Page 110 of Broken Grump

“Thank you so much for bringing me here. If it isn’t too much to ask, would it be okay if I shared this with my older children? I think they’d really love it.”

“Sure.” It’s not like I got a lot of use out of it. However, I also made a mental note to get it evaluated for safety before that happened.I probably should’ve thought to do that before we even stepped in, but oh well. Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

When he raises to his feet, I motion for him to sit next to me. He does, and then I say, “In the spirit of transparency and the good Christian will . . .”

“Uh-huh.” He squints his eyes and focuses on something over my shoulder.

“There’s something I haven’t—well, we haven’t—been completely honest with you about.”

“Okay?” I grab his attention again.

“It’s about Luna.” I feel a goose-egg-sized ball of emotion in my throat, but I do my best to push it down. “As you already know, she is my daughter. Hayden is her father.”

“Right?”

“Well, we did conceive her before wedlock, that’s all true. But we lied when we told you that we ever made good on the relationship. We’ve never been married. Not even close. In fact, he was absent for most of her life, and he is only now just getting to know her for the first time.”

He shuffles in his seat and looks down at his hands before muttering, “I see.”

“I’m so sorry that we lied to you. It wasn’t fair. But I thought it was the only way we could get you to agree to sell to us and build my grandfather’s dream hotel.”

“But you and Hayden do have a past together, clearly.”

“Well, yes. We met when we were kids. I was immediately struck by his sad eyes, and I would always make it a point to go play with him when I was over at Abuelo’s.His parents used to live right there.” I point in the direction of their house. “Then, as we got older, our friendship turned into something more and—”

“And your daughter came to be.”

“Exactly. But that’s something else I want you to understand. When I was a pregnant teenager, my mother capitalized on thatopportunity to scorn and abandon me. I think it was the very thing she was waiting for to kick me out of the family.”

“Well, that clearly didn’t work. You’re still here now. Even after all of these years.”

“Maybe, right now. But things weren’t always sunshine and roses. Except, that’s where my abuelo came in. I think he was disappointed in the predicament I found myself in at first, and he stood idly by. I lost my trust fund and had to sell my jewelry and designer clothes to afford the bare minimum in a new city. However, he later found me, apologized for his behavior and my mother’s, and he prayed for Luna and me.”

“I see.”

“You see, Randall, I lost my faith after all of that happened to me. I mean, how could I believe in a God who would hand me to such a cruel and unloving family? But my abuelo was what I called a ‘real believer,’ and I know that you are too, sir.”

He crosses his arms and nods.

“That’s why I want to do this project. To uphold his memory.”

After taking a moment, he finally responds, “Thank you for telling me all of this. It certainly helps put things into perspective.”

“That’s all I was hoping for. Before you make a final decision, I wanted to make sure that you knew the whole truth aboutthe people you would be selling to. You see, Randall. We’re all flawed because we’re human. We aren’t Jesus Christ.”

With that, I kiss my fingers, hold them up to the cross, and then leave him to stew in his thoughts.

Chapter thirty-one

Hayden

It’s Saturday, and I’mmeeting up with the boys: Noah, my brother, Gabriel, Denton, and Victor, Noah’s best friend, at the golf course.

In their typical fashion, they’re already a few beers deep by the time I even pull up. And Victor, the notorious jokester of the crew, is wearing the dumbest outfit, complete with a hat with a poof ball on the top and loud, checkered pants.

“Morning,” he says after belching and crushing a can in his bare hands.

“Good morning, you misfits,” I call from the open window before parking in front of them, getting out, and retrieving my clubs from the back of the car.

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