little. When I thought about it, it was like back when I’d first decided I was having Mo and knew I’d have to give up judo if I didn’t want to risk hurting myself so badly that I might not be able to do fun shit with her. It hurt. It sucked. But I knew I’d survive.
That didn’t mean that I didn’t miss Jonah down to my fucking bones.
But I’d hoped I wasn’t that fucking obvious about it either.
“I’m not,” I repeated, not appreciating the bullshit face he was making.
He blinked. “Now you’re going to choose to lie to me? Now? After all the things you’ve done? All the things you’ve said? You’re going to lie to me about this?”
I shut my mouth and pressed the tip of my tongue against the inside of my cheek. “Fair enough,” I agreed, earning me a knowing smirk. “I do miss him, okay? But I’ll be all right.” Mostly.
Grandpa Gus was smirking by then, and he didn’t bother curbing his sigh as he reached over, took my hand, and said, “Lenny, you’re full of shit and we both know it.”
I blinked. “You’re… full of it.”
He squeezed my hand. “Yeah, but not right now, am I?”
“You always are.”
Grandpa grinned. “We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you being a sad little panda because your boy is gone.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that he wasn’t a boy, but he held up a finger that told me to stop talking.
Grandpa didn’t say anything for so long as he watched me with those thoughtful eyes and smirking mouth that I wasn’t sure what to expect. And that put me on edge because there were very few times I could ever remember where he didn’t know what to say. Grandpa always knew.
“Tell me something.”
“Okay.”
He squeezed my hand. “What is it about Jonah that made you pick him out of all the other men you’ve met?”
“Why?”
“Just answer the question, Len.”
All right. “He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met. The kindest. He’s so calm, it soothes me, and when he isn’t calm and he’s pissed off and grumpy, I still want to be around him.” I had to think about that. “He just makes me happy, Grandpa. More than anyone else I’ve ever met, not counting you guys.”
He still didn’t say anything. All he did was just keep on staring at me as he contemplated whatever it was that was going through his head. And it made me want to squirm.
He stared at me, and I stared at him.
For a minute.
For two.
Finally, out of fucking nowhere, he beamed at me.
And that scared the fuck out of me.
As I sat there, worried and alarmed by the fact him smiling made him look like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, he reached forward—scaring the shit out of me again—and cupped my cheeks in his hands.
Yeah, that kicked it up to me being basically terrified.
Grandpa Gus squeezed my cheeks together, kissed me on the forehead as I stiffened because what the fuck was happening, and then said it.
He said it.
He said, “Lenny, you’re fired.”
His hands were still on my cheeks and his lips were still on my forehead as I fucking froze again.
“What?”
He pulled back and smiled at me. “You’re fired.”
I blinked. “What?”
He squeezed my cheeks together with every word. “You. Are. Fired.”
I blinked again and then squinted. “From?”
My cheeks were squeezed together, definitely making me look like a million bucks as he answered almost cheerfully, “From Maio House, genius. What else?”
He… he… was firing me?
“Why?” I murmured, looking at him like I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. Because I heard his words. I understood what each one meant separately, but together….
What?
“You’re fired,” he repeated himself. “Either effective immediately, or I’m giving you a two weeks notice. It’s up to you.”
I leaned back, out of his reach, and kept on squinting at him. “Grandpa, what are you talking about? I’m fired? Why?”
He grinned. “Yeah.”
He… was firing me? From Maio House? I looked up at the ceiling, then back down at him and felt tears well up in my eyes, telling myself not to feel betrayed. This was Grandpa Gus, the last person in the world to ever not treat me right. “But why?”
His throat bobbed, and my cheeks were squeezed together again. “Because I love you.” This savage literally pinched my cheek. “And because I don’t want you to work there anymore.”
He was really trying to fire me. My own fucking grandfather was trying to fire me.