Page 193 of Dagger

Seventeen Years Later

“Granddad,” Sunny shrieked from upstairs. “I can’t find my earrings.”

“There’ll be there somewhere, sweetheart,” I called up. “Look again.”

I leaned both hands on the counter, looking my three-year-old great-grandson in the eye, and declared, “Sunny’s losin’ the plot.”

“Sunny oozing pot,” he parroted.

I barked a laugh, remembering the one time when Sunny did ooze pot, and we found her with her head down the toilet bowl, puking her guts up. She’d mixed booze and smoked some bud, then had what Mason called a ‘whitey’.

Needless to say, she never oozed pot again.

“Danda? Nico ooze pot?” he asked me, smacking himself on his cute three-year-old little belly.

“Nah, kid,” I muttered. “Better stick to chocolate milk. I know it’s Granddad’s house, Granddad’s rules, but that’s a step too far.”

The running joke between the grandkids was that I force-fed their rugrats pure sugar cane. They weren’t wrong. I took pridein shoving as much fast food, fizzy pop, and Haribo down their necks as humanly possible, but hey, I was a Grandpop; that was my job. Spoiling the little ones was my religion, and nobody could convert me. If they didn’t like it, they could always look after their own kids.

Sunny came sprinting into the kitchen, wearing her long, white, strapless wedding dress. Her chestnut hair was loose and curled down her back, and her face had been made up to accentuate her huge, grey eyes and her puffy pink lips. “I can’t find my earrings!” she screeched. “They’re my something old, borrowed, and blue.What am I gonna do?”

“Cancel the wedding?” I suggested.

“Oh my God,” she cried. “I’m gonna have to cancel the wedding!”

“Sunny ooze pot,” Nico announced sagely, giving her some serious side-eye.

Tears sprang into my beautiful granddaughter’s eyes, and she sobbed, “My wedding day’s ruined.”

“What’s ruined?” Elise asked, fastening her bracelet as she walked into the kitchen.

“I can’t find my earrings,” Sunny wailed.

“Sink drawer,” Leesy told her. “I found them in the downstairs cloakroom yesterday and thought I’d better put them somewhere safe.”

“Oh my God, thank you!” Sunny yelled, running to the drawer, then sprinting back out of the kitchen.

My mouth hitched at the sight of my woman in her pale blue dress.

Leesy still didn’t look a day over forty. Her figure was perfect in her silken, floaty dress that wrapped around her waist. The year we got married, she gained twenty pounds, and I loved it. Her blonde hair had been twisted into a complicated knot at the back of her head, and her lips were luscious and glossy.

“She’s like a hurricane,” Duchess mused, her eyes on the door that Sunny had just disappeared through. “She leaves devastation in her wake.”

“Well, look at who her dad is.” I deadpanned. “That one had more than his fair share of moments when he was her age.”

“Have you heard from Kai?” she asked quietly.

My heart sank. “Not since a week gone when he packed his bike up and rode off into the sunset.”

“Always thought it would be him,” Elise whispered.

I gave her a tight-lipped smile. “We all did. But Kai didn’t treat her good, Leesy. Sunny’s kind and understanding, but she’s nobody’s fool. He flaunted other girls in her face, pushed her away, and broke her heart a million times over. There’s only so much a girl like Sunshine will take.”

Her eyes met mine. “I don’t like the idea of them losing the years we lost.”

I lifted Nico from the counter and placed him gently on his feet before turning back to my wife and cupping her face. “We can’t live their lives for them. They’ve gotta make their own way in life, and that includes making their own mistakes.”

Elise peered up at me through her eyelashes. “I need to go and get my shoes on, or we’ll be late. Make sure Sunshine’s okay. Bowie will be here soon with the car. She needs to be ready.” Her eyes lowered to Nico. “You wanna help Nanna with her shoes, sweet boy?”

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