Bad Boy Ink (Get Ink'd #5) - Ali Lyda Page 0,19

to confirm that no, dinner would not be enough. Still, I knew that if I wanted to get him off my back it would be easier to agree.

Sure, whatever.

I received a series of emojis as a response. Thumbs-up, a smiley face, and then to my chagrin four hearts followed by XOXO.

Ugh, why was he like this? Except through my annoyance, I realized I was smiling. Smiling. Thank God Bryce couldn’t see; he’d never let me hear the end of it. But he was...funny. And goddamned if he didn’t know how to persevere.

Instead of shutting the laptop and sulking, I closed the school app and went back to hacking into James's bank accounts. It took a few hours to carefully get access to them, move some funds around, and then cover my tracks. These sorts of things took time and finesse to make sure that you wouldn’t be found out. With a person like James, though, I imagined he wouldn't notice the money was gone until it was far too late—if he ever noticed. Really, it was such a small drop in the bucket for him that he probably never would.

Normally it felt good to take from those who had too much (and wielded it like an asshole). But this time I felt only flat dissatisfaction. I hadn’t wanted to go on a date, yet I had. I didn’t particularly want to fleece James, but here I was, caught up in the motions I’d been going through for years. Now I found myself working overtime to justify it.

And I knew exactly why I was feeling the sticky fingers of discomfort continuing to knead at me.

It could be summed up in one word: Bryce.

7

Bryce

Saturday mornings were for Grandma. Every week I woke up early and fixed us a large pot of coffee. We'd sit together in the living room, sipping on the coffee and filling each other in on the past week. For me, this meant telling Grandma about school, about work, and maybe about a book I was reading. In return, I listened to Grandma tell me about the crossword she managed to finish, updates on her favorite soap operas, and maybe she’d tell me about a book she was reading as well, though our tastes never overlapped.

I usually took her to the grocery store, where I would patiently wait for her to test every avocado for softness and inspect each apple before purchasing. We both made lots of jokes and said hello to everyone we passed. I liked keeping her company, and while the baggers tried to pack lightly for her, sometimes she needed help getting everything back into the house. I was more than happy to provide that help.

At home, as we stood in the kitchen and put away our groceries, my grandmother asked me about school.

“It's awesome, Grandma. I forgot how much I love being in class and love learning. More than that, I think having a job that I know I can work really hard for has me feeling super excited.”

She leaned on the counter and took a sip of water while watching me finish putting things away. “I'm so proud of you, Bryce,” she said, her eyes becoming glazed with exhaustion. Sometimes just a trip to the store was enough to wear her out for a few hours. “You know how much I appreciate you helping me through my illness, but I've always felt a little guilty for how much it put your life on hold.”

I set the jar of spaghetti sauce that had been in my hand down and crossed over to pull her into a hug.

“You don't ever have to feel guilty about that. I thought I'd never have family in my life after my parents kicked me out.” I kissed the top of her soft, returning hair. “Being able to have you in my life was worth changing my priorities around to make it work.”

She made a hissing sound. “I’ll never forgive your mother for kicking you out. And she lied to me about it! I spent too many years thinking you’d made a choice, run away and fallen in with a bad crowd. That she’d been trying to ‘save’ the family by giving you an ultimatum. What horse shit.”

My chest stretched with love and gratitude. “She lied because she knew you’d chew her out for being hateful.”

“Damned straight, I would have.”

“And I wasn’t exactly leading a pure and kosher life,” I said. “You know I did some shady things to survive while