Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
GREYSON
“It doesn’t have to be perfect—I just need it inhabitable,” I say.
I had to wait two weeks for new windows to arrive because of a supply issue, but I’m more than ready to bring Savvy home—to our home.
Braxton chuckles beside me. “You know, you don’t have to rise to the occasion every time Pops pushes your buttons.”
That crazy old fuck is the reason Savvy isn’t by my side today. He all but insinuated I couldn’t take care of my fiancée because I couldn’t even get my house in order.
So instead of being with her and ensuring the bitch brigade leaves her alone in town, I’m here, at our house, installing new windows.
I swear, if bargain-bin Barbie so much as looks at Savvy funny, I’ll ruin that woman’s miserable existence.
Jesus Christ. I’ve turned into exactly what I used to ridicule—obsessive and a pussy for the one woman who drives me up the wall. I must make a face to go along with my erratic thoughts because Braxton chuckles.
“She’s fine, Grey.” His hand lands on my shoulder, and I can’t contain the snarl that crawls up my throat faster than a blowtorch. He snickers but removes his hands, holding them palms up, as if that will defuse my irritation.
“Pops pushes ’cause sometimes you need a push,” Moose says to my left. We’re holding up a window frame while Cian nails it in place from the inside.
“He pushes because he has no boundaries and thinks everyone’s business is meant for him,” I grumble back.
“Got it,” Cian calls through the window. “Brax, need ya in here.”
Braxton nods, claps me on the back, then walks away.
Moose heads in the other direction and sits on a cooler full of snacks that Pops has already eaten most of.
“Ya know, Gilly hated me at first.” Moose chuckles as though he’s lost in a memory. “Hit me in the head with a shovel the first time I showed up to ask her for a date.”
“Jesus. What did you do?” I lean against the side of my house and cross my ankles.
“I was so caught up in what I thought were my responsibilities that I forgot she had thoughts and feelings of her own. Our pas were business partners. They died in a car wreck when I was eighteen, Gilly was sixteen.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” And I am. Moose seems to be one of the lucky ones who actually loved his father.
He nods, the motion thoughtful and silent.
“We’d always joked we’d end up together.
Got along well, liked each other enough.
But after the accident, I was left with two households to provide for.
I was so consumed by duty that I became a robot, mechanical in my thinking and stubborn to a fault.
When the company was in trouble and I needed my inheritance to make ends meet, I told her to marry me. ”
I wince. An image of me demanding the same thing of Savvy crosses my mind.
“How’d she take that?”
He points to his temple. “She gave me a concussion with a shovel.”
I could easily see Savvy doing the same thing. “What did you do?”
A rare smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “Pops had been with Maisie a few years by then. Childhood sweethearts and all. For the amount of trouble that man caused, he had an uncanny ability to heal fractured hearts.”
I scoff, but Moose just lifts his brow to me in question.
“You think he doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing every time he pushes you closer to Savvy?
You think he didn’t know exactly what he was doing, playing matchmaker with your grandfather?
Pops is a meddler, no doubt about that, but he’s rooting for you, son.
Nothing makes him happier than seeing those he loves in love. ”
I’m not convinced that Pops has any planning abilities whatsoever, so I focus on his story. “How’d you get Gilly to fall for you?”
He shrugs. “I just kept showing up. One day, one moment at a time until the fabric of her life wound so tightly through mine there was no beginning and no end, just us.”
“I’m showing up for Savvy.”
“Mm-hmm. But showing up with a bulldozer and showing up with a shovel are two very different things. Go at that girl with a bulldozer, and she’ll piss in your gas tank just to leave you all alone, seizing in the hot sun.”
“You want me to hit her with a shovel?” My head hurts from this conversation.
“I want you to meet her halfway with a shovel and then slowly chip away at the cement that girl’s got clinging to her shoes.”
“You think she’s drowning.” It’s the same fear I’ve had since I returned to Happiness.
“I think she’s been treading water so long she doesn’t remember how to ask for a hand.
” His voice is rough with age and wisdom I can’t begin to fathom.
“She needs a life preserver, not a rescue. You keep bulldozing your way into her problems like you are, and she’s likely to go under just to spite you.
But hold her life preserver while she finds her feet and you just might find a way to keep her. ”
“I…”
“You’re a good man, Greyson. You hide behind bitterness and a cold demeanor, but even all your ice can’t hide the heart of you. Trust those you love with it. You might be surprised what you uncover about yourself and them.”
“I can’t just sit by and do nothing when there’s a problem I can fix.”
“No, I don’t expect you can. But let me ask you this. When Sage was learning to walk and fell, as toddlers do, did you hold his hand all the time, or did you allow him to figure it out, even with the risk of him getting hurt?”
An image of baby Sage brings a smile to my face. Braxton was always better about letting him cry things out than I was. I tried to use a baby harness so I could yank Sage upright every time he started to fall.
Fuck. That was a disaster.
“I can see it on your face, son. You wanted to protect him, but in the end, you knew all you could do was be there to comfort him after he fell or he’d never learn. Life isn’t about living with no pain, Greyson. It’s about how we move on from the pain and who’s holding our hand when we do.”
“So, what, you just want me to allow her to hurt while she figures it out?” Even as the words leave my mouth, I know I can’t do it. I won’t.
“No, I don’t think you have it in you to allow anyone pain if you can help it, but I do think you can learn to be a team player. What Savvy girl needs is someone to protect her blind side while she makes the play.”
“You want me to be her O-line.” Jesus, now Moose is giving me advice on Savvy in football metaphors.
He chuckles, a raspy sound that starts in his rounded belly.
“That’s one way to look at it. Savvy needs to be the quarterback in her story.
She has a job to do, and she can do it well, but not while the opposition is constantly attacking her.
Be that line of defense she needs to be her own hero.
Help her make the play of her life. She needs that control. ”
I flip my lucky coin through my fingers while Moose watches. What he said makes sense, but the idea of letting Savvy feel any pain sticks in my stomach like a thousand swords. But if I control the threats, the moves she’ll make will inherently be less painful, right?
“That makes sense,” I finally concede.
“The best thing Gilly ever taught me was that life is not a game of chess. The moment you try to think three steps ahead in matters of the heart is the moment you lose. Love is about action and reaction, with each player having equal power. You can’t plan Savvy’s life for her, but you can react to her choices with love and compassion.
See her as your equal in every matter, and you’ll be years ahead of most of us. ”
Savvy is my equal. I’ve always known that, even if I refused to admit it.
But does she?
“Grey?”
I push off the wall just as Brax and Pops round the corner. Pops is muttering curse words under his breath, while Braxton’s face is marred in worry lines.
“What’s wrong?”
“Riley DeVane just tried to check into the Hideaway.”
“He’s here?” My head swims as though I’ve been deprived of oxygen, and my muscles seize for control.
Braxton nods. “The reservation was booked through a business account, but Madi’s been cyberstalking that asshole since Savvy told her everything. She recognized him immediately and told him there was an issue with the booking.”
“Where is he now?”
“Sitting in the den at the Hideaway.” Braxton doesn’t have a temper the same way I do, but anyone looking on now would be hard-pressed to believe it. The vein in his forehead is bulging, and his tone is vicious.
“He’s just sitting there?”
Braxton nods, then heads toward the driveaway.
“Mads told him she’d have to speak to the owner and asked him to come back,” Pops grumbles.
“The fucker said he’d wait,” Braxton blurts.
“Where’s Savvy?” I ask, already pulling out my phone. I should’ve put a tracker on her.
“Madi said she was still at the fairgrounds with Elle and Blissy, setting up the Blissful Beans & Leaves booth. I tried calling them all, but it went straight to voicemail.”
“Reception’s shite at the fairgrounds,” Cian says, dusting his hands off on his jeans. “Let’s go. I’m driving.”
“I have an SUV. Why are we all going to cram into your truck?” I hate those things. I feel like a toddler wedged into a car seat every time there’s more than two people.
“’Cause Moose and Pops are taking your car to the inn. We’re going to raise hell until we get our girls back, and your suburban mom truck ain’t going to cut it at the fairgrounds.”
Suburban mom truck, my ass. “It’s an Escalade.”
“Prissmobile. Only an asshole spends that much money on a vehicle for one person. Now give Moose the keys so he can get to the inn and keep that wanker confused until we get our girls.”
“You’re not going to Madi?” I ask Brax.
“Sage is on his way over with some of the football team. She wants me to go with you.”
“Will she…”
“Sage has the entire offensive line arriving at the inn in about five minutes. If I don’t go with you, Madi will have my head.”