AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It made Gen's heart hurt, seeing the connection between them, so strong as a result of how weak it was with others. Well, the joke's on you, she thought. Because any parent with a heart would want their child to look at them the way he was looking at Dot. Actually, anyone at all would want Noah to look at them with such devotion.
Gen stilled inside, realizing she had seen that look on Noah's face before. It didn't have the same sensual overtones, of course, but in some of his intense moments with her or Lyda, his heart had been right there for them to see. To take.
When Noah glanced at Lyda, she gave him a light shove. "Your grandmother is top dog here," she said, with a strained smile that suggested his expression had broken Lyda's heart a little as well. "When she says jump, you leap."
Noah kissed her hand, and then he was striding across the wooden bridge and up the steps to hop on the porch and kneel by his grandmother, whom he enveloped in a huge hug.
Lyda linked arms with Gen, both of them studying the two, giving them a minute. "So she lives in Tampa the rest of the year?" Gen asked.
"Yeah. Even when he moved in with me, he went to see her a couple days a week. It does him a lot of good. I hadn't met her before now, though." At Gen's glance, Lyda grimaced. "Yeah, I'm a hardass, I know it. But you two forced me into a weak moment, so here I am."
Lyda tempered it with a wry look, but when she put pressure on Gen's arm, it was clear she wanted Gen right with her when they stepped onto the porch. She was nervous. Yeah, in a Lyda kind of way, which was more like aggressive tension, ready for a fight, and there was no fight to be had here. Despite her initial worry over how displays of affection would be interpreted, Gen put her hand over Lyda's. Her Mistress's fingers were cold.
"It's okay," she said. "She's going to think you're amazing, the way we all do."
"I suck at families," Lyda said, keeping a smile on her face, barely moving her lips.
"Not from where I'm standing. Seems like you're working toward creating one out of the three of us. And doing a pretty good job of it."
That won a startled look. "Don't freak me out, rabbit."
"Nice to know you have a freak-out button."
"Remember I also have a whip."
In truth, Gen hadn't realized anything had the capacity to spook their Mistress, but that idea--her, Noah and Lyda forming a family--apparently did. Lyda never lacked for courage, though. She took a breath and they'd crossed the bridge, though Gen squeezed her hand once more before Lyda gently pushed her forward, so she preceded her. As Gen went up the narrow set of steps that led up to the back porch of the bungalow, Lyda following, Noah rose, his hand still in his grandmother's grasp.
"I told her I just saw her three weeks ago," he said. "I'm not back from Afghanistan or anything."
"Don't sass your grandmother," Dorothy scolded. "Every morning I wake up is one more morning I'm surprised I'm not dead. So when I see you, it's like I'm coming from Afghanistan."
Yep, just as blunt as the women at the tea room. Gen liked her already, even as the shrewd blue eyes pinned her like a hawk. "Introduce me to your friends, Noah."
"This is Lyda Coltrane, my boss at the nursery, and Genevieve Wisner, a good friend. She goes by Gen."
It surprised Gen that Noah knew her full name, let alone introduced her by it. He must have gotten it from Chloe, which made her wonder what else her coworker had told him about her. Probably best that she didn't ask.
Dorothy extended a gnarled hand to Lyda. "Gently, girl. Fingers are a mess."
Lyda gave her the lightest of squeezes. "All the work I do at the nursery, my hands often ache at night. What do you use for yours?"
"Oh, I've tried all sorts of remedies. I'll give you a few ideas while you're here. If I'd done some of them earlier, I would have been better off. But I hope you won't face that. Look at how tall and lovely you are." She turned to Gen. "And where do you work?"
"Tea Leaves, ma'am."
"Of course. Laura Smith's niece had her bridal shower there. Laura told me it was a delightful place. I'll have to go. Maybe Noah will bring me one day."
"We'd be delighted to have you."
"Good. I'll be coming. And I'm Dot, not ma'am. There's wine, bourbon and some fruity cocktail makings inside. Noah, make us ladies a drink. Mona's lying down watching the news right now. I have no idea why, because she and I are going to be long dead before anything happening in the world affects us, but she thinks by watching it she can control things. Ask her what she wants, and then bring us ours."
"You're not supposed to have alcohol with your prescriptions."
She bumped his leg with her closed fist. "I'm eighty-four years old. If I want to have a pretty strawberry daiquiri with a scoop of ice cream, then that's what I'll be having. I don't think St. Peter's told a single person they can't get into heaven because they didn't follow their doctor's advice. Else it'd be as empty up there as a church on discount day at the casino."
Gen choked on a laugh. Noah rolled his eyes, but he bent, pressed his cheek to hers, winning a tsk and a light swat. "Don't mess up my hair. I just had it done this morning."
Noah straightened, keeping a hand on her shoulder. "What can I get you?" he asked Gen and Lyda.
