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“Aunt Molly asked me to tell you that she won’t be back out for a few minutes and that you need to stay here until she comes.”
Grady glanced at Hannah, and she gave him a wry smile. Ever since they were kids Molly had been the one to engineer truces and mend friendships whenever there were problems.
“I think that means that neither of us is getting out of here until Molly’s convinced that we’re okay.”
Grady let out a short laugh. “I think you’re right.”
Ava leaned closer against Grady. “Why would Aunt Molly think that you’re not okay?”
“Because …” he glanced at Hannah again, “Hannah and I had a little misunderstanding that we need to sort out. Aunt Molly wants us to be friends.”
Ava’s eyes were just like Grady’s, a beautiful blue, but they were much more cautious than his. “Uncle Grady’s a good friend,” she said solemnly.
Hannah didn’t know what to say.
Ava watched her closely. “He is! He’s a good friend to everyone and he’s a good daddy to me.”
When he’d said that Ava lived with him, Hannah had guessed that he was acting as her guardian, but to hear the little girl say he was a good daddy turned her insides to mush again. She felt terrible. She’d been dismissing him as a philandering bad husband, when in fact, he was a standup, amazing uncle.
Grady gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m a good uncle to you, Ava, but I wasn’t very nice to Miss Hannah when we first met.”
Ava turned big, disbelieving eyes on him. “But you’re nice to everyone!”
Hannah couldn’t stand the thought that Ava’s obvious trust and belief in Grady might be shaken because of her.
“You’re right, Ava,” she said. “Grady was nice to me. It wasn’t that he was mean or anything.” She glanced up at him, hoping that he’d take her words as an apology. “We just had a little bit of a misunderstanding, that’s all.”
Ava looked happy at that, but Hannah wasn’t sure Grady was happy with any of this. Why would he be? He’d tried to blow her off by giving her the impression that he was married – now that she thought about it, that was mortifying. Had she come on so strong that he’d felt the need to fend her off with a lie?
“So, can you be friends now?” Ava asked.
Hannah was to the point of hoping that she wouldn’t ever have to run into him again. But Grady smiled and said, “I hope so.”
That was no doubt for Ava’s sake.
“That’s good, because here comes Aunt Molly.”
Molly appeared beside the table and raised her eyebrows. “Have you two figured it out?”
Hannah nodded rapidly. Grady tried to catch her gaze, but she avoided him. If Molly would let it go without asking any awkward questions, then hopefully they could leave the whole thing behind them. And in the future, when she wanted to meet up with Molly, Hannah could invite her over to the estate, or use the excuse of getting her away from work to treat her to lunch elsewhere – anything rather than embarrass herself by seeing Grady again.
“Want to tell me about it?”
Hannah looked at Grady, hoping that he’d say no, that they could let it go.
He met her gaze, and she felt more uncomfortable still. He really did seem like a good guy. He proved it, too, when he said, “I’ll let Hannah decide how much she wants to tell you.” He gave her a rueful smile and got to his feet. “Come on, Pixie, let’s get you back into the kitchen.”
“Okay.” She smiled at Hannah. “It was nice to meet you.”
“You, too.” Hannah watched the little girl take hold of Grady’s hand as they walked away.
“Please can I have a milkshake, Uncle Grady?”
Hannah’s heart clenched in her chest. When he’d said that a friend of his loved sugar-free milkshakes, he’d probably been talking about Ava.
“Sure, you can.” He glanced back at Hannah over his shoulder as he said it.
“Well?” Molly had sat back down and was looking at her expectantly. “What’s the story?”
