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“Umm.”
“Don’t go trying to spin me a tale.” Molly grinned at her. “It’d be a waste of time. I’m going to interrogate Grady later, and I’ll get the truth out of him one way or another.”
Hannah let out a short laugh. “Okay. I’ll tell you. But I’m embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Because we ran into each other at LAX when I was on my way home. We got to talking.” She rolled her eyes. “Okay, so we got to flirting. I mean, have you seen him? He’s hot!”
Molly laughed. “I know. He’s a big hit with all the ladies. I swear business doubled once he started working here; he has his own fan club. It seems that he has mass appeal with most females between the ages of eight and eighty. That’s why I knew there was something weird going on when the two of you laid eyes on each other. Want to explain the weird tension? It’s obvious that you’re into each other, but just as obvious that there’s some kind of issue. What is it?”
Hannah blew out a sigh. “Like I said, we got to flirting, and as we were chatting it turned out that he lives here, and I was on my way here.” She covered her eyes with hand before continuing. “God, this is embarrassing. I … I didn’t exactly ask him out, but I was going to. But he went cold on me. He said that we don’t run in the same circles and when I pressed on, he told me … he said he doesn’t socialize much because he spends all his time either at work or with his family. I assumed that he meant he was married. And he didn’t set me straight. God, Molly! I feel so stupid. I must have been coming on so strong that he felt the need to lie. Or not even to lie, but to … I don’t know.”
“Aww, don’t be hard on yourself. It’s not that he’s not into you. He is, I can tell. But he doesn’t date. He didn’t even lie. It’s the truth that he spends all his time at work or with Ava. Since she came to live with him, he’s been totally dedicated to her. And to be fair, he might have panicked when he found out who you were. I know you’ve run into some gold-diggers in your time, but Grady’s a low-key kind of guy.”
“He didn’t panic because of who I am. He doesn’t even know. I only told him that my name’s Hannah – not Hannah Jacobs. I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse. I’m glad that he’s not a married asshole – that he’s actually a great guy who’s doing a wonderful thing for his niece. But at the same time … I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, does it?” She gave Molly a rueful smile. “In the future, when we go for lunch, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
Molly laughed. “Nope. In the future, I’m going to insist that you come in here.”
“Molly!”
“Not to embarrass you. But because I have a feeling about you and Grady.”
Hannah shook her head. “We can argue about it next time.”
Chapter Five
“Uncle Grady?”
“What’s up?”
“Smile!”
When he turned around, Ava held up her little camera and snapped a picture of him. “Got you!”
He chuckled. “You have more than enough pictures of my ugly mug. Do you want to go to the park tomorrow to see what else you can take photos of?”
“Can we?”
“Sure we can. I finish at three-thirty. If I come straight to Mel’s and we go straight to the park, we’ll still have a little while before it goes dark.”
“Cool! Thank you!”
“No problem. What else do you want to do this weekend?” It sucked that he had to work on the weekends, but Molly made sure that he got some free time each day to spend with Ava. This weekend he was on early on Saturday, and late on Sunday.
Ava gave him a look that he’d come to dread. It meant that she wanted something that she didn’t think she could have. Most of the time, he found ways to make things happen, but he couldn’t always. “Go on, spit it out.”
She gave him a timid smile. “Could we … would it be okay if we … go to the shelter?”
Grady’s heart sank. She wanted a puppy so badly, but there was no way they could have one. It wouldn’t be fair. He wasn’t home enough.
“Only to look,” Ava added quickly. “I know we can’t have a puppy, but Ellen said that all the animals like to have visitors. Some of them have to stay there for a really long time, so it’s nice for them to have people come visit to play with them – even if they can’t take them home.”
Damn, he felt bad. He wished he could find a way. But it just wasn’t realistic. He couldn’t leave a dog home alone most of the time. It wouldn’t be right. “Okay, we can go over there and visit on Sunday morning.”
“Yay!” She came to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank you, Uncle Grady.”
“You’re welcome. But you know we can’t bring one home, right?”
