Page 73 of Counting Quarters

Chapter Thirty One

Blaire

Inallthetime I’d known her, Grammy never apologized.

Not once.

Even if she knew she was wrong, she’d somehow find a way to make the other person apologize. Which was part of the reason I was able to hold my ground about moving away from her.

Why I was able to stay away.

Because when you can’t apologize, you ignore the problem altogether. And that was exactly what she’d been doing for the past few weeks.

Pretending.

But her need to keep me under her control outweighed her pride, and while the two fought against each other every time we found ourselves in the same room, it was control that won out in the end.

“I’ve been watching you with the Quarter boys,” she began one day when we were both at the cabin. She had come during one of my training sessions with Rhyse and Enzo to bring something to Lux.

I don’t know what they were still searching those books for anymore. Didn’t we have all the answers we needed? Rayner was obviously using a magic that went deeper and darker than anything our records showed.

“You manage to hold your own pretty well out there,” she awkwardly remarked.

“Thank you.”

“I’m not surprised. You’re as stubborn as a mule.” The smile that accompanied the backhanded comment told me it was meant to be a compliment.

“I get it from you,” I quickly countered, and she tilted her head back and howled a laugh, the way I always saw Rhyse do.

“Fair enough. I’ll give you that one, but you better keep the rest of your thoughts to yourself unless you want a full tongue lashing.”

My smirk told her I didn’t give a damn about her tongue lashing, which earned an eye roll from her.

“I’m proud of the woman you’ve become in such a short amount of time. And I’m… I’m sorry that I ever doubted your ability to handle all of this.”

I couldn’t mask my surprise at her words.

“Your mother and I made a lot of mistakes raising you. You’d think I could have gotten it right the second time around, but I guess I’ll never learn. Now, all I’ve got to show for it is two grown women who resent me.”

She looked down at her feet in a rare moment of insecurity.

I had no idea what to say. If we weren’t arguing or avoiding each other, I wasn’t sure what to do with her anymore.

“I don’t resent you,” I finally landed on.

At least, not anymore. I did, though. Before Kyle showed me how fleeting life could be. I didn't want to waste any more of the time we had together on this planet arguing with her. I just couldn’t figure out how to tell her that.

“You wouldn’t be wrong if you did.”

My eyes scanned her face, searching for any sign of mockery or jest, but came up short.

“You know,” I started, and my voice broke. I almost lost my nerve to say my next words—to speak them into existence—but pushed my shoulders back and continued.

“Storie came here as an orphan, searching for answers about her family. She didn’t know anything about Beacon Grove. And I felt like such a sham all that time for helping her collect little breadcrumbs when I’ve got this wealth of information standing right before me and I was squandering it.”

Grammy’s eyebrows scrunched together. “You weren’t squandering anything. You were a child.”

I gave her an incredulous look, tilting my head. “I’m no younger than she is, Grammy. I wasn't a child. You were just treating me like one.”

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