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“I, um, you should probably go check on your grandparents,” she said, shifting her stare away from mine. It was as if looking me in the eyes was too hard for her to do. “They’ve been going through some things and could probably use your company.”
“What kind of things?”
“Just ... they need you, Ian.”
The way she said those words made my gut tighten with nerves.
“Can I use your truck to get over there?” I asked.
She tossed me the keys. “It’s actually your truck—I’ve just been borrowing it.”
I nodded once before turning away from her and heading toward the car.
I wondered when I’d get to the point where I didn’t want to look back at Hazel in hopes that she was still looking my way.
When I glanced over my shoulder and saw her still staring, I almost smiled. Then I remembered that she’d broken my fucking heart, so I kept my smile to myself.
“Your grandfather went off to clear his head for a little bit. Come on in. I’ll make you a sandwich. You’re looking pretty slim lately.”
“Touring and performing has a way of doing that.”
“Still, you need to eat more. Now, get to the kitchen,” Grams instructed as she waved me inside the house. She slowly moved toward the kitchen, and I followed behind her.
I sat down on the barstool in front of the kitchen island and clasped my hands together. “I’ve never seen him that upset,” I said, speaking about Big Paw.
She nodded as she grabbed items out of the fridge. “He’s been having a tough time lately. And he worries about you after everything that went down with your parents and Hazel. We both do, sweetheart. We worry about your heart.”
I shrugged. “I’m okay.”
“You’re not happy.”
I didn’t reply, because I couldn’t lie to Grams. She could see a lie from a mile away.
“Your dreams are supposed to make you happy,” she commented.
“I think somewhere along the way, the dreams I had shifted into something else.”
“And what are your true dreams? What do you want?”
I grimaced. “I think Hazel is my dream.”
“Okay. Then go out and get her.”
“It’s not that easy, Grams. I can’t have someone who doesn’t want me back.”
“Oh, Ian,” she soothed as she placed two pieces of bread on a plate. “You know well enough that that girl loves you.”
“No. I don’t. She broke up with me, Grams, after the hardest days of my life with seeing my parents. That’s not love.”
“Based on everything you know about Hazel, does that seem out of character of her? For her to do something like that?”
Of course it seemed out of character.
I’d been blindsided by her actions. We’d made love the morning she’d left, and it had felt like the realest, most powerful experience of my life, and then I’d been hit with whiplash as she’d decided that she didn’t want to be with me any longer.
“She loves you, Ian. There’s something keeping her from being able to show you that love. I know it. So please, fight for her. Push her. Poke her. Make her open up to you. I have the feeling she needs you the same way you need her. She’s scared of something, so make sure she knows she doesn’t have to be scared alone. Do you think your grandfather and I made it this far without being afraid? Of course not. I’ve been so scared that I’ve pushed him away, and he’s been too stubborn to allow me to do it. You know what I’ve learned over time?”
“What’s that?”
