made it to the bathroom and back out in no time. I spotted an elderly man approaching the table where Jonah, his mom, and Mo were at on the way. It wasn’t until I was only a few feet away that I finally heard what the older man was saying and how Jonah was responding.
“You aren’t?” the older man asked, frowning and wringing his hands.
Jonah shook his head solemnly. “No, sir. I’m a rugby player. Never played a day of American football in my life.”
Holy shit. Was this really happening?
The older man looked pretty damn dubious as he squinted from beneath his glasses. “Rugby?”
My daughter’s father nodded. “Yeh.”
His squint got a little more intense, and even I could see the way his shoulders dropped. The man muttered his apologies before backing away, muttering under his breath, “Rugby?”
And the second he was a few feet away, Jonah turned to look at me with the fucking funniest face I’d ever seen.
But I beat him to it.
I was already grinning. “Who did he think you were?”
The funny face didn’t go anywhere, but one of his hands went for his back pocket.
I opened my mouth just as he opened his wallet and thrust a five-dollar bill at me.
“A football player,” he mumbled as he shoved his wallet back into his shorts just as I started fucking laughing.
Chapter 16
5:51 p.m
Please call me back.
“You invited her?” Grandpa Gus didn’t look up from shaking out the bag of baked chips into the one and only bowl he would be putting out that night. “Why?”
Holding Mo as she tried to stand on my thighs with her hands clutching my cheeks, I rolled my eyes at the man across the island from me. “Because she’s Mo’s grandma.”
Those gray eyes flicked up to me as he started rolling up the bag, lips flat.
I made my lips go flat too as I took a quick sniff of the baby on top of me. Jonah had helped me give her a bath last night, and she still smelled good. “And it’s more fun to be nice when you know someone doesn’t like you since it’ll just make them feel like they’re the bad person, okay? Mind Games 101. You taught that class.”
Grandpa Gus smirked, and I could see him trying to fight back a smile.
“She’s your co-grandparent. You’re gonna need to suck it up too.”
That had him sneering, but before he could argue something about him and Peter being the only grandparents that mattered, I beat him to it.
“I think I impressed her by telling her about your world championships and Marcus’s medals. Don’t be surprised if she asks you to see them.”
His back was to me as he hid the remaining chips in the cupboard. It wasn’t until he moved toward the sink, back still to me, that he said, “I cleaned them a few days ago.”
He cleaned them every other week like clockwork. He’d told me before that Marcus, my dad, had been meticulous about it. He’d been so proud of them.
“Jasper is coming tonight too, I’m guessing? I have to spend another night watching him ooh and aah over Mo?”
Speaking of, Mo decided to fart right then, and we laughed. The doorbell rang but neither one of us made a move to go answer it.
“You know… I think it’s about time you started being nicer to Jonah, and I think you know that.”
“You do!” a voice piped up out of the blue from the other side of the kitchen door, and I laughed thinking of Peter walking by right on time to overhear that.
Grandpa Gus groaned as he opened the refrigerator door and pulled out the tray of carrots, broccoli, and oranges he had prepped hours ago, and the hummus dip he’d made then too. “I am being nice,” he tried to argue as he set the tray in the center of the island as Mo reached up blindly and snagged a handful of my hair, making me whine. “Yesterday, I taught him how to puree Mo’s food, and I only criticized him once.”
My mouth dropped open in pain and surprise as I started trying to pluck her little fingers off again. “Only once?”
“Your sarcasm isn’t appreciated.”
“But yours is?”
He made a face, but I knew he was just trying to keep from cracking up.
“He’s all right, but don’t hold your breath. I’ll think about it. I’m still not crazy about the idea of him only coming and going a few months every year.”