Page 2 of Out on a Limb
And right now, I might argue mine was the one that changed the most.
Especially considering I was staring at a mostly-naked old man with his dentures out, instead of sipping iced coffee with my friends while I restocked the t-shirts in the gift shop.
“Do you want to lose this place?” I could barely talk around the clenching of my teeth. “Because that’s what’s going to happen if you don’t get it together.”
“No one’s losing anything.” My grandfather shifted on the bed, dragging the covers with him as he moved. “You’re overreacting like you always do. Getting all worked up over nothing.”
“Is that—” I gasped as a fluffy pile of red curls came into view. “Is there a woman in your bed?”
“I’m a grown man, Pickles.” His tone sharpened like it used to when I was a child. His eyes narrowed as he glared my way, dishing out the blustery, domineering persona he used to rein everyone around him in, including me.
But right now I was too angry to let him push me down where he thought I belonged. “Well you’re sure as hell not acting like one.” The words snapped along with any patience I had left for the situation. “You’re acting like a twenty-year-old fuckboy.”
My granddad’s eyes widened.
It was the first time I’d ever said any sort of swear in front of him.
And maybe it came about a year too late. Maybe if I’d told him he was being a selfish prick a year ago we wouldn’t be where we were right now.
Wilfred started to sputter, like an engine that couldn’t quite turn over.
But I wasn’t finished with him just yet. He’d pushed me past the point of no return and there was no stopping the ball he got rolling.
“You can either get yourself back in line, or you can just keep your ass at home.” I was tired of waiting on him to get shit done.
And there wasn’t any time left to wait.
“If you’re not going to handle this place, then I will.” It was a complete bluff.
I wasn’t capable of running the garden. The place was too big. Too complicated.
And I was too—
Emotionally attached.
But I sure as hell wasn’t going to watch him run them into the ground either. Too many people counted on this place.
My granddad sputtered, his face turning red as his bushy brows lowered. “Now you listen to me—”
“You want me to listen to you then get your ass in here.” I stood from the chair I’d sat in too many times, staring across the desk at a man I used to see so differently. “Otherwise I’m going to be the one giving orders around here.”
“Collette Calypso Johnson, I am your grandfather—” He stood up, dragging the blanket off the bed as he went, stealing it from the redhead still snoozing on the other end of the mattress.
My hand went to my mouth as the woman’s boobs flopped free, one hitting the mattress as its next-door neighbor stacked right on top of it.
I immediately grabbed my own tits, just because it looked so uncomfortable, the way they were hanging there.
The redhead’s eyes snapped open, immediately coming to my face on the phone. She started to flail, scooping at her swinging jugs as she rolled toward the edge of the mattress, giving me the full three-sixty of all she brought to the table.
And it turned out she wasn’t a natural redhead.
“This is ridiculous, you know that?” I pressed two fingers to a temple as my head started to ache. “I should not be seeing this.”
“You’re the one who called me.” My granddad was still moving, strutting toward the bathroom in his giant house. “You should be up in the gift shop doing your job.”
“I could be if you were here doing yours.” I was tired. Frustrated beyond words.
And now I had the future of my tits to deal with.
