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“Bullshitting, you mean,” I said.
Grant gave me a careless shrug. “I’m a storyteller. You don’t hear Jeff R Martin apologizing for entertaining people with his books, do you?”
“George,” I said.
Grant gave me a puzzled look.
I decided trying to explain myself would only confuse him more. “You don’t usually make house calls. What’s going on?”
Grant gestured for me to follow him to the kitchen, which was about as far out of earshot as we could manage in the small apartment.
“Just wanted to let you know I’ve been hearing some rumors,” Grant said once we were alone.
“About?”
“You. Your club. Some submissive you’ve been around with and that she’s William’s granddaughter. People are playing connect the dots. William dies. His granddaughter suddenly shows up in the club. Looks like you’re showing her the ropes. Get what I’m getting at? My grams always said if it smells like shit and looks like shit, you probably don’t need to bother tasting it to find out. So...”
I raised my eyebrows. “Your grams sounds like a charmer. But, no. I’m keeping the club. Andi’s involvement is… complicated. It’s not something I need to explain to the members, either.”
“Wait,” Grant said. “How exactly are you keeping the club? You and William hated each other. He’d never—”
“He did,” I said. “Sort of.”
Grant looked like he wanted to know more, but I didn’t intend to give it.
He raised his eyebrows, then shook his head. “Just be careful. You lose the trust of your members, and you’ll be in charge of a big ass, empty building.”
“Yeah, well there’s nothing I can do about it unless I want to ruin things with Andi.” I knew that statement wouldn’t make a ton of sense given the information Grant had, but it was the truth.
Grant suddenly smiled like an idiot and punched my shoulder. “Look at you. Smitten. I’ve seen it before—in other men, of course. The only thing I’ve ever seen you smitten with is an expensive suit.” He tugged on my lapel as if to emphasize the point.
I slapped his hand away. “Okay. Yes. I care about Andi, and probably more than I should given how little time I’ve actually spent with her. But it’s complicated between us, and complicated things have a way of breaking before long.”
Grant held up his forefinger in dramatic fashion, looking at it with two wide eyes. Then he followed it as he made a circle with his other hand and inserted the forefinger inside. “Not complicated, Landon. I can show you again, if you’re still confused on the details.”
I sighed. “There’s a reason I don’t visit the Platinum Pecker more often.”
“Yeah, because I make you pay a cover fee and you’re too broke to afford it.”
I grinned. “Please don’t rub in the fact that you didn’t have to pay the blood relative tax. It only makes me hate you more than I already do.”
“So,” Grant said. “What’s so complicated about it?”
“She doesn’t know William was my father, for starters.”
Grant pulled his lips back, wincing. “Goddamn, you’re not a smart man. Are you?”
“I never found the right time to tell her.”
“The right time would have been probably in the first or second sentence you ever uttered to her. Maybe, ‘hey, I’m Landon and my dad was actually your adoptive grandfather.’”
“I didn’t expect to be in her life for more than a few minutes. By the time I realized, it had already gone too far.”
“And so, it’s complicated now because you’re still letting it go further? Just tell her, man. The longer you wait, the worse it’s going to be. Hell, you’re probably already screwed, anyway.”
“Thanks for the comforting words,” I said dryly. “I’m going to tell her. I’m just waiting for the right time.”
Grant pursed his lips and nodded. “I can see that. If I knew I was going to die, I would probably take a few minutes to choose where it was going to happen.”
“Don’t you have some sort of work to be doing?”
He shrugged. “I’ll be happy to head out. If I hang around you much longer, I’m bound to get splattered when the shitstorm arrives. And make no mistake, you’re about to be in the mother of all shitstorms.”
I watched him go but couldn’t help thinking he was right. I needed to tell Andi the truth and I needed to handle the rumors swirling around us.
I hated that my selfish brain went straight to what she might do if she decided to cut ties after I told her the truth. Would she know she could hurt me by talking to the right people in the club? If she talked to my ex, Sydney, or Edward, she could probably give them enough ammunition to chase away every last member of The Golden Pecker. The most logical thing to do would be to go finalize things with the lawyers now. I could cement my role as the owner of The Golden Pecker, transfer my share of William’s hotel to her, and then deal with the messy truth.
