Page 145 of Play of Love
"Five years." I shook my head at her and held up my hands.
She smirked at me. "What of it?"
"We haven't spoken in five years, and you've already slammed the door in my face, and now you're looking at me like you want my head for a garden ornament. Geez, woman."
At that, she seemed to back down.
A little.
"It's called preservation, and showing you , who's not going to stand for your nonsense."
I liked that confidence she exuberated. That by itself was fascinating. I was sure she wasn't like this around other guys. Just me and yes, I deserved it. More than deserved it. I didn't have to be told that I'd made her life hell. But that was such a long time ago, and I wasn't that guy anymore.
As close as she was to my grandmother, I'd never been friends with her. Not even close to it. Aside from me being three years older, we were just different plain and simple, complete opposites. I'd always been popular and into football, and she was just odd with her music.
I didn't think she was odd anymore, but I did back then. Any other girl would have used loving my grandmother's musical talent as an excuse to see me. But she literally hung out with Grams.
I'd thought she was odd with her obsession for music - classical music at that - and I'd never known her to do anything else.
I guessed though that those were the people in life that had it all figured out. They were the ones that took the safe roads and didn't walk around like they owned the world, like I did. Safe people like her were responsible and mature. They didn't go out partying until all hours of the night, every night, with friends who were drinking far too much. They knew when to stop and would never persist when it was time to stop. Had I been even a little like that I might not have been in that terrible car accident two years ago that paralyzed Clyde Shepherd and took Donny Borman's life.
If I had even a shred of the caution Evie had, I could have told Donny he shouldn't be driving after drinking so much beer, and I could have stopped Clyde from egging Donny to play chicken with a bunch of speed racers.
I was in the back seat so I got out lucky. But the accident changed me.
I'd had a lot of loss in my life starting with my parents when I was ten years old. That was a car accident too where I'd also been in the back seat. I was determined that there wasn't going to be a third time. That meant I had to change.
"Okay, Miss Evie. I appreciate the pointer and assure you there will be no nonsense." I smiled at her.
She narrowed her eyes at me, looked me up and down and then sauntered away. I watched her, unable to take my eyes off her slim tapered hips that looked particularly enticing in her tight fitted jeans. Her long mane of thick brown hair swished across the edge of her waist as she walked away, drawing my full attention to her perfectly shaped behind. Evie would probably pick my eyes out if she knew I was totally checking her out right now.
I returned to the sofa when I heard the front door close. I needed to think about all of this, and how it was going to work. Grams came in a few minutes later with her cup of tea and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Evie had done her hair for her. It was still down but looked a lot neater than it had earlier.
She set the plate on the coffee table and sat next to me.
"I know you don't want me to go." She stated. "But Evie and I will be just fine."
"Grams I'm going with you," I replied.
At that, she looked surprised but deeply grateful. "What about your game?"
The first game of the season was in eight weeks and the team were in the height of rigorous training. Especially since we’d be playing the Centaurs first. That damn Tristan Bouchard, the Centaurs quarterback, was a pain in my ass and I swore vengeance for that idiots move he made on me last season that could have busted my leg. That was all petty though. Stuff that wasn’t important.
I’d been visiting Grams as often as I could and I was here now because I knew things would get more intense as the weeks went by. Football was important, but my grandmother was everything to me.
"They'll have to manage without me because I'm going with you." Sure, this would cause me hell. Coach Simpson would most likely punch me when he next saw me, but this was important. She was important.
It wasn't that I didn't trust her to Evie's good care, I just wanted to be there to make extra certain she was safe. I also wanted to be sure she was doing important things like taking her medication.
Aside from everything else my grandmother's illness was perhaps one of the main reasons why she shouldn't be exerting herself and running off to Europe looking for a man that could have died decades ago.
"I appreciate that Gage, but I don't want you to have to go out of your way. You've been training so hard for this upcoming season."
I smoothed both my hands over hers and smiled. "I'm going with you. You come first. Yes, I have my reservations, but we can go and see. Check things out and see what happens. Find this Angelo guy who was so in love with you."
"Thank you." She gave me a heartwarming smile. "Gage, none of this means I loved your grandfather any less. I loved him too. Please don't think that I didn't. I was blessed to have love twice. They were both taken from me."
My grandfather simply died of old age. He was nearly ten years older than Grams, and he’d lived a great life.
