Chapter Ten
Ten
Simon
A laugh burst out of me. “Yeah, no.”
Hannah pursed her lips and tapped her chin with the tip of her index finger as if she was actually considering the possibility.
I glanced at Luke to see what he thought and he met my gaze and his voice was gentle when he said, “They were together-together, you know?”
“In what way?” I asked. My voice came out more demanding than I intended and I cleared my throat. “I mean, in what way did they present as together-together?”
“They held hands,” Roland said. “Oh, not in town, but here in the neighborhood, when they took their evening walks, they were usually hand in hand or Bobby had his arm around Billy’s shoulders.”
Bebe nodded. “It was sweet.”
“Again, no, that’s impossible. Gramps was a lot of things but ‘sweet’ wasn’t one of them,” I said.
They were all staring at me with something like pity.
I glanced at Hannah. Surely she didn’t believe that our grandfathers were in a secret relationship.
Her brow was furrowed and she was chewing on her bottom lip.
Unlike me, she was not arguing with the people who had been our grandfathers’ friends and neighbors for two decades.
Bebe pushed the plate of pastries toward me. “I’m not saying their relationship is why they didn’t tell you about each other or their co-ownership of the house. I’m just offering it as a possibility.”
“Gramps involved with a man?” I shook my head.
“That doesn’t track. I mean, he was married for thirty-seven years, he had a kid, and grandkids—one of which is me.
He was a widower for twenty years before he passed away.
” They were all staring at me and I could feel myself start to sweat and it wasn’t the morning humidity.
“Pops was married, too,” Hannah said. I felt my shoulders drop. She understood. There was no way our grandfathers were a couple. “He and my Nana divorced twenty years ago. Right about the time your grandfather was widowed.”
We stared at each other. I could see the cogs and gears turning in her brain trying to make sense of the fact that our grandfathers had cohabited in a cottage for the last two decades of their lives and never invited us—any of us—into their shared world.
It would explain so much but it would also send shock waves through my family that I was not prepared to deal with.
My father, Gramps’s only child, would absolutely have a stroke at the mere idea that Gramps was in a relationship with a man—if he was to hear about it.
Fortunately, this was unlikely as Dad had booked it to Florida after my mother died, leaving us in Gramps’s care and he’d never returned other than an obligatory visit every summer.
Of course, his abandonment hadn’t stopped him from turning up at Gramps’s funeral four months ago.
He’d insisted on taking over the planning of the service, a coup attempt my sister shot down with gusto.
I’d suspected Dad was mostly there for the reading of the will.
When he was left nothing, surprising no one but him, he tried to take away the conservatorship of my brother from me.
Thankfully, Gramps had done his legal due diligence making certain that I was the conservator of Charlie’s financial affairs and if anything happened to me, it would fall to Lorelei.
When my father failed to gain access to Charlie’s money, he scuttled like a cockroach back to his new family in Florida. Good riddance.
“Well, we should probably go.” Bebe rose from her seat. “Come on, Luke, per usual I think we’ve overstayed our welcome. Roland, are you and Zach finished?”
“We are.” Zach appeared in the doorway, carrying his chainsaw. “I just got the last section of tree back out the window. Ooh, pastries.” Hannah held up the tray to him and he snagged a jam-filled one. “Thanks.”
“Hannah and Simon, there’s a potluck barbecue at the Fisks’ house next week,” Bebe said. “Monica told me to invite you and that you don’t have to bring anything. It’s the pale blue house at the end of the road.”
“We’ll be there, too,” Roland said. “Davis makes the best brisket.”
Bebe led the way to the front door with Luke, Zach, and Roland following her.
Hannah and I walked them to the door.
“You all right, Simon?” Luke clapped me on the shoulder.
“Yeah, great…good…hanging in there.” I nodded, aware that I sounded as frazzled as I felt.
“Hey, I know a window guy who can replace the windows upstairs. If you want, I’ll text you his number,” Zach offered.
“That’d be great,” I said.
“And Zach and I will get that spare generator set up for you until we all get our power back,” Roland said.
“Thank you. You’ve all been so kind. I can see why Pops loved it here so much,” Hannah said. Clearly, she was the one with the polished social skills.
This seemed to ease the awkwardness I had unwittingly created with my surprise that Gramps had been in a relationship.
A relationship that I knew nothing about.
I didn’t care that it had been with a man, but I was absolutely rocked that he hadn’t told me about it.
I’d thought we were close. If he’d told anyone, it would have been me—but he hadn’t.
Hannah closed the door after our neighbors while I doubled back to the kitchen and stuffed another emotional-support pastry—salted caramel, yum—into my mouth.
Before Hannah joined me, I opened the sliding door to let Dude inside.
I needed the distraction. Being ever helpful, Dude bounded right over to the counter and propped his chin on it, staring at the baked goods as if he could will one to slide off the plate and into his mouth.
“Dude.” Hannah’s voice was stern but Dude didn’t relax his pastry vigil. He simply glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and she sighed. She found a plain croissant amid the variety and broke it in half.
Dude emitted a happy growl and sat on his haunches with his gaze fixed on the flaky bread. Hannah held it out to him, and said, “Gentle.”
Dude leaned forward, tentatively opening his mouth just enough to take it from her hand. He was clearly concentrating on being as delicate as possible and I had to admire him for it. These pastries were enough to make me bite a finger if it got in my way.
Once she let go, he swallowed the entirety of it. “It would taste even better if you chewed it.” Hannah ruffled his ears. She squinted at me and asked, “You okay, O’Malley?”
“Was my internal freak-out that obvious?” I asked.
“That was internal?” She gave me a pointed look softened with a small smile.
I rubbed my face with my hand.
She reached over and patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry. It wasn’t that bad, but, yeah, it was clear you were knocked off-balance.” She slid onto the stool Bebe had vacated and I took the one beside her.
I felt compelled to explain. “It’s not that I care who Gramps was involved with, it’s that he didn’t tell me. All this time and I had no idea.”
“Hmm.” She sounded doubtful.
“Gramps was…you’d have to have known him to understand.” I ran my hand through my hair, pushing it back from my face. Images of the lovable knuckle dragger who had been my Gramps filled my mind.
“No indication of homosexuality then?” she asked. “Assuming there is such a thing.”
“Listen, I know it’s easy to assume I’m being an asshole and that my upset is about the gender of Gramps’s partner but that isn’t it.
” I reached for a chocolate donut that was coated in powdered sugar but had deep fudgy cracks in its surface.
“I’m aware that it sounds ridiculous, but the fact is I just feel betrayed. ”
“Why? He didn’t do anything to you. His relationship with Pops changes nothing about your relationship with him.” Hannah fed Dude the other half of the croissant. He didn’t taste that one, either.
There was something in her voice. A hurt that mirrored my own. Hannah was not nearly as cool with being shut out of her Pops’s life as she pretended. “Who are you trying to convince, Spencer, me or you?”
“I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything.” Hannah didn’t meet my gaze.
“Sure. Are you telling me you don’t feel anything about being left out of a significant part of Pops’s life? It doesn’t bother you at all that he didn’t trust you enough to tell you? That maybe you weren’t as close as you thought you were.”
“You know what, O’Malley, I don’t have to assume. You are being an asshole.” She pushed off her stool and stormed out, slamming the back door as if it were my head.
Dude stared at me with a reproving gaze.
“Whatever. She knows I’m right.”
Dude continued to stare.
“Fine. She’s your person. What do I do, go after her?”
The Great Dane’s floppy ears twitched, which I took as the dog equivalent of “Duh.”
I shoved the last of the chocolate donut into my mouth to fortify myself and then headed out the door. The day was heating up but there was a breeze making it bearable. I scanned the overgrown backyard until I spotted Hannah, sitting on the edge of the dock with her feet dangling in the water.
I remembered how fearlessly she had jumped in after me even though she’d been terrified there were alligators.
For a second, just a nanosecond really, I thought about slipping into the water and pretending I was an alligator by grabbing her ankle, but given that she was already pissed at me, I rejected the idea.
Pissing her off was not how I was going to get her to agree to sell the house at the end of our two-month residency.
I needed to repair the damage I’d just done and get us back to the us we’d been when we were singing Dude to sleep.
I felt a warmth unfurl in my chest at the memory and immediately felt guilty that I was trying to maneuver her into selling the cottage when she’d been very clear she wanted to stay.