Page 13 of Keg's Revelation

“Only you can answer those questions. But you were seventeen when you found out you were pregnant, Raven. Your boyfriend had broken up with you. You moved across the country to help your mother. Stephanie is my daughter and I will always love her, but it doesn’t keep me from getting mad at her. I know she was behind you staying there permanently.”

“Gran, she needed the help to recover, and no way could Jacob help her with all the traveling for his job.”

“Bullshit!” she said loudly.

“Gran!” I scolded, then look toward the living room, and thankfully Reagan was engrossed in her television show and wasn’t paying attention to us.

“Don’t Gran me. I know Stephanie needed assistance in the beginning. She and Jacob could have paid someone to help her after we left, a more qualified caretaker than her seventeen-year-old daughter. It had nothing to do with money either. They could afford it. Even before your Gramps and I were ready to return home, we offered to pay for a live-in nurse until she was able to get around on her own. She turned us down. I told her you needed to get back to your life and were too young to take on the burden of caring for her. That’s when she said Jacob wasn’t comfortable with the idea of some unknown person living in their home. Especially since he wouldn’t be around much to keep an eye on them.” My Gran rolled her eyes. “He wasn’t worried they might kill Stephanie in her sleep. No, he was worried someone might steal from them.”

It felt good to smile. My Gran was something else. “You never liked him, did you, Gran?”

The woman didn’t even have to think about it. She immediately started in. “No, I never have. When your mother started seeing him and he started coming to the house, I didn’t like how he looked at you.”

“What? Eww, are you talking like sexually?”

“Of course not, you’re Gramps would have castrated him.” Gran waved her hand through the air. “No, he lookedatyou, but it was like hedidn’tsee you. He’d listen when you talked, but it was as if it was taking up his time.”

“Like he had to, instead of wanted to,” I answered because I’d felt his indifference to me. It got to the point that the more he tried, the more he had creeped me out. He didn’t want me around but put up with me for my mom’s benefit.

“Exactly. Your mother and I argued when she told me Jacob got a better job and ya’ll were moving. You’d already mentioned you didn’t want to go, but she was adamant you move with them. She only let you stay when I brought to her attention that your Gramps and I wouldn’t be close by to watch you when they wanted to go out or when Jacob took her with him on some of his trips.” She shrugged when I stared at her. “The man is an asshole, always has been, and your mother has always been selfish. Not like I didn’t tell her before she married him that I didn’t like him. She chose to go through with the marriage, so dealing with him is on her, not the rest of us.”

“I love you, Gran.”

“The feeling is mutual, though I think I love you more.”

“You know when the doctor came into the room and informed me that I was pregnant, my first thought was I needed to call Reed. Mom was the one to convince me to wait and think about it for a while. She’d told me if he had cared so much for me, he would have dealt with me leaving to help her. I argued with her and told her me leaving was suddenly dropped on him and though he brought up about long distance... You know what, it doesn’t matter. In the end, it was my choice. Maybe I’m more like Mom than I thought, Gran. I never knew my dad, and I’ve done the same thing to my son. I’m going to have to accept that.” I stood. “I need to check on Ry, and I’m praying I can reverse any damage I’ve caused him. I’ll warm his food and take it with me, he needs to eat.” I placed the food in the microwave while I rinsed my glass out and put it in the dishwasher.

“You’re not like your mother, Raven.”

“I’m not so sure about that. She got pregnant with me at seventeen and never told the man.”

“Because, sweetheart, she didn’t even know anything about him. She was waitressing part-time after school, and he’d stopped in for dinner while he was traveling through. I’d like to think the man didn’t know her age, but with your mother, she probably didn’t bother to tell him. She was wild growing up. Promiscuous. The more your gramps and I came down on her, the wilder she became. You were the opposite of her. She was always going somewhere; party, out with friends. You were a homebody from the day you were born. You’d cry the entire time when we’d take you out with us to shop, then quiet down as soon as we walked back in the house with you. As you got older and made friends, you never wanted to have sleepovers unless the girls came to our house.” Gran smiled at me.

“What must have gone through your and Gramps mind when Reed started coming around?”

Gran chuckled. “Well...I can’t say we weren’t a little more than worried. We knew he was the son of the president of Haven MC. Knew the type of club it was then. But we also knew what could happen if we pressured you to stay away from him. We’d been through it with your mother. And to be honest, we figured he was your first boyfriend, and it would more than likely not last long. It did surprise us when it did, though. But by then, Reed had surprised us, too. He showed your gramps and I respect from day one. More importantly, he treated you with respect.”

“The young good girl and the older bad boy. Really, Gran? That’s a little cliché, don’t you think?”

“You know, next time you get exasperated with Ry when he says something sarcastic or snarky—look in the mirror and you’ll find who he gets that from.” No matter what type of mood I was in, Gran always could make me smile. “Now go and take care of Ry. I’ll keep Reagan occupied, so she doesn’t disturb the two of you.”

“Thanks, Gran.” After snagging a soda from the fridge and Ry’s food, I headed out of the kitchen.

“Raven?”

I stopped in the doorway and looked over my shoulder. “Yes, Gran.”

“It will all work out.”

I gave a half smile. “Well, one can hope. But it can’t get any worse, so there is that.” I started walking toward the stairs, and with each step, I prayed I was right.

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