Chapter 28
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Gampy caught me trying to train Maxwell to poop in Alice’s cereal and now I’m grounded til I’m eighty two.
Gampy was huffing as he paced back and forth in front of the couch Dominic and I had been assigned for our time-out. We weren’t allowed to talk, move, or breathe in any manner deemed “audible” by his supersonic hearing aids until he calmed down.
It was going to be a while.
Meanwhile, Maxwell was having the time of his life. He was perched on Dom’s shoulder and busying himself with grooming my hair. We’d originally sat on opposite ends of the couch, but the sheer volume of the complaining squawks we’d received had corrected that decision very quickly.
I was practically pressed right up to Dom, my head leaning lightly against his shoulder per Maxwell’s strict and extremely specific direction.
And every time I tried to stealthily put enough distance between us so that at least we weren’t touching, Maxwell reached over, grabbed my ear with his beak, and tugged me right back.
But other than the swarm of fireflies nipping at every point of contact, it wasn’t so bad. Dom was warm and comfortable enough that, eventually, my eyelids grew droopy. I jolted when Gampy tapped the hardwood with his cane.
Dominic made the mistake of trying to turn this into an opportunity to explain himself. “Can I just say—”
“Shut up,” Gampy snarled, his mustache curved into an unhappy frown.
“You’ve had plenty of opportunity to say your piece.
It’s my turn.” He had to pause again, lips pursed tight.
“Eight years, Dominic. Three hundred or so phone calls. A hundred emails. A few dozen letters. And neither you nor your mother could be bothered to respond to a single one.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not entirely sure how much there was left to say, Robert.”
Maxwell slowed his preening. I scratched his chest, hoping to distract him as Gampy pointed a shaky finger at Dom.
“You keep digging yourself into this hole, Dominic, and the day you finally realize there’s nothing down there for you, you’ll look up, and there’ll be no one left to help you climb back out. ”
Dom’s jaw worked, but he chose to swallow his retort as Gampy gestured between the two of us. “Tell me what’s going on here. With this.”
“It’s not what it looks like,” Dom tried.
“Of course it’s not,” my grandfather barked as though he’d never heard anything quite so idiotic come out of anyone’s mouth. “She’s too good for you and smart enough to know it.”
I smirked and held out my palm. Up high, down low.
“And you.” He pointed at me with that same hand.
“Don’t think you’re getting off that easy.
Regardless of what you two have been up to, this—this image right here—him sneaking around your apartment would’ve earned Adrien an instant twenty to life.
Which reminds me,” Gampy said before giving Dom another good, hearty whack on the shin. “That’s for my grandson.”
That particular blow hit hard enough to make Dominic wince, and as much as he might have deserved it, it made my gut twist.
“I think he gets it.” My leg shot out to shield his. “Stop hitting him, please.”
Dominic threw me a surprised glance. Gampy, meanwhile, turned a raging shade of crimson and glared daggers at Dominic like my actions were directly his fault. Then, through gritted dentures, “Alice, a moment?”
Maxwell snuggled closer to my head when I moved to get up, threatening me with a single beady-eyed look and a fluffed-up neck.
“Chill,” I muttered when he nipped at my ear. “You can come.”
He bopped on Dom’s shoulder, chirping his complaints about the group breaking up.
I clicked my tongue. “Maxi want a raspberry treat?”
It took a few seconds, but the bribe worked.
Gampy trudged toward the front door while I snagged a raspberry out of my fridge.
“Before I forget, this is yours.” He pushed a cardboard box into the doorway with the end of his cane.
“Bunch of old trash you left behind. I had a feeling you’d come outta the woodwork when Alice became harder to reach and tossed ‘em all in a box for you.”
Dom frowned. “Why didn’t you just throw them out?”
“Do I look like your maid?” Gampy snapped, his raging forehead vein resurfacing. “Throw them out yourself. And get the hell out while you’re at it! We can talk when you’re ready to apologize.”
Unfortunately for everyone involved, Maxwell wasn’t having any of it.
As soon as Dominic got up to leave, he gave a loud squawk and fluffed up.
This, of course, infuriated Gampy to no end.
In the twenty-odd years I’d been acquainted with my grandfather, I’d never seen him rage like this.
It would’ve been somewhat amusing if I weren’t worried about his blood pressure.
“Wait for a second, just so he doesn’t see,” I instructed Dom while herding my fuming grandfather into the guest bedroom he’d flipped upside down. “Hey, so, can we slow down for a second and take a couple of really deep breaths?”
Gampy’s hand twisted over the curved handle of his cane, his mustache twitching. He whipped off his glasses and dabbed at his watering eyes with a handkerchief he’d fished out of his back pocket.
It was a stab to the chest.
“Stubborn, hardheaded brat,” he grumbled. This time, though, it was hard to miss the tilt of affection in his tone. “After all this time.”
Maxwell’s neck had stretched to a comical degree, and as soon as Gampy was done dabbing at his eyes, he flew off my shoulder. “Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t make a fuss.”
“Good boy want a mango treat?” He tapped Gampy’s cheek with his beak and withdrew dramatically with an elongated “MWAAAH.”
And okay, yeah, it was super cute—earned him a watery smile from Gampy and everything.
I leaned against the door and crossed my arms, not sure what to say. This was one reason I didn’t want my family to find out. Some wounds stayed open and raw regardless of how much time passed. They simply ran too deep.
Maxwell continued to fuss and coo while Gampy gathered himself. It took a handful of minutes before he slipped his glasses back on. Then, “You want to tell me what’s really going on?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, thinking about my answer. “No. But I also don’t want to lie to you, so… why don’t you ask me something else, and I’ll answer that instead.”
He nodded again, scratching that one sweet spot on Maxwell’s neck. “How about a favor, then?” When I shrugged for him to go on, he said, “If you decide to forgive him when the time comes, extend that same generosity to me, won’t you?”
Out of all the things I’d expected him to say, that was dead last. “What?”
He straightened his glasses. “He wouldn’t listen, would he? When you tried to explain.”
My heart gave a warning thud, then went into complete overdrive. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.” He stuffed his handkerchief back into his pocket, the picture of innocence. “Like I said, I just gave him his stuff back.”
I bolted for the door, already fisting the handle when he said, “Alice.”
It was the soft, even tone of it that made me pause and look back at him.
“It’s his turn,” he said.
My fingers loosened on the handle. “But I…”
“You can chase after him if you’d like. I won’t stop you.” He stacked both hands on top of his cane, eyes softening with affection. “But before you do, just know, my dear girl, that you are… you are worth so much more than he’s given you these last few years.”
My nose stung at that, a watery blur seeping over my vision.
“It’s his turn,” he repeated softly. Then, sucking in a big, refreshing lungful of air, his shoulders perked up. “That earlier talk about going to a spa has my muscles craving a deep tissue. See if Ria and Jamie can ditch work a little early. Been a while since our last girls’ day.”
I sniffled, my fist rolling over the door handle. “Tell me what’s in the box first.”
To his credit, he told me the truth.
I just chose not to believe it.