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Yep, the one woman who is not charmed by Trev is my grandmother.
“I had to get out of New York. That’s why I was texting you. I’ve been trying to get you to meet me in LA, but when you didn’t respond, I had the jet come here.”
“He’s not leaving his woman,” my grandmother says, which makes me frown. It’s probably true. I plan on dragging that woman everywhere with me, or vice versa. Right now, all I care about is her being by my side.
“Come on in, everyone. Let’s have lunch and talk things over. Trev can tell you why he’s here,” my mother says. She’s always been the one person who could calm any situation. She knows exactly what to say.
As we walk into the dining room, Trev stops me. “Where is this woman?”
“It’s a long story. But I’m assuming you’re having a crisis. It is the only reason you would step foot in what you called the arsecrack of America.”
“That was mainly due to my assignment in Killeen. It was so fucking hot.”
“Watch your language, young man,” Estella calls out.
“She heard me?” he asks in a stage whisper.
I nod.
“Damn.”
“Mr. Smith, if you don’t come in here to eat, how are we supposed to discuss whatever scared you?”
We step into the dining room, and I smile. The look of irritation on Trev’s face is hilarious.
“Yeah, tell us why you ran away from New York.”
“Piss off.”
“Language,” my grandmother says.
Trev’s eyes widen. He looks at my grandmother, then back at me. “Is she for real?”
“You talked to her on the phone. You should have expected this.”
He scowls, then follows my grandmother into the room. I turn towards my usual chair when my phone goes off. It’s Sam Dixon.
“Give me a second. I need to take this.”
I step away. “Hey, Sam. Do you have something for me?”
“Not much. I mean, your guy is pretty clean. Although he doesn’t have much of a social media footprint. He’s an insurance adjuster who has been on leave for a month. The woman I talked to said he was on emergency leave to see to his grandmother. The funny thing is that I couldn’t find a grandmother on record.”
“Weird.”
“Yeah, but people lie a lot to take a vacation. His company has up to six months compassionate leave, so maybe he just wants to screw over his boss.”
“Hmm.”
“But the fact that I couldn’t find anything less than five years old had me digging. And I found out that the guy changed his name. I don’t know why he picked Norman, but there must be a reason.”
Something cold slinks down my spine. I start walking toward the front door. I don’t understand why, but I just know something is wrong. It’s as if I have a premonition that whatever Sam will tell me, it will be bad.
So very bad.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you going?” My grandmother calls out, but I ignore her. The sense of foreboding is hitting me hard. I hear steps behind me, but I ignore them.
