Page 29 of Blade

“You can’t not tell her. Eventually, she’s gonna figure it out. She won’t survive losing you again.”

“Everyone keeps saying that. She’s stronger than you all give her credit for. She always has been.”

“You weren’t here, Micah. You didn’t see her. Tell her. Soon. It needs to come from you.”

With that said, Ryder moved to get in his car.

“Hey, Ry.”

He looked over the hood of his car at me.

“I’m sorry, man. Leaving wasn’t my choice, or how we left.”

“I know. But coming back was. Hiding who you were was your choice. The wrong fucking choice.” He slid behind the wheel, started it up, and drove out before I could say anything more.

Chapter Eight

Beck

I hated mornings. I always had. Why anyone wanted to be up at the crack of dawn when they could sleep was beyond me. Ok, so it wasn’t exactly the crack of dawn, but nine o’clock was still early.

I regretted telling the girls I would meet them for brunch.

I wanted to stay in bed and hide under my covers for the rest of the day.

So much had happened over the last two days. My life felt like a whirlwind. The emotions I had felt over the last forty-eight hours had me exhausted.

But I was a woman of my word. I had two hours before I needed to be at The Diner. That gave me about twenty-five more minutes to lie here debating my life choices before I had to get in the shower.

Eventually, I got myself ready and headed downstairs to check on Grams before I headed out. I found her sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea.

“Grams, how are you feeling this morning?”

“I am fine, dear.”

“You are not fine. You couldn’t go grocery shopping yesterday because you were tired out, and then you left theparty just as it was getting started. From what Jingles told me the other day, you are the life of those parties.”

I watched my grandmother smirk. There was something she wasn’t telling me, and I needed to understand it. Sitting down at the table with her, I waited for her to respond.

“Darling, I am not as young as I used to be. I get a little more tired than I used to. And I wanted to leave you at the party so you could get to know everyone without you feeling like your grandmother was hovering over you. If you had wanted to stay with someone for the night, I didn’t want my presence to put a damper on it.”

“Grams, I had no plans to stay the night anywhere but here. Alone.”

“Well, yes, I gathered that when I came outside to find you and Blade arguing. Beck, honey, why can’t you give the boy a chance?”

I looked at her incredulously.

A chance?

At what?

“Grams, I have tried to be nice. The guy is a jerk. Every interaction I have had with him it is like he’s trying to make me mad. I honestly don’t know what his issue is. I have literally known him for two and a half days and every time he has said something to make me angry. And the growling. What the heck is with the growling?”

Grams stood and put her cup in the sink. “Just try to cut him some slack, ok? You never know what someone else might be going through.”

She left the kitchen, and I felt chastised for being a bully.

Seriously?

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