Page 63 of Resisting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 3)

Josh grabbed a plate and filled it from the stove. He loaded up on extra garlic bread because he’d forgotten to eat lunch.

When he got to the kitchen table, he saw that it was still covered in papers just like it had been for the past month that she’d been organizing singles week. She’d been working so hard on the project. He’d heard her when he was in the garage and she was in the office on the phone with vendors haggling over prices. She’d even learned how to email, and she’d been pouring over contracts and schedules. He was going to be happy when this week was over and she could go back to just her normal forty-hour work week at the shop, and he hoped he could convince her to cut back on that.

He moved some of the papers to the side and sat down. Nonna filled a plate with spaghetti noodles and sauce which he was happy to see. Normally, she didn’t eat with him because she grazed when she was cooking meals and was never hungry by the time the food was ready. But his happiness was short-lived when he saw her set the plate down on the floor in front of Thor.

Josh knew he was wasting his breath, but still he said, “He shouldn’t eat people food.”

Nonna waved her hand dismissively. He knew it wasn’t worth arguing with her. It was Nonna’s world and he was just living in it.

He twisted his fork in the pasta and had just put it in his mouth when Nonna lowered down in the seat in front of him.

“So, you have something to tell me?!” she asked, crossing her arms.

Josh had no idea what she was talking about. He swallowed and got up to grab a Black Cherry Shasta from the fridge. It was the only ‘soda’ that Nonna had ever allowed in her house.

“I don’t think so.” He sat back down and popped the top.

“So, you don’t think to tell me that you spend the night with Audrey in a cabin?”

He choked at her question and the soda went up his nose. He grabbed a napkin and wiped his face. How in the hell had Nonna found out about that?

Josh knew he couldn’t deny it, but he could present it in a way that wouldn’t give her false hope.

“Audrey had to go to the cabin because Viv needed her to go check it out because the owner wanted to raffle off a getaway there for singles week.” Josh motioned to all the paperwork on her table. “When she was getting ready to leave she realized she had a flat tire, so I took her. Then when we got there the bridge up to the cabin washed out and we were stuck. We had to spend the night. That’s it.”

Nonna was quiet for a moment before asking, “Why?”

“Because of the heavy rains a damn burst and flooded the bridge.”

Nonna grabbed a rolled-up newspaper that she somehow always had within her reach and swatted his arm. She might be in her nineties, but she still had an arm on her. It stung.

“What?” he asked, not sure why he was being disciplined.

“Not why the bridge flood? Why did you drive her up there?”

“She had a flat tire.” Josh was sure that he’d said that already.

“So!” Nonna’s hands flew in the air. “Why you didn’t fix it? That’s what you do! You fix tires!” She pointed her finger at him. “I tell you why? Because you love her! So why don’t you tell her?! Why don’t you make your girlfriend?!”

He did love her. And he wanted to make her his girlfriend more than he’d ever wanted anything else in the world. No, actually he wanted to make her his wife more than he’d ever wanted anything in the entire world. But it wasn’t that simple.

“You need to, how do the kids say, put a ring on it!”

“Nonna, we’re friends.”

“If you make her your girlfriend, I’ll move to the Golden Years.”

Josh stared at his grandmother, sure that he’d heard her wrong. For over five years he’d been asking, no begging, Nonna to move in there. Now, all of a sudden, she was agreeing. Well, agreeing with conditions.

“Are you blackmailing me?”

Her hand balled in a fist, and she reached across the table and knocked it against the side of his head. “You are too thickheaded to do the right thing, so I help!”

“Nonna, you can’t make me being with Audrey a condition to you moving to Golden Years.”

“Who says?!” Her hands flew in the air. “You want me to move, you make Audrey your girlfriend.”

“Nonna—”

Nonna made the tsking sound she always did when he was little and she wanted him to stop talking. She turned her show that was playing on the TV louder and he knew the conversation was over, at least on her end.

Josh wondered if she was serious. Would she really move into Golden Years if he and Audrey were together?

No.What was he doing? He couldn’t drag Audrey into this. He loved her. And if he could be with her, he would. But he couldn’t. And not even Nonna bribing him would change that.

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