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35
REESE
An hour later, Grams is knocking on my door. She hasn’t been back to see Violet since the first week she was here, so she jumped on the chance to spend time with her before the babysitter came by.
“You got here awful quick.” I kiss her on the cheek.
“You’ve kept that precious baby angel holed up in this house and haven’t bothered to let me know when I can come bury her in snuggles. Enough of you—out of my way! Where is she?”
I laugh and step aside to let her in off the stoop. “Upstairs. A babysitter is coming around seven.”
Grams’s eyebrow quirks. “You have plans tonight?”
Right on cue, Olivia makes her way down the stairs. “Reese, I’m ready to—” She pauses when she sees Grams. Her descent down the stairs slows. “Oh. Hello.”
Grams gives me some serious side-eye. “The mother?” she asks with some suspicion.
I burst out laughing as Olivia turns beet red with embarrassment. “No, no. She’s Violet’s nanny.”
“Oh, thank God.” Grams waves her hand. “Hi, sweetheart. Lovely to meet you. I would hate to have to give you a piece of my mind for leaving my great-granddaughter out on a doorstep.” When Olivia finishes coming down the stairs, Grams smiles and offers a hand to shake. “Theresa Dalton. Reese’s Cups’s grandmother.”
I groan as Olivia laughs at the nickname. “I’ve begged you for twenty-plus years to let that one day,” I say with a grimace. “You are a stubborn woman.”
“Oh, hush,” she fires back. “You’re not so special that you can get out of me treating you like my grandchild in front of your friends.” She grins at Olivia. “Don’t let this tough guy act make you think he’s anything but a softy at heart. He loves the nickname. So, you two are going out?”
There’s a double meaning there I don’t entertain. It’s just like Grams to joke around and then put someone on the spot in the same breath. There’s no pulling the wool over her eyes.
Olivia doesn’t seem to know how to answer. She looks at me, a deer in the headlights.
I roll my eyes at my grandmother. “It’s a day off, Grams. Chill out.”
Grams raises her brow. It’s an Mmhmm, we’ll talk later kind of look. Just like that godawful nickname, she’s been throwing that at me for twenty-something years, too.
“Well, you two have fun. Don’t hurry back on my account. I’m off to spoil a special little girl rotten.”
She leaves us without a backward glance.
Olivia is quiet as we head into the garage. It’s only when we’re in the car that she speaks. “It’s okay if your grandmother kind of, uh… suspects, right? Like she isn’t going to say anything?”
I snort. “Nah. She won’t do anything like leak my personal life like that,” I assure her. “Grams will probably tease me, but we’re grown. There’s no judgment here.”
Olivia relaxes in her seat as I pull out of the garage. She reaches for the radio, then pauses and worries at her lip like even that might be crossing some invisible line. “Can I?”
I nod. “Go for it.”
She tunes it to a pop station. As the music starts up, she hums along. I don’t know the song, but as it goes on, I love the way she moves and sings.
I smile. Damn, she’s making me all light and warm and shit. I’d mock it if it didn’t feel so good.
“So where are we going? We gonna get disguises?” she asks, voice full of giddy conspiracy.
I chuckle. “Something like that.”
* * *
Macintyre’s is a store set just off the main highway. Anyone driving by might mistake it for a semi-abandoned brick building. But the reality of it is much more interesting.
Olivia gives me a skeptical look as I pull up to the parking lot. There’s only one other car in the lot.
