Page 50 of Taming Grumpy Dr. Beast
“I’ve opened the spine and started stripping the glue from it. I’m hoping to be done with that by the end of today or tomorrow.”
Jaxon leaned down to pick up a rock. He smoothed it between his fingers, then drew his arm back and threw the rock, causing it to skip across the flat surface of the water. We both stared at the ripples slowly growing smaller from the wake.
A memory shuffled to the forefront of my mind. One of the happier ones I had with my mother. “I used to skip rocks with my mom when I was little.” I twisted my mouth. “Well, I tried.” I was three and learning to skip a rock had been challenging. I was already talking in full sentences and absorbing knowledge faster than my mother was comfortable with, but my motor skills hadn’t developed or advanced at the same rate.
“That sounds like a nice memory.”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “One of the few.” The last part slipped out. It had been the last day I spent with her before she left us for good. “I’m sorry. You don’t care about my family issues.”
He lightly bumped against my arm with his own. “It’s okay. I like hearing about your parents. My relationship with my own isn’t anything to write home about, so it’s nice to hear good stories.”
I gave him a wry smile. “Some people just suck at being a parent. My mom had a hard time understanding me.” I don’t know if it was the serenity of the moment or that he was listening so intently to me, but I wanted to share personal details with him.
“Some people shouldn’t have kids,” Jaxon said, his voice much softer and quieter than I’ve heard before.
“Yeah.” I wanted to know more about his parents and why he felt that way. The world was full of bad people, but I always liked to think they could change. How bad were Jaxon’s parents for him to say such a thing? The little bits and pieces Ms. Ketill let slip had me believing they only thought about themselves. I didn’t ask, though. Maybe someday he’d tell me about them himself.
He turned to face me, waiting until I looked up to meet his gaze. His eyes were intense, and his brows formed a vee. I wanted to smooth it out with my fingers. “Listen, Lily, I’d appreciate it if you could do something for me.”
Oh God, he looked conflicted about what he was going to say. Was he going to ask me to stop drooling over him or tell me to be more professional? A ringing started in my ears. This was going to be so embarrassing. I wanted a hole to open up beneath me.
He cleared his throat, keeping his gaze steady on mine. “If you find anything in the book that’s unusual, could you leave it out of the report?”
“Unusual?” Grateful his request had nothing to do with me, I tried to make sense of what he said.
“My grandparents had a book like this one. The page the family wrote the name of the person they passed it down to is missing, but—”
Oh, my God. Was the letter from his grandfather? I’d noticed the name André. Was that his grandfather’s name? I needed to investigate it more before I said a word. I refused to get his hopes up without an indisputable reason.
“I’d rather the university didn’t know about any other detail you might find.”
I snorted. “You don’t have to worry about me. Nivens is an asshole. I’d enjoy keeping something like that from him.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, he is.”
“You’re hoping this book might be the one your grandparents had,” I whispered. It felt momentous that he was sharing this detail with me, trusting me with his secret. Knowing how precious this book was to his family, made it harder to withhold the information I had, but I didn’t want to disappoint him in case this letter had nothing to do with his grandparents.
“I want it to be. The book is rare enough that the possibility isn’t far-fetched.” He leaned down to scratch Patches behind the ears who had taken to leaning against Jaxon’s side. He was such a sweet dog. I think he sensed Jaxon needed to be comforted.
“Is there anything specific I should be looking for?” Like a letter? I held my tongue.
“Nothing in particular. The only personal way I knew to identify it was the list of family members.”
“I’ll be careful with it, Jaxon. You can trust me.”
He nodded.
It wasn’t the same as hearing him say that he trusted me, but we were still getting to know each other. Trust took time. He’d taken a chance to share what he did with me.
My neck grew tight and a tension headache built at the base of my skull.How would he react when I shared my secret with him?When he found out my father wasn’t home with only a cold.
I shivered. He didn’t seem the type to trust easily, and yet somehow I’d earned a sliver of it from him today. Now, I felt even worse about my lie and knowing I would disappoint him. It was hard to see any way out of the box I’d cornered myself in, but I had grown tired of keeping the truth from him. Of having to lie about my father. It was exhausting.
