Page 65 of Where You Go (Whisper Lake 5)

“A statement?” Liv’s grandfather stopped swinging the cane and looked at Grady for the first time.

“Yes, I can take a report about the incident.”

“Are you the law?”

It broke Grady’s heart to see the confusion and fear in Liv’s grandad’s eyes. He was clearly terrified.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good! Arrest these women!” He lifted the cane again and Grady stepped to the side to block his access to Liv and Anna.

“First, I need to take a statement from you. Why don’t we go in the other room and talk?”

“Fine! We’ll do it your way!” He threw his hands up and then started walking toward the back of the house.

Once Mr. St. Claire was past Liv and Anna, Grady grabbed the glass of water and the pills and followed behind him down a hallway and into a room that looked like an office that had been converted to a bedroom. There were built in bookcases on two walls and a hospital bed in one corner.

It took some time, Grady wasn’t sure if it was an hour or even two, but after calming Liv’s grandad down, he was able to get him to get into bed and take his medication and before long his eyes were closing. Grady waited another ten minutes before tiptoeing out of the room. He walked back down the hall and found Liv on the couch, tears streaming down her face.

“Hey,” he whispered quietly.

She looked up at him and wiped her face. “I’m sorry. Anna helped me clean up. That was my gran’s ashes in the vase he broke. When she left I was going to go in and help you, but I heard you in there and he seemed calmer with you and I didn’t want to make things worse because when I cry it upsets him and I can’t seem to stop.” More tears flowed from her face.

Grady sat down on the couch beside her and pulled her into his arms. She melted against him, sobbing into his shoulder. He held her tightly, running his hand up and down her back and his fingers through her hair. He tried to absorb all her pain, all her sadness, all her worries. He knew that’s not how it worked but he wanted to take it all so she didn’t have to feel any of it.

After some time passed, her body relaxed and her choppy, shaking breathswere now coming in a slow, even rhythm. He continued to rub her back as she leaned against him.

Over the past eight weeks, he’d seen the toll that caring for her grandad had taken on her. He saw how the escalation of things had affected her. She’d lost weight, she wasn’t sleeping, she was under constant stress. He was surprised this mini-breakdown hadn’t happened sooner. All of this responsibility was too much for her to handle alone. Even with the help of Anna.

But she wasn’t alone anymore. He didn’t know how he was going to fix this, but like everything in his life, he’d find a way. He loved the woman he was holding in his arms, and if it were up to him, he would never let her go.

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