And there was Nan.
I jumped out of bed, thankful to be wearing my pajamas and not naked, like Grant had wanted. “She figured it out,” I whispered.
Grant sighed and lay on his back as if he didn’t care. “Go away,” he called back.
She started banging on the door again. “I will not go away, you motherfucker! Get out of there now! I won’t let her do this. She has it all, why the hell does she have to take you, too? Stupid slut!”
My eyes went wide. I’d never been called that, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
Grant sprang out of bed and stalked to the door. The murderous look on his face had me backing up against the wall. Maybe I wasn’t as brave as I thought I was. Grant was an even-tempered guy, so I’d never seen him look so . . . pissed.
He jerked the door open. Then he reached for her. I watched as he grabbed her shirt and pulled her close to his face. “Don’t ever call her that again. Do you f**king understand me? Ever.” He let her go and she stumbled backward, and then he slammed the door in her face. The sound of the lock turning echoed in the silence around us. I think he had shocked her into silence, too.
His shoulders were rising and falling hard as he laid one hand on the door and stared down at the floor.
I didn’t move and I didn’t speak.
Finally, he turned to me, and the anger I had seen earlier was gone. He looked like Grant again. Fun-loving, easygoing Grant. “I’m sorry,” he said simply.
I didn’t know what to say to that. “Okay” didn’t seem like the right word to use here. I just nodded.
“She just wants to hurt you. I’ve tried to talk to her and help her see that nothing is your fault, but she won’t listen. If I could muzzle her I would.”
A mental picture of Nan muzzled made me smile. Grant smiled back at me in return and then walked over to me. “She should’ve never called you that. You’re so far from that, and she knows it.”
He was talking about the slut comment. Was that what set him off?
“I think you scared her. She’s not saying anything.” I wasn’t even sure she was still there.
A frustrated frown touched his forehead. “She isn’t done. She’s just too mad to react right now. I’ve never been that tough on her. I typically just walk away and let her talk. But that,” he shook his head, “that shit was going to be dealt with.”
“Are you trying to fix things again?” I asked, wondering why he thought he had to fix all my problems.
He grinned and bent down to press a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “No, sweet girl, I’m just correcting a wrong. No one can fix Nan.”
I was afraid he was right.
Grant
All I wanted to do was get Harlow naked and back in that bed. But I was behind on work and we both needed to leave the room and get this Nan shit over with.
I let Harlow get dressed while I cleaned up in the bathroom. I couldn’t watch her dress because we’d end up back in bed. Screw work. Once we were both dressed, I opened her bedroom door slowly, just in case Nan was standing out there, waiting to pounce.
Harlow waited behind me and I was pretty sure I heard a sigh of relief when we saw the hallway was empty. I reached back and took her hand as we walked out of the room and to the stairs. I didn’t think Nan was going to jump out of a damn corner and attack, but I still felt safer with Harlow as close to me as possible.
I wasn’t going to let Harlow stay here alone until I was sure Nan was over this. I didn’t know what she’d say to Harlow, and I wasn’t going to let her lash out at her without me there to protect her and shut that shit down.
“Hungry?” I asked her as we reached the bottom step with no Nan sightings.
Harlow jumped when something made a loud noise in the kitchen. Guess we wouldn’t be eating here. “I, uh . . . probably not a good idea,” she said, staring at the kitchen.
“Want to just leave?” I asked.
Harlow shook her head. “No. I live here, too. I want coffee before I leave. I won’t hide; this is my home, too.”
The way her shoulders straightened reminded me that behind the sweet face was a spine of steel. She’d been through a lot. I just nodded and let her lead the way.
If she was getting coffee then so was I.