AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah.” I stare at her. Is that all she’s gonna say?
If I’m being honest, Grammy seems a little too mellow and happy, given the news I just shared.
“You look…pleased?” I narrow my gaze on her.
She tries to restrain her excitement. But before long, she bursts. “Damn right, I’m pleased!” She grabs my cheeks in her wrinkly hands. “You’re married, dearie! You’re married!” She yanks my head down and kisses my face again and again.
“Grammy, did you hear what I just said to you? I drunk-married a woman who more than likely doesn’t want to be married to me.”
My grandmother shrugs. “I don’t care that you eloped like Jasper. If that’s what it takes to get my grandchildren down the aisle, I’ll take it. I just want you all happy and settled down and making sweet great-grand babies for me before I completely lose my eyesight.”
I heave a sigh. “I want that, too. But…I had a plan for Nadia and me. A plan that required doing this the right way. I wanted her on-board with it. I wanted her to want me, to love me. I never planned for her to get stuck with me after a night of liquor and stupid mistakes.”
She shrugs stiffly. “When life throws you punches, you have to roll with them, Harry. Look at it this way—you got what you wanted. Are you going to step up and make the most of it? Or are you gonna sit around moping that it didn’t unfoldexactlythe way you wanted it to?”
I flinch, bringing my eyes to Grammy. “I’ve been sticking to option B, actually. The moping one.” I glance down at my phone and my stomach scrunches over my new wife’s many missed calls. “I’ve been avoiding Nadia now, because I don’t want her to divorce me.”
Because if she calls and I answer the phone, I know that a divorce will be the very first thing Nadia asks for. And I care about her too much to deny her anything she wants.
Grammy’s hand shoots up and smacks me upside the head.
Hard.
“Ouch!” I screech, drawing a look or two from the other people heading inside the community center for today’s activities. “Dang. What was that for?”
“You were raised better than that, boy. You’re avoiding your wife? What part of your vows was that?”
“Well, I’m not sure. I missed the vows part. I was drunk as hell throughout the ceremony,” I grumble miserably.
From the dirty look Grammy shoots me, I can tell she isn’t a fan of my excuses, no matter how valid they are. I can’t say I’m proud of my actions, either.
We resume our stroll and I pull open the building’s glass door. Grammy glares at me as she heads inside.
Once we’re standing near the room to her meetup, we pause in the middle of the hall. She yanks my earlobe until I’m forced to bend down closer to her. “Ow, ow, ow.”
“Go deal with this, Harry. Like a man,” she demands, her frown scary and her voice serious. “Look Nadia in the eye and tell her that you want to work this out. Tell that beautiful girl how you feel, and stop pussyfooting around your responsibilities!”
“But Grammy—”
“Go!”
Grammy shakes me off and stalks into the room where the other senior citizens are waiting for her.
What a hard-ass she is.
I blow out the breath I’ve been holding and rub my abused ear as I sulk off.
But Grammy’s right.
I need to man up.
As I meander down the hall, headed back toward the parking lot, I pull out my phone again.
My thumb hovers over Nadia’s name. I know how this call is going to go, and I’ve been dreading this very moment.
But I bite the bullet and hit the ‘call’ button.
My head snaps up at the sound of a ringing phone in the hallway. That’s when I come face to face with an angel.
