridiculous.
No.
This was beyond ridiculous.
And I was over it.
I leaned forward to press the button on the side of my phone again, checking the time.
10:30. Half an hour past when the meeting with my granddad was supposed to start.
I snatched my cell from the desk covered in stacks of papers, abandoned energy drinks, and partially-consumed rolls of antacids.
I swiped at the screen, pulling up my favorite contacts, barely pausing at the top name before sliding to the next one in line and opening the information screen. My finger hovered over the call button.
I tapped the video icon instead.
Because I needed to see exactly what was more important than the future of the business that had been in my family for almost a hundred years.
The business that meant so much to the person who meant so much to me.
My face pulled tighter with every ring, embedding the frown I couldn’t seem to shake deep enough I could practically feel the wrinkles forming.
This man wasn’t just going to make me lose my mind.
He was also going to make me lose my youth.
The sudden connection of the call startled me.
But not as much as the scene that greeted me on the screen.
I blinked, hoping I wasn’t seeing what I thought I was seeing. “Are you still in bed?”
There was no controlling my tone, not that I was particularly worried about it.
That ship sailed when the man squinting back at me showed my friend’s grandma his wiener.
My granddad wiped one hand across his watering eyes. “What time is it?”
“It’s thirty minutes past when you were supposed to be here to discuss what in the hell we’re going to do about the garden.” I squeezed the phone harder, trying to keep from launching it across the messy room that served as my granddad’s office.
The place used to be meticulously kept. Neat. Tidy.
Now it was a train wreck. Cluttered. Messy. Out of control.
Just like the man it belonged to.
Wilfred Johnson III had the audacity to freaking yawn. “I’m sorry, Pickles.” He blinked his sagging eyelids a few times, but it did nothing to clear the bleary gaze staring back at me. “It will be after lunch before I get there.”
“After lunch?” I’d tried being understanding. Respectful of the man who’d taken care of me since my mother died six months after I was born.
I’d tried being sympathetic to my granddad’s situation.
But for the love of God, he wasn’t the only one left reeling from my grandmother’s sudden death. His life wasn’t the only one changed forever.
