The Lucky in Love Collection - Lauren Blakely Page 0,42

that so?”

Shaw punches my stomach. “He’s a total teddy bear. He was telling me that I’m his best friend.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re such a dick. I’ll go back to telling you that you’re a dick. Now get out of here, you dick.”

“Nope. I’m not a dick. You love me. You fucking love me.”

“I love it when you leave. See you, man.”

He salutes us. “I’ll let you two lovebirds catch up.”

Arden raises an eyebrow as he heads back into the station. “Why did he say ‘lovebirds’?”

“I cannot account for anything that knucklehead does.” I hope that little white lie does the trick.

She exhales as if she’s erasing Shaw from her head. “Dashiell Hammett. I know what your grandpa was talking about with the schnauzer.”

She shows me a paperback—The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.

I give her a questioning look.

Her face brightens more. “The two married detectives have a dog. A female schnauzer named Asta. In the movie, the dog was changed to a male wire fox terrier. You said your pops liked hard-boiled detective books.” Her smile radiates as she keeps going. “I don’t think he was misremembering his collies. I think he was talking about this book when he was telling you about a female schnauzer. He was saying he wanted the female schnauzer because he didn’t like that the dog had been changed from the book. That’s what he was meaning.”

The cogs turn in my head, clicking into place. A sense of wonder bordering on awe spreads through me as she solves the puzzle of his strange dog comments that weren’t so strange after all. “That was it. Holy smokes. I think you’re right.”

Smiling, she hands the paperback to me. “It’s a gift for him. From me to him.”

My heart kicks around in my chest. I want to tell her that this detective work makes me fall a little more for her, because this means so damn much to me. I don’t say those words exactly. Instead, I tell her in a way that shows how much she matters. “Would you like to come with me tomorrow and give it to him yourself?”

Her eyes light up like sparklers. “I would love to meet your pops.”

27

Gabe

I’ve never brought a woman to see my grandfather before.

No need. No reason. It’s not exactly where you go on a date, and I haven’t been serious enough with anyone to bring her around. These visits—they’re a family thing.

As we turn down the fifth-floor hallway, my shoulders tighten, and I stretch my neck, trying to loosen up. I’m glad I haven’t run into Darla today, though, and I hope it stays that way.

Arden tells me she has to stop in the restroom, and I point in the direction of the elevators. “Right over there.”

She doubles back, and I watch her turn the corner, then I lean against the wall, telling myself to relax.

When she joins me a minute or two later, I reach for her arm and meet her gaze. “Listen, he has good days and bad days. I never know which it’ll be. That’s the thing about walking into his suite—it’s a little like answering a call. You hope for the best, but sometimes it’s the worst.” I take a breath, bracing myself for an eventuality. “Well, it hasn’t quite been the worst yet, but someday it will be.”

She nods, her big brown eyes filled with understanding. “That makes sense. There’s a great unknown factor to what he’s going through.”

“Sometimes he’s in another place entirely. Another time . . .”

“Does he know you?”

I swallow roughly. “He still does. I’m grateful for that. Sometimes he thinks it’s another year, or that my grandmother is still alive.”

“That’s hard for everyone.” She offers a small smile, keeping her eyes locked on mine. “Tell me what you want me to do or say if that happens.”

My breathing steadies, and it’s because of her, how calm she is, how she’s not weirded out by any of this. “Just be yourself. I try to talk to him like I talk to anyone, and I remind him of when and where he is if he doesn’t seem to know.”

“That’s easy. I can do that. We can do that.”

I breathe a big sigh of relief. She’s a natural with people. She knows how to talk to anyone, how to meet a person on his or her level without talking down or looking too far up. She’s an eye-to-eye, face-to-face person.

We reach his suite, and the nerves quell a little bit more. I