Len. I thought of him as my… nephew.” Grandpa shot me a long look before he kept going. “Even after he left for school like a spoiled, selfish kid without warning you, I was still fond of him. I thought, he’s just a kid; it’s just a phase. You’ve been so mature over most things; I knew you were an exception. Your dad had been a shithead at that age. I was a shithead at that age. It pissed me off that he did that to you, yeah, but I figured I could forgive him, and you bounced right back. You didn’t let him get you down for long.
“But I’ve seen him since then. I’ve seen him grow up. At least I’ve watched him physically grow, and I’ve got to tell you, I told Peter at least once a week for years, that I hoped the rest of him never grew up. That he didn’t get his life together and get his head on straight, and finally see you. I prayed, Len. I prayed that you wouldn’t end up with him, even if I was confident that after what he’d done by leaving, that you wouldn’t forgive him for it.”
I had to hold my breath his words felt so raw. He wasn’t done either.
“And the more time went on, the more I knew that he was going to be too stupid to see what he had in you. That boy’s loved you his whole life, but he doesn’t have, and never will have, the focus you do. You’re better than him at everything, and you always have been. He doesn’t have half your heart or your brain. I’m grateful for that, because he wasn’t what me, or Peter, would have dreamed of for you. So I’m glad. I’m real glad he’s too late. You did the right thing, Lenny. I’m glad you’re smart like I am,” he decided to end with.
I just sat there, almost holding my breath, but mostly just staring at him and taking in every word he said. I picked one at a time and went with the last thing he probably expected. “So… you’ve decided Jonah is a better option?”
He made a face. “I think you’re going to be too good for anybody.” Then he took his face to a whole new level. “But that Jonah kid—”
“He’s almost thirty-one.”
It didn’t matter apparently. “If he cares enough about you to come over here and use Mo to gain an advantage….” He tipped his head to the side. “That boy does not give a fuck. He’s not afraid to do what he has to do to get what he wants, and he told me. He was pissed off, but he was ready to fight. He didn’t run away.
“I’m impressed,” he kept going. “If somebody cares that much about what you’re doing, how can I hate him? Especially when it’s Noah, the little shithead. If I had to choose between the kid who used to stick beans up his nose—the same one who won’t even come around anymore because he knows I think he doesn’t have any balls—or the kid who still comes by even though I’m not nice to him. You know who’s gonna win that. I’m going to want the one who stuck around even when he wasn’t welcome. I want my girl to be with the kind of person who fucked up but learned from it. I want someone for you who knows your worth and wants you to be a part of his life. There’s not much more I can ask for.”
Something twisted and turned inside of me.
“You might as well ask the kid to come stay with us the rest of the time he’s here. He’s already over here all the time anyway,” Grandpa threw out.
I blinked. I wasn’t dumb enough to ask him if he was sure. Of course he was. Grandpa never said shit unless he meant it.
Yet it still surprised the hell out of me so much all I could do was stand there as he kept talking, cementing my opinion that whatever had happened today sealed the deal on how my gramps felt.
Because if Jonah were to spend the night, there was only one thing that would mean. The biggest secret of all. The one thing in this world we kept under wraps as much as possible. Only a select handful of people knew, and they were the closest and most trusted people in our lives.