Page 89 of Crossing the Line
“Fifth.”
I sneer, and I shake my head.
“So you never loved Grandfather?” Paisley asks. Her face is anguished.
“Does it matter?” Leslie replies.
“Yes!” she shrieks, throttling her hands back and forth.
We all go stiff. I’ve never seen PG this way.
“Let’s remain calm,” my grandfather interjects. I can tell that he doesn’t like to hear Paisley speak to her grandmother that way. He never would have let me get away with that tone.
“Paisley?” I say.
She looks at me with helpless eyes. But I know she’s okay when she attempts a smile.
“Sweetheart, you’ve always been intuitive. Therefore, I know you’ll understand when I say that my relationship with Charles was my relationship with Charles. It had nothing to do with you.”
Her frown deepening, Paisley says, “But…” She presses back against her chair. Her thoughts must have stopped her from speaking.
Finally, Leslie sighs. She’s beautiful, with her heart-shaped face and eyes as gray as a cat’s. “Charles and I didn’t get married under the most blissful circumstances. He was in love with me, but I was in love with another man.”
“And I was in love with her. Very much so,” my grandfather says right before he and Leslie look at each other in a similar way to how Paisley and I often find ourselves gazing at each other.
There’s no need to ask my grandfather if he ever loved Penelope, my grandmother. They never showed us that they loved each other. Neither did my mother and father. And oddly, I’m finding myself a bit annoyed with Paisley for not understanding that life and partnership aren’t always made of fairy-tale plots.
My grandfather goes on to explain that he and Charles were business partners, and he was the one who introduced Charles to Leslie. For Charles, it was love at first sight.
“I wasn’t free to marry her, but that didn’t give Charles the right to get involved with her. We were friends and business partners. There was a line, and he crossed it.”
When I turn to Paisley, she’s already looking at me. Rubbing the side of her neck, Paisley says, “It’s hard to believe that a love triangle wreaked so much havoc on our families.”
“I’ll take responsibility for the rift between our families,” Hugo says. “I was bitter.”
“And I married Charles because I was young and angry.” Leslie shakes her head as if she finds her younger self’s choices disappointing. “But I’m glad I married Charles because I have Xander and Leo, you and Treasure and Lynx. Sometimes beauty can arise from heartbreak.”
I’m choked up by Leslie’s words. Paisley nods stiffly.
“Did you read the letters?” Hugo asks, peering intensely at Paisley.
After staring into his eyes for several beats, Paisley swallows audibly and then says, “Every single one of them—multiple times.”
My grandfather and Paisley watch each other. It’s as though she sees his carefully concealed panic—and he knows that she knows why he’s panicking.
“What is it?” I blurt.
Paisley shoots me a wide-eyed glance. Then she inhales deeply, and when she exhales, it’s as if all the tension she’s carried since we took our seats leaves her. She turns to her grandmother. “Garnet, who’s Mr. Lord, was willing to run away with you, Grandmother,” she says, her voice breaking. She sniffs. “But his letters took on an interesting tone. It sounded as though you were answering him. But I knew it wasn’t you.” Tears are rolling out of Paisley’s eyes. She uses the cloth napkin to wipe them away.
I scoot my chair close to hers and put my arm around her, and she rests her soft cheek on my chest. I want to kiss her on top of her head, but my grandfather appears awed by how intimate I’m being with Paisley. He knows I’m supposed to marry Lauren. His house on the private island and my family’s opulent lifestyle depend on it.
My grandfather coughs to clear his throat. Then he focuses solely on Leslie. “I figured out Charles had been intercepting my letters when he showed up at the chapel instead of you.”
“What?” she asks, looking and sounding shocked.
Paisley sits up on her own again. “By the tone of the later letters, I figured out Grandfather had been answering Garnet on your behalf.”
However, I don’t think Leslie is listening to her. She’s staring at my grandfather in awe. He’s watching her in the same way. I almost feel like Paisley and I should leave and give them some time to talk it out.
