Chapter 16 Grant
We spend most of Sunday in the bed and the Jacuzzi, other than when we cooked lunch together. We only headed back to Portland in the afternoon.
Monday was even more of a killer than usual.
Since my brothers and I blew off our meetings on Friday, we were practically double-booked.
Twice, I had to text my assistant, Fran, to remind her that I was already in a meeting and couldn’t be in two places at once, efficient as I was.
She kept apologizing, saying the automated system she used for allocating appointments had messed up and wasn’t showing my schedule.
On top of it, I had a short day today because I was picking up Evie from school.
Once in a while, I volunteered to pick her up.
When she was younger, I did it more often, but these days, she had so many after-school activities that she had practically no free time.
But today, her usual ballet class had been canceled.
No one batted an eye when I left at three o’clock.
They all knew that when I left this early, I had something private going on.
Everyone was under strict instructions not to call or message when I was away.
I didn’t like taking work outside the confines of the office.
I only checked my emails if I knew there was an emergency .
Evie’s school was between our office and Heath’s home.
He’d obsessed over schools a few years ago, something neither Cameron nor I could understand.
But I had to give it to my brother; he’d chosen well for his little girl.
She loved going to school every day. Frankly, I’d never thought kids could love school, but Evie did.
I waited for her in front of the building, pacing while thinking of Ruby. For the first time in years, I hadn’t wanted the weekend to end. In fact, I’d been fucking tempted to tell her we should blow off Monday too. But realistically, neither of us could do that.
“Uncle Grant!” Evie exclaimed, pulling me out of my thoughts. She ran fast, smiling from ear to ear. “What are we doing?”
“How about you and I go bowling?”
I’d promised her some time ago but never got the chance to make good on it.
“Yes, yes, yes! I want to learn bowling so I can play with the bigger kids.”
I laughed as we left the schoolyard, heading to the car.
Once we got in the car, she said, “I’m a bit hungry, though. Can we eat something before?”
“Sure. What are you in the mood for?”
“Burgers.”
Right. That’s what I got for asking her an open-ended question.
“Or ice cream.”
Then I got an idea. Ruby’s restaurant wasn’t too far away, and it was their lull time between lunch and dinner. It wasn’t on the way to the bowling alley by any means, but we could make a pit stop.
Fucking hell, my need to see this woman was clouding my thoughts. That was insane. I couldn’t even comprehend why the pull toward her was so strong.
“We’ll drop by a cool restaurant. ”
“I like going to cool places. You know a lot of them, Uncle Grant.”
I felt strangely proud after that comment.
“How’s school going?” I asked.
“I love math. It’s my favorite subject. If I could, I’d do only that the whole day long. Everything else is boring.”
“Your dad really loved math too.”
He’d always been good with numbers. Even at the group home, the teachers noticed. Then Sybil and Thomas insisted they send him to advanced classes in math to keep that big brain of his going.
“What did you do this weekend?” she asked me. “Dad said you weren’t home. I wanted to come visit you.”
“I went hiking.” I looked in the rearview mirror just in time to watch her grimace.
“I don’t like hiking.” Yeah, some things didn’t run in the family.
At a red light, I texted Heath the address of the bowling place. He liked knowing where I took Evie.
A few minutes later, I pulled up in front of The Cozy Place. “All right, we’re here. This is the restaurant of a very good friend,” I informed her.
“Do they have burgers?”
“I’m sure we’ll find something tasty.”
This wasn’t typical for me at all. I never showed up unannounced. And I definitely never missed people—but fuck, I missed Ruby.
I took Evie’s hand out of reflex, but she pulled it back. “Uncle Grant, I’m big now. You don’t need to hold my hand.”
“Right. I thought that rule only applied when we were at the school.”
“No, no. I’m a big girl.”
I made a mental note of that.
As we stepped inside, the restaurant seemed empty at first glance. But then I noticed Ruby sitting at her usual table. She was hunched over her laptop but immediately looked up. When she saw us, her eyes widened. Then she jumped to her feet and walked toward us at a very brisk pace.
“Hey, Grant!” She looked straight at Evie.
“This is my niece, Evie. Evie, this is Ruby,” I introduced them.
“Your friend?” Evie asked.
“Exactly.”
Ruby looked at me questioningly.
“I picked Evie up from school today. She’s hungry, so I figured we’d eat something delicious here and then go bowling.”
Ruby’s face opened up into a huge smile. “What do you two want to eat?”
“Burger,” my niece said without hesitation.
Ruby turned to me. “You too?”
“Sure. Do you have time to sit with us?”
“Of course. You can choose any table you want. I’m going to the kitchen to tell the chef to prepare two burgers. He’s got his own special recipe. You’ll love it. You came to the right place.”
We sat at a table right next to the window. To my surprise, Ruby actually returned with the burgers a few minutes later. My phone kept beeping with messages, but I ignored it.
“That was fast,” I said.
“Richie likes to keep busy even during our downtime.” She put them in front of us.
Evie immediately dove into her burger. My brother usually insisted that she eat with her knife and fork, but as far as I was concerned, burgers were meant to be eaten by hand.
“Wow, this is good,” she exclaimed between bites. “I’m going to tell Daddy we should come here for burgers. Thanks, Ruby.”
Ruby smiled at her, then turned to me. “So, what brings you here? Is there a bowling alley in the neighborhood?”
“No,” I said, looking straight at her, and felt guilt cover my face instantly. What was that about? I could come here for whatever reason I wanted .
Especially to admire my woman.
Then I asked Ruby, “How was your return to work?”
“Surprisingly, I felt refreshed. The time away and the hike certainly did me well.”
“You were hiking too?” Evie asked. “That’s so funny, because Uncle Grant was telling me that he was hiking over the weekend.”
Ruby blushed even more. She focused on my niece. “So, Evie, tell me all about school. Do you have any favorite teachers?”
“Yes, Ms. Dagenham. She teaches English. I don’t like English at all, but I love her. If I had a mom, I would love for her to be like Ms. Dagenham.”
Ruby threw me a glance, but I just shook my head imperceptibly.
Evie’s mom passed away in a helicopter crash when my niece was a year old. All she had to remember her by were pictures.
“Well, I loved my English teacher in high school too,” Ruby said. “So why don’t you like the subject, then?”
“It’s boring! Words and stories. Not all of them make sense.”
“Math is her favorite subject,” I offered.
Ruby’s eyes bulged as if she’d never heard anyone say they liked math. “Wow. Impressive. Why?”
I barely stifled my laughter. She still sounded incredulous.
“Because math is always the same: 10 plus 10 is 20. In English, we read a story, and then we have to give our opinion on what it could be about. It’s so frustrating. We just read what it’s about!”
My school memories of English were vague, but I could see where she was coming from.
Once I downed my burger, Evie looked at me. “Uncle Grant, you’re finally done now. Can we go?”
My honest answer was no because I wanted to be around Ruby a while longer.
Clearly, I hadn’t had enough of this woman during the weekend.
But then I got another idea and turned to Ruby.
“How about joining us for bowling?” She opened her mouth, but before she could protest, I added, “You could be back before the dinner rush.”
“All right.” She quickly looked at Evie. “Is it okay if I crash your day?”
“Yes. We’ve never had a girl hang out with us before. I thought Uncle Grant didn’t have any friends at all.”
“I have friends,” I retorted, a bit taken aback by her comment.
“Name one,” my niece challenged me.
“Roger.”
“Name another one.”
“You truly are your father’s daughter,” I replied.
Ruby started to laugh. “Well, I’m ready to go if you two are.”
“Of course. I just need to pay first.”
“It’s on the house,” she said.
I looked straight at her. “No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Ruby.”
“You are my guests.”
“That is not how I do things,” I told her.
She tilted her head and looked at me furtively, as if she knew I wasn’t going to fight in front of Evie. “It’s on the house,” she repeated.
“We’ll come again for sure. Dad said you must take a free lunch whenever one is offered,” Evie confirmed.
I just stared at my niece. Jesus, I’d told my brothers that what felt like a lifetime ago.
When we were kids, the group home took us out to the zoo once a year. Sometimes people pitied us and bought us sweets or even hot dogs, whatever the nearest food cart was selling. I drilled it into my brothers to never say no. I didn’t even think they remembered, but clearly they did.
“Earth to Grant?” Ruby asked.
“Sorry, I got sidetracked.”
“Come on, Uncle Grant. We have to go,” Evie insisted .
The three of us got up, and then Ruby said, “I’ll be right there. I’m just going to tell my team that I’m leaving and change my shoes.”
I couldn’t help staring at her perfect ass as she hurried to the kitchen. I had zero self-control around this woman. It was time I accepted it.
Evie and I spoke a bit about bowling until Ruby returned, a coat on her arm and holding her bag. She’d changed into pants too.
“I’m ready to go,” she announced.
“After you two,” I told my ladies, pointing in front of me.
Hell yes. This day was getting better and better.