Page 104 of Blade

I laughed. “She would like that. She wouldn’t want us moping around.”

“Beck?” Rachel said hesitantly. “I know Grams’ death is a shock, but it wasn’t your first one today. How are you doing with everything? Can we talk about what happened at the diner?”

Closing my eyes, I let out a deep sigh.

“I know you’re right, Rach, I just don’t know how to process everything that happened. How do you come to terms with the fact that the man you’re falling in love with is really the boy you loved, who died? It sounds like a Lifetime movie waiting to be written.”

I stood from the couch and paced the room.

“How do I reconcile the boy who wanted me around all the time with the man who was constantly growling and snapping at me, trying to get me to leave him alone?”

I stopped pacing and looked at Rachel.

“Oh my God, how did I not see it? That’s the same way he acted when I met him, back when he was a stupid seven-year-old who didn’t want to be my friend. Ugh, that makes me even angrier.”

“Beck, you hadn’t seen him in ten years. He’s changed a lot.”

“You recognized him, Ryder recognized him, even Grams recognized him. How did I miss it?”

I threw my hands in the air, frustrated with myself.

“When Micah came home five years ago, he didn’t look like he does now. He wasn’t that same scrawny boy you knew, but he also wasn’t the big burly guy you know now. He didn’t have a beard or half the muscles and tattoos he has now. If you were here then, you would have recognized him, too.”

“But I wasn’t here. I left because his death devastated me. A death that clearly never happened. Rachel, what happened?”

Grace looked over at Rachel, shaking her head.

“What?” I asked, looking between the two of them.

“I’m sorry, Beck, but you have to talk to Blade. He has to be the one to give you the answers. Rachel can’t. It falls under club business now,” Lily explained.

“To hell with the club. Right now, I just need to get through the next week, Grams’ funeral, and a visit from my mother. Then maybe I’ll talk to him. If I’m feeling generous.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Beck

It’d been five days since I lost Grams. Five lonely days. Sure, Rachel and the girls had come by to check on me. Even the club girls stopped in to make sure I was ok. King and Jack and even the sheriff stopped by, making sure I was eating and taking care of myself.

Buthehadn’t.

I didn’t know what King told him, but he’d kept his distance.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. When my grandfather died, he never left me.

I’d told him to leave. I’d told him he couldn’t stay. He wasn’t mine anymore, despite what was growing between us these last few days.

Blade, that’s who he was now, had stayed away.

I couldn’t help but resent who he was now, because I knew Micah wouldn’t have walked away.

Now I sat in a chair at the cemetery, my mother on my right side, my stepfather Chris on the other side of her, and my stepbrother next to me on my left. My mother swept in, like I knew she would, trying to take control of everything the moment she arrived.

Thank goodness for Matlock. He had everything documented for my grandmother’s wishes. The seatingarrangements were the only thing my mother could take over, claiming the row of seats were for family only.

She never understood that I didn’t count her as family.

Hadn’t for a long time.

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