“I’m wondering if you’ve lost your mind. Your parents are too concerned about how you feel about the divorce to ask what the hell is going on with you. Your mother is wondering if she should come home.” He leaned forward. “Are you going to fall apart?”
She wanted to put her hands in her hair and yell. “No.”
“Good, that’s what I thought. I think this bender is part of the reason you came home.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I have eyes. The only thing I can’t reconcile is why you’re not going out with Tanner instead of these men who look like birds and are made of cheese. I know how a woman looks at a man when she likes him. That’s how you look at Tanner, but he’s not even on your list.” He patted his shirt pocket and took out his pen. “Makes an old man wonder.”
Pressing her hands to her temples, she met his clear blue gaze. “I’m only going out with men. Is that really such a crime?”
“No.” He clicked his pen in rapid fashion. “But this…volume is against your character, which means there’s some deeper motive. You aren’t trying to make that asshole ex-husband of yours jealous so he’ll take you back?”
“Good God, no!”
He popped in a red hot from his pocket. “Glad to hear it. I didn’t think you were the type to want to be a politician’s wife, but then again, I never understood what you saw in him. He didn’t beg you to reconcile to shore up his chances with the voters, did he?”
“Holy…no. Even if he had, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Well, thank God that you have some sense. I was afraid I’d have to find some old associates in New York who could arrange his demise.”
“You’re not serious.”
“You’re my granddaughter. If you were crazy enough to let that rat bastard back into your life, I’d have to take extreme measures.”
“You’d never do something like that.”
“I’m an old man. I wouldn’t live long in jail.”
She could only stare at him. Arthur Hale was known for saying some pretty hyperbolic statements in his time, but this…
“You actually mean it.”
“No one messes with my granddaughter a second time.”
Her throat squeezed painfully. She pressed her hand to it. His words made her feel so loved and protected. Who would have imagined her grandpa turning into The Great Protector? She reached for his hand.
“Well, now that I know that isn’t the reason, do you want to tell me why you’re on this Man Bender?”
“Stop staying that!”
“Is this about a story?”
“Grandpa!” She looked around to make sure no one was listening, but the other patrons all seemed too preoccupied with their digital devices and coffee to bother.
“It makes the most sense, now that I think of it. You want to tell me more?”
The lie caught in her tight throat for ten seconds. “There is no story.” She could say she was sorry later. If he blew her cover, she was toast in this town. And she wouldn’t have her ultimate revenge on Rick-the-Dick, or her own Nora Roberts Land.
“Lying to me now, girlie?”
She gulped like she was a ten-year-old who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar before dinner. “Please don’t ask me anymore, Grandpa. I’d explain if I could.”
He scratched his cheek. “I won’t ask if you swear you won’t lie to me.”
She nodded.
“Then take some advice from an old man. Life’s short. All the stuff you think you have time to do suddenly evaporates like water boiled dry. You’re a young woman who’s put one life behind her and is trying to start a new one. Don’t dick around.”
“Grandpa!”
“You think that’s a new phrase? It’s as old as dirt, just like me. I mean it, Meredith. Don’t squander time. You’re a beautiful young woman. You need a man who suits you. Someone like Tanner McBride.”
His wisdom was sweet, but his dating directives stunk. “I’ll go out with whomever I want.”
He stood up and reached for his cane, so she joined him. He still towered over her, even though his spine was curved with age. “Fine, be stubborn, but I see how you look at Tanner, Mermaid.” He kissed her cheek, his cinnamon candy smell comforting. “You sure didn’t look at the Bird Man that way.”
She glared at him.
“And I still think you have something on Rick-the-Dick that will blow up his bid for the Senate. Don’t think I’ve forgotten.”
He strolled away whistling “Dixie,” his cane tapping the floor.