“When I first got here, Tobin mentioned not knowing what I looked like and that he didn’t remember hearing you talk about me . . .”
“Well, girlie-girl, I don’t talk about you.”
That explained it. Jade had to look away. “Oh.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m not bust-my-buttons proud of you. Some of my happiest memories are from the times we’ve spent together. But those memories are mine. They’re precious to me. I’m selfish. I don’t want to share them with anyone else.”
She glanced up at her grandmother. “Really? I thought . . .”
GG took Jade’s hand in both of hers. “You thought I was ashamed of you or something? Lord, child, no. Exactly the opposite. But see, this is about me. When women get to be of a certain age . . . all they ever talk about is their dadgum grandkids. They brag on them. Or worse, they blather on about the kids’ drug problems, or baby-mama dramas, or complain that their grandbaby-daddy ain’t nothin’ but a sperm donor. Makes my head hurt. The only reason these women share all of that baloney is to get ‘there, there, dear’ pats on the hand and assurances from their friends they weren’t to blame. Bunch of poppycock if you ask me, because usually they are to blame.” She shrugged. “Not only that, these same women don’t talk about anything interesting because they stopped doing interesting things. They just keep reliving their glory days when they raised their own kids and now they’re reliving that time through their grandkids.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“These types of women wanna moan and groan about their aches and pains. Or they wanna gossip about other women. They’re jealous if a widow has a social life—that mean girl stuff still happens with really old mean girls.”
Jade snickered.
“My group of friends—you’ll meet the Mud Lilies crew sooner rather than later—and I made a pact that we’d keep our friendship and activities focused on us—on the us we are now, not the us from fifty, sixty years ago. I’m an interesting person in my own right, as are they. Sure, sometimes we talk about the grandkids, but mostly, uh . . . no. Sounds selfish, but I gotta say, it sure is fun.” She grinned. “It’s like we’re teenage girls again. The world is wide open to us and we can do anything we want.”
Here was her chance to get some answers. “Well, I’m glad for you, but I do have to ask if these friends are . . . a bad influence?”
“Oh pooh. You mean the gun and the jail time? Minor incidents. Besides, they’re pretty tame in comparison to some of the other things we’ve done and haven’t been caught for.”
“You realize that last statement isn’t really putting my mind at ease?”
GG blinked. “Shoot. Scratch that. Forget I mentioned it.”
Not likely.
But the real question was how much of it she would relay to her dad.
“Come on.” GG stood and pulled Jade to her feet. “As long as you’re my captive audience today, we’ll sort through some stuff.”
As Jade followed her down the upstairs hallway, the barest hint of Tobin’s cologne teased her as she passed the open door to his room. Her body heated as she flashed back to being so close to him earlier. She hadn’t mentioned her visit to the Split Rock to GG, but Jade had thought of little else.
GG opened up a room that was packed with papers, fabric, art supplies, bags of clothing and stacks of bedding.
“Now, I wasn’t gonna show you this, figuring it’d land me on an episode of Hoarders, but I’ve managed to contain my junk collection to this room.” She frowned and shot a look at the ceiling. “Well, mostly to this room. There is some stuff in the attic.”
There wasn’t a single space like this in her parents’ brownstone. Clutter was dealt with immediately. So this was pretty cool. She’d get to see remnants of her grandma’s life. “What are your plans for all of this stuff? Is it valuable to you?”
“Most of it is odds and ends that I couldn’t part with for some reason.” She jammed her fingers through her strawberry-colored hair, causing it to stick straight up. “With you listening to me tell you why I kept it and hearing the history behind it . . . maybe it’ll be easier for me to let it go.” GG wrapped Jade in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re here. Not to clean out my room, but to listen to an old broad ramble on. Makes it feel less like work and more a trip down memory lane.”
Jade squeezed her grandma tight. The woman was skinny, but there wasn’t a frail thing about her. It didn’t seem as if she’d aged at all since Jade was a kid. She’d always been unconventional in her approach to life. Jade would give anything to be like that. “I’m happy I finally get to be in your home, GG. I should’ve come here way before now.”