Page 74 of Out on a Limb
“Nope.” Andrew grabbed me around the waist, banding one arm across my body as he lifted me up and away from the rack I was ready to murder.
“Let me go.” I kicked my feet and twisted from side to side, trying to break free. “Put me down.”
“Not happening, Pickles.” He carried me, kicking and screaming, through the building, heading straight for the main supply closet. He yanked open the door and shoved me inside, coming in right behind me. “You need to calm down.”
“I don’t want to calm down. I want to throw things.”
“I know, but if Alan comes in here and sees you acting like you know what’s going on then all this was for nothing.”
I didn’t want to hear that.
I wanted to hear that I could throw snow globes at Alan’s Mercedes.
“I hate him.”
“I know. That’s why we’re doing this. So we can get Alan—”
“Not Alan.” I sniffed. “I hate my granddad.”
Andrew’s expression sobered. “I know.”
“You do?”
“You don’t hide it well.”
“That’s interesting, since I didn’t realize it until just now.” I huffed out a breath. “He’s an asshole.”
“He is.”
“He wasn’t a good husband to my grandmother.”
“He wasn’t.”
“She deserved better than him.” My throat got tight.
That was the real reason I couldn’t think about the kind of person my granddad was. Because then I had to accept that my grandmother spent most of her life dealing with him.
That she never got to be with someone who deserved her.
“She had better than him.” Andrew held my eyes. “She had you.”
I blinked a few times, letting what he said sink in.
The truth it contained.
I needed it.
I needed to see that shehadbeen loved the way she deserved.
It just wasn’t by a man.
It was by me.
“I loved her so much.” My throat hurt and my eyes burned. My face was scrunched in an expression that probably made me about as ugly as I got.
But Andrew didn’t bat an eye. “Not as much as she loved you.” He stayed just as calm as before, his words soft and easy. “I told you I talked to her every day?”
I nodded.
