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Max shot me a skeptical look. He knew as well as I did that it wasn’t that simple.
“I’ll think about it, Dad,” I said.
Because despite wanting to break free of his expectations and plans formyfuture, it was still hard to shake off the years of appeasing them and toeing the line.
I’d always been their golden child. The apple of my father’s eye.Capable of great things, he’d told me growing up. And it had always been enough then—to be their pride and joy.
Their child genius.
But it wasn’t enough anymore.
Zane
“Zane,dear, can you come in here?”
I dragged myself out of bed and followed Grams’ murmurs of frustration.
Peeking my head around her bedroom door, I found her struggling to put curlers in her graying hair. “What’s up?
“Be a dear and help me out. My hands won’t play nice this morning.” She clenched a fist and slowly uncurled her fingers, frustration bleeding into her expression as she watched her hand quiver and tremble.
“Have you taken your meds?”
She tsked. “I am quite capable of remembering my meds, young man.”
“I know, Grams. I know. Here, let me get in there.” I went to her, taking hold of the difficult curler.
“Now remember to start at the ends and wrap it really tight.”
If the guys could see me now, I’d never hear the end of it. But there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for the woman who had raised me. Despite her ailing body, despite the fact my mom had left and never looked back, she had never once faltered.
And the truth was, no matter what her future looked like, no matter how hard things got down the line, I owed her.
“A little tighter,” she instructed as I wound her thinning hair around the curler, securing it with a pin.
“You know, I’ll never understand why you go to so much effort every day, Grams.”
“Because it’s not about how you look, it’s about how something makes you feel. And looking my best just so happens to make me feel good about myself.” She winked at me in the mirror. “How was the party last night?”
“Same old.”
“Zane Thackeray Washington. Do I detect a trace of weariness in your voice?”
I glared at her, working through her hair as quickly as I could.
“No pretty girls to keep you entertained?”
“I am not talking about this with you.”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. Sex is the most natural thing in the world.” She scoffed. “If we didn’t have—”
“Grams, I am not doing this. So I suggest that if you want me to finish your hair, you stop.”
It was her turn to glare at me. “I have to get my kicks somehow.”
Well, it sure as fuck wasn’t going to be over discussing my sex life.
I shuddered.
