Page 23 of Hers to Marry
“Your parents arrive next week, right?”
“Yup. And Grandma’s not looking forward to it.”
“How long has it been since they tried to work things out?
“Since we left Springfield. My grandmother knows how to hold a grudge, and her son is just like her.” Drew chuckled. “My father still won’t talk about what the last straw was, but somebody said something and, next thing you know, we’re off to Guam.”
“You have any idea what the argument was about?”
Drew frowned. “I’m sure it had to do with my mother, like they always did.”
“Her cooking again?”
Kat remembered Drew’s mother being the sweetest woman, so loving and caring. Kat wished her mother had shown the same love and care and had fought against her husband, and the emotional abuse of his daughters. Kat had since forgiven her mother. Her meek personality was no match for her husband’s domineering one.
“Grandma didn’t want him to marry her.”
Kat gasped. “Are you serious? Your mom is wonderful!”
“And Grandma is the matriarch of the family. What she says goes, until that. For ten years, they had argued and fought, even after my sister and I were born. Then Dad joined the military to get away from her.”
“A little drastic, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, but they needed the money. He’d been laid off the month before, and they were desperate.”
She placed a hand on his arm. “Drew, I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t know that’s what you were facing.”
“I didn’t know either. Mom and Dad kept that part private until recently when they heard I wanted to come back here and get married.”
Kat’s eyes widened. “They’re against you marrying here?”
Drew let out a loud groan. “Kat…there are so many things wrong with this wedding. I don’t know how it’s going to come together.”
Kat looped her arm through his and gently squeezed. “Drew, whatever I can do to help. You know that, right?”
His other hand came up and cradled her face; he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “I know, Katrina. Thank you.”
“I hope your parents can heal the rift with your grandmother. I hear…I hear she’s not well.”
Drew disentangled himself. “What do you mean, ‘not well’?”
“Oh…” Kat nervously dragged her hair behind her ears. “Um…Parker said you told her she was…” Kat wouldn’t say the word ‘terminal,’ although Parker had implied it.
Drew moved in front of her and she halted. He stared her down, but Kat sensed he wasn’t angry with her. “Was what?” he seethed.
Kat frowned. “Drew, I’m sorry. Maybe I misunderstood.”
Her attempt to side-stepped him was blocked his massive arm. He gently moved her until they were face to face again. “What was the context?”
Kat bit her lip, unwillingly to look away from her friend’s probing gaze. She hadn’t meant to come between Drew and Parker, yet here she was. And she had a feeling Drew wasn’t going to let her escape until he knew everything.
Sweat beads trickled down the side of her face. Why hadn’t they taken his car? At least she wouldn’t have to face both the sweltering heat and Drew’s intense gaze.
“She thinks you used your grandmother to get her to marry you here,” she admittedly softly.
“Of course she did,” he growled and about-faced.
“Drew!”
