He nods, and however frail his appearance, I notice his eyes have their spark back as they glance over my face.
“Think I could come inside? I uh,” he clears his throat, “I got something to say to you.”
“Here works just fine for whatever it is you feel needs saying.”
He nods slowly, his shoulders sagging a little, when I hear the footsteps running down the stairs back in the house.
Shit.
“Grampa Sam!"
“Hey there, squirt!”
Emily comes tearing down the stairs, pushing past me to throw her arms around Sam.
Needless to say, I haven’t filled my eight-year-old in on the larger dramas involving her favorite older person and Serena.
“You’re better!”
Sam chuckles, putting an arm around her and patting her back. “Yep! Feeling right as rain!” He glances up at me. “You think I could come in for a sec?”
I hold his eye for a second, mine narrowing. “Fine.” I step back and hold the door open for him as Emily leads him in.
“So how’ve you been, little missy? School going okay?”
She nods. “Yeah. And I made a new friend while you were sick.”
Sam smiles. “Oh yeah? Replacing me, huh?”
She smiles a toothy smile. “No, Grampa, but she’s really cool and I think you’d like her.”
He chuckles. “Well I bet I would!”
“Yeah! She’s awesome, and she’s really fun to hang out with. And we had so much fun at the renaissance fair!”
I snap my head back to my daughter. “That’s enough, Emily,” I say quietly.
“She comes over all the time to hang out with me and my dad. We make cookies, and watch movies, and she looks really funny when she wears my dad’s clothes!”
Sam glances back at me, giving me an odd look before turning back to her.
“Who’s this friend of yours, squirt?”
“Oh, her name’s Serena.”
Sam freezes before his head jerks up to stare at me.
I stare right back.
“Hey Emily, honey, why don’t you let me and Grampa Sam have some grown-up talk, alright?”
“Fiiiine,” she grumbles before giving Sam another hug. “I’m glad you’re not sick anymore.”
“Me too, kid, me too,” he smiles.
His look hardens at me as soon as we hear her scamper back up the stairs.
“She looks funny wearing your clothes, huh?” he says thinly, his eyes narrowing.
I say nothing.
“If you think I’m not going to ask what my daughter’s doing over here putting your clothes on, you got another thing com-”
“Fuck you,” I spit at him. “You don’t get to call her that.”
“Watch me.”
I shake my head, standing and stepping towards him, towering over him as I square my shoulders. “Not a chance, Sam. You gave that up when you walked away.”
“Wasn’t exactly my choice, Landon.”
“Yes it was,” I growl. “It was your choice when you slept with another man’s wife. It was your choice when you put yourself over everyone else like you do, and it was your choice when you washed your hands of the whole mess and signed a check to her mother.” My voice is getting louder now, my teeth grinding together.
“You want to talk about things not being your choice? You want to talk about loss outside your own control?” I hiss, shaking my head at him. “Trust me, Sam. Don’t go there with me. You had choices. You had lots of choices, and you fucking failed every single one of them. So don’t you dare come into my house and lecture me about spending time with Serena.”
“Spending time with her,” he echoes, glaring right back at me. “I set it up for you two to run this damn team, not for you to put your damn hands on her!”
“Watch it.”
We both bristle, staring each other down.
Sam sighs, looking away first. “I need a drink.”
I snort. “You were just in a coma, you fucking lunatic. I’m not giving you booze.”
“Gonna make me take it from you?”
I crack a grin in spite of myself.
“Scotch, if you’ve got it.”
I hold his eye another second before I turn and jerk my head towards the kitchen. He follows, slower, taking a seat at the kitchen island as I pour us both a finger and slide a glass his way.
“Cheers,” he mutters, taking a sip and sighing contentedly. I grab a seat across from him, and we both sit there drinking in silence for another minute.
He finally looks up. “What’s she like? Serena, I mean.”
“She’s smart.” I hold his look as I slowly finish swallowing the scotch in my mouth. “She’s really smart, actually. She sees the bigger picture, and she gets people, and there’s no bullshit around her.”