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“Yeah, I wouldn’t say I haven’t made any progress. But it has been slow.”
“That’s not going to matter to Cooper,” Ivy warned me.
Nodding, Marco silently agreed with her. “Hey, look on the bright side, Wyatt.”
“Is there one?”
He grinned at me. “At least you decided it was wise to come here and tell him in person instead of calling for a meeting.”
My eyes shot to my sister. “See? I told you that would help.”
Ivy rolled her eyes again, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Whatever. I’ve got to get back to work. Good luck with Rhea.”
“Who’s Rhea?” Marco asked.
Returning my attention to Marco, I said, “I’ll tell you on the way.”
At that, we said goodbye to my sister, and I told Marco about Rhea. Suffice it to say, he didn’t think the way I felt about her was going to do anything to help Cooper from being any less stressed about the theme park expansion.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t much later when I learned both he and Ivy were right.
RHEA
“Are you ready to go?”
My grandma came zooming toward me—as much as my grandma could zoom—with an excited grin. “It’s my favorite day of the week, Rhea. Of course, I’m ready.”
I smiled back at her.
To anyone else, it probably seemed unreasonable that a person could declare Tuesdays as being their favorite day, but my grandma didn’t claim to be sane.
I couldn’t say I blamed her, though.
Because Tuesdays had become one of my favorite days, too.
For years, I escorted my grandmother to her weekly bingo night, where we always had a wonderful time.
Then again, it was virtually impossible to be anywhere with Edith Marks and not have a blast. She was the life of the party, and she held nothing back. I liked to think that a lot of who I was came from her. My entire family had taught me how to be strong, but there was something extra special about my grandma.
“Do you think we’ll win big tonight?” I questioned her as we walked outside and toward the car.
She huffed. “Even if we won the top prize, we could certainly have a good time, but I’m not sure I’d call it winning big.”
Grandma wasn’t wrong. Unless we both won a game, which would only give us five hundred dollars between the two of us in a best-case scenario, it wasn’t likely we’d be returning to the farm as millionaires.
But it really wasn’t about the money for us. In fact, it was rare for us to win. We continued to show up nearly every week because we wound up getting something that made us far richer than money ever could. What we lacked in winnings, we made up for in having fun and making memories to last a lifetime.
Once we were on our way to the community center in Landing, my grandmother said, “If there’s one thing in this world I feel conflicted about, it’s how I both dread and look forward to the day you can no longer go with me to bingo night.”
My relationships with every member of my family were excellent. I was close with all of them, but there was something about the relationship I had with my grandmother that was different. I never held myself back from telling her precisely how I felt.
With my lips twitching, I said, “It sounds like I might need to take you to the doctor sometime this week to get your head checked. How could you ever think I’d stop going to bingo night with you? And why, if you truly believe that could happen, would it ever be something you look forward to?”
I felt her hand settle gently on my forearm, which was resting gently on the center console. “I love this time with you, Rhea. You know that. But there will come a time when you get married and have children. I can’t wait to see you find that happy ending you deserve. There probably isn’t anything I want more in this world. Your life will change, and it’s a wonderful thing. I just know it’s going to mean this time we have together will likely cease to exist.”
How I could feel such a mix of emotions on my way to bingo night with a woman who’d been in my life from the day I was born was beyond me, but I was stuck between feeling hopeful about the future it seemed we both wanted me to have and saddened by the thought she believed I’d abandon this. “While I can imagine there might be instances when coming to bingo night every week could prove to be difficult if there’s a new baby in the mix, I’m never going to stop doing this with you. I love it too much.”
“Well, I guess we’ll have to see what happens,” she declared.
