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A moment passes.
"Wilby, look at me please."
I lift my head.
If Gran is one thing, it's strong as a fucking mule. Nothing ever gets her down. Not her husband being tragically killed in a car accident. Not losing her daughter last year. Not my fucking sister fucking us well and truly over. Not even the prospect of us losing everything and getting thrown off our land.
Gran just takes the hits as they come, dusts herself off, and when she gets back up, she's stronger than before. I need to absorb some of her strength and steely calm because, lord knows, we're in for a fight.
"We are not quitters, and we will fight until we have nothing left to give." A sharpness cuts through her voice. "And we will win. It's as simple as that."
I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. I'm sick with worry. And I'm slipping closer and closer to the edge of completely losing it. But I cannot crumble. If she's got this much fight left in her at her age, I need to step the fuck up and bring it, too.
I stare at her across the table, with thatdon't fuck with mefireblazing in her eyes, and I realise two things.
One, I love her so fucking much.
And two, she's one hundred percent spot on.
"You're right. You're absolutely right." I shake my head, waking myself up from the defeated state I fell into. "No one fucks with the fucking Linfoxes."
She smiles, nodding her head. "Or the fucking Graysons."
I nod back. "Or the fucking Graysons."
"Any word from Col?" she asks, changing the subject in an epic deflection.
I smile at her, happily taking the distraction. Anything to get my mind off the impending doom.
"Nah, he's working at the moment, so I'm leaving him to it. He said once he finishes, he'll come back and we can hang out for a few days."
"So, you haven't had any contact with him?"
"Just a few text messages."
"I see. You didn't leave him anything in his hotel room?"
I shake my head and grin. Nothing gets past the old chook. "Okay. So Imayhave gotten one of the farmhands to drive into town, hand Fitz a note, and ask him to plead with Mrs. Judd to leave it on Col's bed in his room."
Gran smiles. "You like him."
Statement, not a query.
"I do. Even though it's stupid," I say, sinking the last of my coffee. "It's not like we have a future, or anything."
"Why not? If you both like one another, what else is there?"
I give a little laugh. "It's a little more complicated than that, Gran."
She takes my empty cup, serving me her all-knowing look. "No, it really isn't."
I roll my eyes and stand up, resting my hand gently on her shoulder. "Dating's evolved a little since your time. We have this new thing now. It's called…electricity."
"Why, you little shit." She tears the washcloth off the oven handle and whips me across the backs of my calves with it.
"Ow. That hurt." I jiggle-dance my way to the edge of the kitchen where I'm out of her reach.
She smiles smugly, then says, "But I mean it, Wilby, if you like this boy, tell him. Life is a game. You have to be in it to win it."
