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“Thank you, Dominic,” Gran said as she stood. “I’ll be right back.”
Watching her hobble out of the room, he frowned. “Is she okay?”
I sprinkled some salt onto my veggies. “She’s starting to have some health problems and has fallen a couple of times lately, but mostly she’s doing great.”
Looking up from my dinner, I caught the thoughtful expression on his face. Warmth flooded my belly that he not only seemed genuinely worried about a woman he’d only recently met, but that he’d also taken the time to help her, answer her questions and begin getting to know her. Not one other man I’d dated had ever done that. Sure, they’d feigned interest in her, but to them, she was just an old lady who was part of the package with me.
“She needs a railing put on those front steps,” he said, “And does she have a rail in the shower? I can organise that too if you need it.”
“Wait. What?” I’d been deep in thought and was sure I must have missed something he’d said. “Did you just say you’d install some railings?”
“Yeah, I’ll get some of the boys to help me. We can probably swing by in a couple of days and do it.”
I held up my hand to stop him talking. “Devil, you don’t need to do that. And besides, I’d have to clear it with the landlord first.”
“Who’s your real estate?”
I stared at him in silence while I contemplated everything he’d just said. “You’re going to take charge of this, aren’t you? If I tell you the name of the real estate, you’ll just go and sort it out with them?”
“Hailee, your grandmother is unsteady on her legs. She needs help, and I can give it to her,” he said as if he thought he had to defend his choice. Which he didn’t.
Still staring at him, I smiled. Huge. And my heart burst open a little more. He had no idea what he’d just done. Standing, I moved to where he sat and kissed him. Long and hard. When we came up for air, I said, “Thank you.”
He reached for my hand and held me in place before I could move back to my chair. “I feel like you’re thanking me for a whole lot more than a couple of railings,” he murmured, his eyes holding a question.
I slowly nodded and folded myself into his lap, my arms looped around his neck. “My grandfather screwed around on my grandmother and left her when I was only young. Her daddy had left all his money to my grandfather, thinking he’d look after her forever. But when he left her, he took everything. She had to move in with us just so she could afford to live. When he died, he left his money to my father, and I thought she’d be okay after that.” I took a breath before continuing. “However, when Dad passed away, Mum got everything. I’m pretty sure he assumed she would continue to look after his mother, but Mum treated her awfully. Mum gives me a small amount of money each month to care for Gran, but it’s nowhere near enough. I’m drowning in bills, and every day I wake up not knowing how I’m going to care for my grandmother as she gets older. I also don’t have a lot of spare time to organise stuff like this. You offering what you have is a huge load off my mind.” My voice choked on that last sentence, because even though I’d said he’d taken a huge load off my mind, that didn’t even begin to cover it.
I knew that for a man to offer this at the beginning of a relationship meant that there’d be more like this to come. And that right there caused my emotions to jump all over the place.
Before Devil could reply, my grandmother joined us again. Taking her seat at the table, she said, “The man’s a keeper, Hailee.”
Devil’s smiled, but he didn’t say anything. Didn’t offer a cheeky reply. He simply kept quiet and waited for me to speak. The space I’d started to clear for him in my heart grew a little. I liked that he seemed to understand my emotional response to what he’d offered. That he understood my need for a moment to get my thoughts under control.
I pressed my lips to his again for a brief moment. “I’m beginning to think he is, too,” I said softly when I ended the kiss.
As I moved back to my seat, Gran said to Devil, “We use that little real estate on the corner near the pub.”
“The one near the meditation studio. And it’s Brett who we deal with there,” I threw in.
“I’ll contact them tomorrow,” he said.
My grandmother engaged him in a conversation about gardening after that. Time in the garden was one of her loves, and she would talk anyone’s ear off if they gave her the space to do it. Devil gave her that space, and while I listened in for the first few moments, I quickly drifted away to thoughts of him and all the things I didn’t know about him yet. I couldn’t wait to get to know everything.
13
Devil
I eyed Hailee apologetically as we stood in her hallway. “I’m sorry, darlin’, but I’ve gotta go.”
We’d finished dinner just over an hour earlier and had been watching television with Jean since then. Well, Jean had been watching television; Hailee and I had been fighting to keep our hands to ourselves while her grandmother was in the room with us.
“It’s all good. You should go and help your friend out,” Hailee said.
Nitro had called to ask me if I could head over to Monroe’s place and check on her. He’d received a garbled message from Tatum about something to do with Monroe and couldn’t get hold of her to find out what it was.
My phone buzzed with a text.
Nitro: Take Hyde with you. Just heard from Tatum. There’s some asshole threatening Monroe.
