Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Laurel jerked away from Jake faster than a racehorse leaving the gate. When she saw the gray-haired, elderly woman standing in a robe, unapologetically watching them, embarrassment scalded her cheeks. Confused, she looked to Jake for answers, but he seemed as surprised as she was.
“Grand, what the hell are you doing here?” Jake asked the woman.
“Telling you to get a room,” the woman sassed.
“I have a room,” Jake countered. “I have an entire house! And you’re in it!”
The woman rolled her eyes and shuffled her bunny slipper clad feet into the kitchen. “Very observant, Jacob.” She opened the fridge and started perusing its contents. “Nice to know you’re not just a pretty face.”
“Jake?” Laurel’s voice sounded as confused as she felt.
Who in bells is she?
Jake captured Laurel’s hand with his own and pulled her close. “Laurel…” He nodded toward the woman who was so short she made Laurel look tall. “I’d like you to meet my annoying grandmother.”
Laurel noticed he’d made a point of emphasizing the last word.
“We don’t use that word!” came the sharp retort from the kitchen.
“We do when you break and enter,” he shot back.
“I didn’t break in.” Her smile was smug. “You gave me a key.”
“For emergencies,” he clarified. “I gave you a key for emergencies.”
The woman shrugged like she couldn’t care less.
“Sorry.” Jake squeezed Laurel’s hand. “I have no clue why she’s here.”
“She’s your grandmother,” Laurel said, more to herself than him. She felt the color drain from her face as that fact sank in. Jake’s grandmother had seen them… seen Jake’s hand underneath her… watched her wantonly rubbing against his?—
“Stop saying that!” Grand ordered, making Laurel flinch.
“Grand, be nice,” Jake warned, before explaining, “She doesn’t like being called ‘grandmother’.” He raised his voice. “Cuz she doesn’t want to admit she’s old.”
“I’m young enough to kick your butt!” the woman barked.
“Grand.” He pointed a warning finger at her. “Stop. You’re freaking her out.”
Ha! Freaking out is an understatement!
“Fine.” Jake’s grandmother closed the fridge after getting out a piece of pie.
Of course, it had to be pie.
“Hey, that’s my last piece,” Jake protested.
“Cry me a river.” Grand took the pie over to the kitchen table, sat down, and patted the chair next to her. “Come sit down, missy, and introduce yourself.”
Laurel looked to Jake for direction.
He shrugged. “May as well. God knows, she won’t stop bugging you until you do.”
Walking over, Laurel took the designated seat. She had no problem braving a classroom full of wild children, but facing Jake’s grandmother after she’d seen them… that was intimidating.
“Um, hi.”
“Don’t worry,” Grand said with a wave of her fork. “I don’t bite.”
Jake snorted.
Laurel ventured a quick glance his way. His easy grin made her relax enough to let out the breath she’d been holding. “I’m Laurel. What’s your name?”
“It sure as hell isn’t ‘grandmother’.” She sneered at Jake. “If you can put up with this one…” She gestured to her grandson with the bite of pie balanced on her fork. “You can call me Grand.” She shoveled the pie into her mouth and practically purred. “Despite being such a smart ass,” she told Jake, “you do know your way around a kitchen.”
Jake took the seat across the table from them. “Like there was any doubt.”
“Wait.” Laurel looked at the pie. True, it was only one piece, but she could still tell the crust edge had been twisted into an intricate braid design. The filling looked juicy and plentiful, and every inch of the crust was a perfect golden brown. She couldn’t even manage not to burn a frozen beef pot pie… or set her kitchen on fire. “You made this?” she asked him.
“Don’t sound so surprised. I told you I could cook.”
“Yeah, but…”
Grand snickered. “She didn’t believe you.” She patted Laurel’s hand. “Smart girl.”
The fondness for her grandson evident in Grand’s expression, and the warmth in her eyes when she addressed her made any remaining tension leave Laurel’s body. Bickering was obviously a form of affection between these two. It actually spoke volumes about their connection. She envied him being so close to his family.
“It’s nice that you’re playing nice,” Jake told Grand. “But why are you in my house again?”
“They put in my new carpet today,” she said.
When she didn’t elaborate, Jake flipped his hands out in front of him, palms up in an unspoken “ And?”
“The place smells awful,” Grand said.
“It’ll go away in a day or two,” he told her.
“Then I guess I’ll be staying here a day or two.”
“Why don’t you stay with Jess?” he asked, sending a heated glance Laurel’s way.
“Because I don’t want to hear her and Chase rutting around like bunnies, that’s why.”
Omigosh! I can’t believe his grandma just said that!
“Bunnies don’t rut,” Jake corrected. “They hump. The expression is ‘hump like bunnies’.”
Grand waved him off. “Whatever they do, I don’t want to hear it.” She pointed back and forth between Jake and Laurel. “So, none of that here.”
Laurel’s lungs flash-froze in her chest. Jake’s grandma was talking about Laurel having sex with her grandson! Sex! Grandmas weren’t supposed to mention their grandsons’ sex lives! They weren’t even supposed to know about it. Yet, here Jake’s sat, with a grin on her deceptively innocent face, studying Laurel with a twinkle in her vivid blue eyes.
Laurel pushed her chair back so quickly, it almost toppled over. She shot to her feet, refusing to look at Grand. She knew her cheeks had to be blazing red.
“Where’s the bathroom?” she croaked.
As soon as Laurel closed the bathroom door behind her, Jake nailed Grand with a stern look. “Really? You really had to go there?”
Grand shrugged. “I like her.”
“So do I!” Jake shouted.
Grand’s pleased expression deflated his annoyance. His grandma was a handful, but he loved her dearly. People said he took after her because he called it how he saw it and basically had no filter. People were right. Not surprising she’d rubbed off on him, since he and Jess had spent so much time with her when they were little. Grand was one of his favorite people in the world. He couldn’t stay mad at her if he tried.
“You embarrassed the shit out of her, Grand.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“I know you didn’t.” He let out a heavy sigh. “But, can you please try to rein it in? For me. Your favorite grandson.”
“You’re not my favorite grandson,” she said matter-of-factly before scooping another bite of pie into her mouth.
He wrinkled his brows. “I’m your only grandson.”
“Fine,” she relented, trying not to smile. “You’re my favorite. Happy?”
He stood and leaned over the table to kiss her forehead. “Happy.” He sank back down onto his chair. “Now, please tell me you’re gonna behave. I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am with her.” He had. He’d spent weeks trying to get her to let him in. “I don’t need you scaring her away.”
He joked about his bad boy persona, but it was important to him that Laurel saw the other side. The side that didn’t go home with a different girl every weekend. That didn’t fail to take things seriously. The side that wanted to try again after getting his heart stomped in California.
He'd laid his heart on the table, and his ex had left it there. She’d said he wasn’t the type of guy girls married, whatever the hell that meant. She’d labeled him a player, so that’s what he’d become. No strings. No promises. No second dates…. No way to get his heart broken again.
It’d taken years for him to realize she’d actually done him a favor. He hadn’t been in love with her. Not truly. He’d only convinced himself that he’d been. He’d wanted the fairytale—like his parents had had. Like Grand and Grandpa Gus had. Like Jess and Chase had now.
Over the years he’d resigned himself to the fact he wasn’t that guy. But he wanted to be. With Laurel, he realized he wanted to be. He just wasn’t sure how.
“She’s not like the others, is she?” Grand asked.
Jake offered Grand a half-hearted grin before gripping his jaw between his fingers and thumb and rubbing. He knew she could tell his smile was fake, but it was all he could muster at the moment.
Was Laurel like the others? Shit. She was light years away from any other woman he’d known. Innocent, yet tough. Sincere instead of fake. A natural beauty rather than store-bought good looks. Fucking sexy as hell. She was in a league of her own... and way too good for him.
He should walk away, but damned if he knew how.