The Best Thing - Mariana Zapata Page 0,70

had to keep an ear out. At least it was the smartest thing you could do if you were in a pickle. Someone might give you some advice you could actually use. They could also piss you off, but you had to let things slide off your back sometimes.

“Maybe he needs a new striking coach,” I suggested as the car turned onto a familiar street. Grandpa wouldn’t be interested in doing more than giving Peter advice on what to do. Carlos didn’t have the personality that my grandfather would want to work with.

“He needs something, but I don’t know if a new coach will be enough. He’s too cocky.”

I couldn’t argue with that. He was right. “Speaking of needing things….” I trailed off. “Grandpa didn’t finish telling me what happened with that lady after I left.” I called her that lady on purpose. She wasn’t really my grandma.

Peter made the slightest face, which was really the equivalent of a huge gesture coming from anyone else. “Not much. She asked why you laughed at her, didn’t like what he told her, and then she left.”

I hummed and crossed my ankles, sneaking another glance at him. He was still making a weird expression. “Are you okay with her showing up?”

“I wish she hadn’t. If it were up to me, you would’ve gone the rest of your life without meeting her, but—” He glanced over with those dark, dark eyes. “—Lenny, you know it’s Gus who kept her away, don’t you?”

I was an adult, and these two men I loved so much were still trying to protect me. And they always would, I knew. Always.

But even knowing that it was her divorce from my grandpa, and the reasons behind it, that had kept her away, didn’t change shit. If Mo had a daughter, there was nothing that would keep me away from her. Nothing.

So I told him the truth, most of it at least. “I know, and I wish she hadn’t come either. I don’t want her to cause either of you any problems.”

I didn’t know what to think of the silence that followed afterward as he parked the car and we headed inside. I knew her appearance worried him and my grandfather. For multiple reasons.

And as much as I didn’t want to make this about me, it was hard not to. She’d shown up to talk to Grandpa. Not to see me. That hadn’t even been in the plan.

So fine. Fuck her. Shoving Rafaela aside, I followed Peter into the house.

All the lights downstairs were still on, which wasn’t surprising. But not for the first time since we’d left, I wondered how it had gone between Jonah and Grandpa Gus. I kind of regretted we didn’t have a camera set up in the house so we could spy on them.

But at least, if Jonah had fucked up, Grandpa Gus would give me a play-by-play on what happened.

The first thing I heard was the sound of the television on softly in the living room. I peeked inside, unsure if someone was going to be hiding or just sitting there. But Grandpa wasn’t trying to scare the shit out of me yet. He wasn’t alone either.

On the floor, Jonah was stretched out beside Mo—eight times her length, it seemed like—who was sitting up, smashing colorful blocks together.

The thing that struck me the most was the little smile on his face as he spent his time looking at her instead of the replay of a boxing event playing on the television. He looked… happy? Did he already really like her? He should. She was amazing, but….

Grandpa Gus, on the other hand, was sitting in the middle of the couch, arms stretched out to both sides, eyes straight on the television.

“We’re home,” I called out as I took a step forward and stopped being a stalker.

Two sets of adult-sized eyes moved, and Mo shrieked.

I had read in a book that right around her age she might start getting clingy with people coming and going, but she hadn’t. She was still so happy to be reunited after some time with me and Grandpa Gus. It killed me a little and made me feel guilty for leaving her alone so much.

At least she was always with someone who loved and cared for her. That’s what I told myself.

But if I had any doubts that someone was still holding a grudge that I had left him with a visitor, the expression Grandpa Gus shot me would have confirmed it.

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