“Which means she won’t suspect me of being there to spy on her and tattle to you.”
“Precisely.”
“Then it’s really not fair. GG is the sweetest, most loving and generous person I’ve ever known. Showing up in Wyoming because—”
“I’m worried about the two-bit hustler in Wranglers who moved in to ‘protect’ her and likely intends to swindle her out of everything. That is a fair reason to spy on her, don’t you agree?”
That tidbit floored her and she fought to keep her temper in check. “Hang on. When did all of this happen? And why is this the first I’ve heard of it?” Granted, she did work a lot and wasn’t around much, but this seemed to be another case of her parents’ Don’t tell Jade, she can’t handle things like this attitude.
Things like her mother’s breast cancer scare.
Things like her father’s business partner making questionable financial decisions and nearly sending the firm into bankruptcy.
Jade hadn’t known about either of those major life traumas until months after they happened. As an only child, she had a close relationship with both her mom and dad—even when they weren’t living under the same roof. It hurt that they hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her the truth or to let her be there for them like they’d always been there for her.
“I first heard about it two days ago,” her father said. “One of her more level-headed friends is justifiably concerned about this situation and contacted me privately.”
Jade imagined GG coughing “snitch” into her hand and bit back a smile. “That doesn’t explain why GG needs protection.”
“She thinks she needs protection,” he corrected. “That’s why this slick operator moved in. According to my source, this guy doesn’t plan to be in Wyoming much longer. That leads me back to the concern that he’s got a timeline all set for ripping her off.”
“It sounds like she needs protection from him.”
“She does. And yet, she’s telling him and everyone else she needs protection from me.”
Confused, she said, “Wait. Back up. Why would GG say that?” Oh no. Was he afraid GG had developed dementia?
His frustrated gaze met hers. “Last year after the Taser incident, I warned her if she kept getting into trouble I’d have to enforce some changes in her life.”
“Dad. You didn’t. You know how she reacts to that kind of stuff.”
“I was mad, all right? It was a toss-away comment. But evidently your grandmother is convinced that this was the last straw and I’ll have her packed up and whisked away to an assisted living facility, never to be seen or heard from again.”
“That’s not true, is it? You wouldn’t just do that without her consent, right?”
“No—only if she needed medical help and didn’t have the capacity to make decisions for herself. Or if I believed she might be a danger to herself or others. So with this latest situation . . .” He rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. “I didn’t want to share this with you, sweetheart. But GG was arrested last month. She spent the night in jail on a drunk and disorderly charge.”
Jade’s mouth fell open. Rather than rail on him for yet another thing he’d kept from her, she imagined her sweet GG wearing prison orange and playing cribbage for cigarettes. “She’s eighty-two years old and they threw her in the drunk tank like a common barfly?”
“Apparently.”
“Please tell me you’re suing them!”
“No. This next incident should’ve landed her in jail, but it didn’t.”
“There’s more?”
“Yes. She decided to break up an argument between friends and discharged a firearm inside a local resort. Thankfully no one was hurt and the resort owners didn’t press charges. Evidently your grandmother owns several guns and she’s parading them around town like Calamity Jane in the Wild West.”
Jade put her hand over her dad’s, trying to wrap her head around this new information. GG had always characterized herself as eccentric, which made her so much fun to be around, but she’d never exhibited erratic behavior.
“Then to top it all off . . . she’s on a spending spree. She bought one hundred bottles of Cristal to the tune of twenty thousand dollars—for cooking, she claims. Her friend also let it slip that she purchased a thirty-thousand-dollar horse and she dropped a hundred grand on a bull—I’m still waiting for documentation on those purchases. Who spends that kind of money on livestock?” He answered his own question. “A generous, gullible woman who is under the spell of a fast-talking cowboy, that’s who.”