Page 83 of Keep Me Never
It’s scary to say it out loud, but this feels a bit like a change in the tides—or a free play maybe is a better way to put it.
I got the girl, and instead of fate following that up with something fucked, I find out my hard work might just pay off.
Maybe this girl, this kindhearted, gorgeous girl, is the exception.
The one good thing I’m allowed without the universe’s retaliation.
Maybe, I no longer have to brace for a hit to come.
Maybe I really can keep the girlandthe game.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Paige
“Thank you, Paige, sweetheart. I know you had to miss class this morning to come with me.”
I smile over at my grandpa, but it’s a little stiff. “It’s okay. I planned in advance. Chase stayed late while I finished my essay and he’s going to turn it in with his own, so I shouldn’t lose points for late work or anything.”
“Did he now? That was awful kind of him to offer.”
I frown slightly. “Well, I asked him and it’s our class together so, it’s—Grandpa, are you sick?” I say suddenly, surprised by how much the thought scares me. I may not know him all that well yet, but at some point, he went from Grant to Grandpa in my mind.
His features soften, as if he knows exactly where my thoughts have gone, and reaches over, taking my hand in his. “No, sweetheart. I’m not sick. Not like your father was, anyway. I’m just doing that thing we all dread,” he says, smiling when I blink in question. “Getting old.”
A low chuckle leaves me and his follows.
“Okay, well. I guess we can’t do much about that. So, why did you need me to bring you today?”
“Well, I had to have a couple tests run, and it seems the doctors were right. My heart is getting older a little faster than the rest of me, but it’s not something a cocktail of medication can’t handle.”
“Do you take anything now?” I ask, realizing I don’t know much about his health. Or anything, for that matter.
Has he ever had issues before? Did he get ear infections a lot as a kid, like I did?
The man isn’t built like a grandpa. He looks like he stepped right off the set ofThe Sopranos, in his pin-striped suit and with silvery-white hair.
“Not so much as an aspirin. I, well, sweetheart…” He looks out the window a moment and then turns back to me.
“This old man used to train often, when I was younger. Boxing and just good old gym-junkie stuff, all in the name of fun and in the need to feed my vanity, of course.” He grins, and my lips curve up. “Truth be told, not that it’s much of a secret, but I never had much of a life outside of work. My job being a mind game of sorts, I needed something physical, so I always made sure my buildings had a gym for blowing off steam, and let me tell you, when you lose a nine-million-dollar deal to some young buck fresh out of college with concepts he hasno ideahow to put in motion, punching a bag is the perfect therapy.”
My lips twitch. “I bet it is.”
He nods, but slowly his smile fades. “Yeah, but…being in the gym and marrying the job like I did left little time for family. Little time for your child, who you didn’t realize needed you until it was too late, and help was the last thing they wanted.”
Sadness washes over me, creating a heaviness in my shoulders. We both know who he’s talking about.
“Your mother was quite brilliant, Paige,” he shares. “A gifted little girl in any area she put her mind to. It was the freedom I unintentionally gave her that led her down the wrong path. Foolishly, I assumed she would be fine, ready when the time came to take my place, like I’d always intended for her to. I didn’t know how deeply the addiction had claimed her, but the moment I realized, I stopped training. I couldn’t stomach putting a pill in my mouth and swallowing, even though they were just your average pre-workout stuff.”
He turns to face me better, his eyes downcast. “I like to thinkthere was nothing I could do to mend our relationship, but the old man in me isn’t so sure that’s true anymore. She was my daughter, and I shouldn’t have ever let her go. If I had just found a way to be there, found a way for her to allow me in, maybe I could have fixed what I broke. I could have met your father and seen the way she turned her life around, and I wouldn’t have had to wait twenty-three years to meet you.”
I squeeze his hand, shaking my head slightly. “My dad tried and did all of those things. She would get clean and make all these plans, ‘believing it in her own heart’ is what he had said, but then something would happen. A stressful moment or a run-in with an old friend. A song or a short walk to the store where no one was watching. A reason or no real reason at all, and she’d be gone again. Until one day, she wasgonegone.” I lift a shoulder, telling him what it took me some time to realize myself. “There was nothing anyone could have done and it’s no one’s fault.”
“You’re a very smart young woman, Paige. Smarter than I was at your age.”
“I doubt that but I appreciate it all the same.”
He chuckles, letting out a small sigh. “Do you remember much of her?” he asks, almost hopefully, but I shake my head. “I’ll have to share some stories with you sometime.”
