Page 9 of Property of Grifter
“I’m not everyone else.Now, if it’s something you only want your grandmother to use, that’s different,” I tell her, turning off the stove.When I turn around.I see her fixing the coffee she had poured earlier.“They’ll be cold now,” I point out needlessly.
“That’s how Nana likes hers.I don’t really care.Um … do you want one?”
“Yeah, if you don’t care.Black, though.I’m not much on that fancy stuff you’re using.”
She gives me a half smile and for some reason it makes my heart flip over inside my chest.“Creamer is not fancy stuff.”
“It’s pumpkin flavored, baby.”
“I have an obsession this time of year,” she confesses as if it’s a guilty secret, making me smile.
“I’ll make a note.Just pumpkin?”
“Gingerbread, too,” she adds with a tiny self-conscious giggle, as she goes to the cabinet and takes out another coffee cup and fills it for me.
“Is breakfast ready, Georgie?”her grandmother asks as she comes in the room.She let me in earlier, but the woman that opened the door is completely different from the one in front of me now.Her hair has been tamed so that the silver hair is neatly combed and styled.Her robe and mismatched house shoes have been replaced with a yellow dress that falls below her knees and has large pockets on each side.She still has house shoes on, but these are a soft yellow color that matches the dress.
“Yeah, Nana.Do you want to eat in the living room?”she asks.
“And miss getting to know your gentleman caller?Did you fall and hit your head, girl?”the old lady scoffs, making my lips twitch as I take a sip of my coffee.“What’s your name, Sexy Pants?”
“Nana!”Georgia cries as I choke on my coffee.
“What?He’s hot.I think the boy knows that.You can tell by the way he strutted his ass in here.”
“Names, Griffin, Nana.People call me Grifter or Griff,” I tell her with a shit-eating grin.
“Well, Griffy, set your sweet ass down here and tell me all about how you met my darling Georgie,” she urges with a sly grin.
Yeah, I’m definitely going to like Georgia’s Nana.
6GEORGIA
Breakfast with Nanais usually a calm affair—if by “calm” you mean nonstop commentary, unsolicited life advice, and the occasional mention of Nana’s previous sex life and why she loves anal sex, or Elvis’s gyrating hips.I would have thought those conversations would have prepared me for anything.
They did not.
From the moment Nana told Griffin to take a seat at the island, I knew I was about to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.I was not wrong.Now, I’m sitting here watching Griffin laugh at my Nana’s risqué jokes, looking as if he belongs here.He’s currently eating his breakfast, coffee mug in hand, looking as if he owns the place.There’s a lazy grin on his full lips that should come with a warning label.Sadly, it’s too late for my Nana.She’s currently perched beside him, completely besotted with the man.
“You remind me of my Patrick,” she tells him, stabbing a sausage patty with her fork.“Doesn’t he, Georgie?Doesn’t Griffy look just like your grandfather?”
“Griffy?Nana, do you really think you should nickname a biker that we don’t even know?”
“I gave her permission and I’m your man, not some biker, Georgie,” Griffin reprimands, somehow instantly making me feel ashamed.I don’t respond.I’m not sure I could anyway.I feel like I disappointed him, and I hate that feeling.What in the hell is wrong with me?“I remind you of your husband, Nana?”
“Yep,” she says, nodding so hard it’s a wonder the woman doesn’t get whiplash.“You’re as cocky as he was too.”
“Some people might say being cocky is a bad thing,” he jokes, half-smile curling up one corner of his mouth, right before he takes another sip of his coffee.There’s no way I can deny how goodlooking he is.I’m not even going to try.
“That’s because it is,” I chime in.
“Horse feathers,” Nana declares.“Nothin’ wrong with being cocky, just as long as you can back it up.Besides, I got a feelin’ Griffy here can.”
Griffin coughs to cover a laugh, and I nearly choke on my coffee.“Nana, no.Stop flirting with Griffin.”
She ignores me completely.“You know, you even look like my Patrick, Griffy.”
“Oh my God, Nana!He does not!”I yell, throwing up my hands.“Now you’re just making things up.”
