Bad Boy Ink (Get Ink'd #5) - Ali Lyda Page 0,58

still riding the high of nailing the case with Aiden a couple days ago, but the long hours of the semester were beginning to catch up with me. Getting the text that I was free for the day lifted so much weight from my shoulders.

My grandmother was sitting in the kitchen, wrapped up snug in a housecoat. She looked like she would be more comfortable in the 1960s than in 2020. Hell, she even had curlers in her wispy hair. I fucking loved it.

“Hey, Grandma,” I said as I made my way to the coffee pot. “Classes got canceled today.”

“Oh?” She leaned back in her chair and gave me a soft smile. Sunlight was streaming in through the French doors, illuminating her like the angel she was. It was too cold in the mornings now for her outside cup of coffee. She had to make do with sitting in the sunshine indoors.

I poured myself a cup and brought the carafe over to refill her mug. Then I sat down with her, prepared to enjoy a comfortable conversation. “Do you remember when I told you about the group project? The one that offered an automatic A?”

She nodded, her blue eyes sparkling. “Yes, I do. Does that mean...”

My chest swelled with pride and I laughed. “It does. Aiden and I managed to crack the case first. It was awesome. We had to stand in front of the entire class and show how we got the answer. The professor was totally impressed. He's got connections to the FBI and he all but said he'd help line up an interview.”

My voice trailed off at the end. For every bit of excitement that I had over the success of the group project, an equal amount of frustration and anxiety remained.

My grandmother sipped from her mug. “Why don't you sound happy?”

Leaning back in my seat, I wrapped my hands around the hot mug, trying to ground myself in the present and not in the looping chaos of trying to solve the mystery that was Aiden...and how I felt about him. Maybe I needed a little advice.

“I'm glad I got the A,” I said, “but I'm not entirely glad that the project is over. I really enjoyed working with my partner. Aiden. I think I told you about him?”

“The last time we discussed Aiden, he was a thorn in your side,” my grandmother observed. “At the time it sounded as if you couldn't wait to be finished with him. What changed?”

I circled a finger around the lip of my mug, studying the ripples in its black surface. “I think I have feelings for him.”

Her white eyebrow arched high, making her appear regal as a queen. “You think? Or you know?”

I wrinkled my nose. Why was she always so intuitive? “I know I have feelings for him. He was prickly, and difficult, and often just plain rude.” I worried my lower lip as I searched for the right words. “But he's also smart as hell and driven and insanely good-looking. And we have so much in common, even if it didn’t seem that way at first.”

“So why do you sound like someone pooped on your doorstep?”

I choked on the sip of coffee I'd been about to swallow. Spluttering, I leaned forward and tried to clear my throat.

“Uh,” was all I could manage. She grinned at me like she’d played the world's greatest trick. “The problem is we're both gunning for the same job. There's only one spot open and we both want it. Plus, Aiden is a distraction from that. I've been spending more time thinking about him than thinking about how to get that job. And you told me not to let distractions keep me from that path.”

My grandmother snorted. “For such a smart boy, you can be a damned fool.” She reached across the table to hold my hand. Her skin was soft and warm, comforting like bread straight from the oven or clothing fresh out of the dryer. “Finding love isn't a bad distraction. I just meant between your job, working on your television show, and going to school, there wasn't room for anything unnecessary. But the heart is the most necessary part of us all.”

My insides squiggled and wiggled as I absorbed this new bit of information. The heart was the most necessary part. It was true that since Aiden and I had first admitted our feelings for each other (and subsequently discovered how well we fit together in the physical sense), there had