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“No one will get hurt because you’re not going anywhere. We’re always going to be friends.”
What Harrison didn’t know was that I was the one who stood to get hurt the most.
On the way to Gran’s, Wren kept up a steady stream of chatter. She was clearly excited, but both Harrison and I were quiet. If he was anything like me, he was thinking of all the ways this could go sideways.
Wren knocked on the door. Then rang the doorbell.
“You don’t have to ring the bell five hundred times. I was coming.” Gran opened the door with her usual sense of humor.
“Gran,” Wren said as she hugged her.
“I missed you. Why don’t you ever come see me?”
“We visit all the time,” Harrison said, used to her antics.
Harrison kissed her cheek, and I hugged her as we walked in. “You have something you wanted to share?”
Gran always had the uncanny ability to sense when something big was happening. I don’t know how she did it, but she was very aware of everyone’s emotions and energy.
“Let’s sit down first,” Harrison said.
“Oh, I need to sit down for this one. I’m excited. Am I having another grandbaby?” Gran sat on the couch next to Wren, whose eyes had gone wide at the thought.
“No,” Harrison said. “No more grandbabies.”
He’d mentioned several times that he didn’t want to have another baby unless he was in a committed relationship that he was fairly sure would last. He didn’t enjoy the back-and-forth and said it wasn’t good for Wren. But there wasn’t any way around it. That was the life when your parents were either divorced or separated.
I didn’t have that because my father just left. He wasn’t interested in custody or visitation.
Harrison gestured for me to sit next to him on the smaller loveseat. “Everly and I have something we’d like to announce.”
Before we could say anything, Wren said, “Everly moved in with us.”
Gran’s eyes widened as she looked from Harrison to me. “You don’t say. What brought this on?”
“We’ve been dating—” Harrison began.
“For a few weeks—” I said at the same time Harrison said, “for a couple of months.”
“But we’ve been friends forever. It was the natural progression,” I quickly added to cover our inconsistent statements.
We probably should have gotten the timeline straight before we talked to his too-aware grandmother.
“I can’t say I’m not pleased. I had hopes, you know.”
“Yes, we know,” Harrison said. Besides Wren, Gran was the one who wanted us together.
“Since you’re moving in, will there be an engagement soon?”
I wasn’t sure if she was being traditional by wanting us to be engaged while we were living together. I exchanged a look with Harrison before he said, “That’s the plan.”
Wren squealed.
“I don’t see a ring yet,” Gran said, with a pointed glance in the direction of my left hand.
“I was hoping we could use yours,” Harrison said, recovering quickly.
I wasn’t prepared for that. Harrison wanting to use his gran’s ring for his fake engagement was taking things a bit too far for me.
