Page 40 of Forever Flirting

Her blond hair was straight, chopped off just below her ears, and much lighter in color than Ricochet’s. The short bob also revealed that she wore some earrings; little silver ones that jiggled as she spoke or walked, catching his eye.

“Hey Rascal,” his grandmother said from the doorway before entering the bedroom. “Are you helping your Daddy fold the clothes?”

Alex smiled, realizing that she was talking to Caleb, who was handing him his socks, one at a time, to pack in his duffle bag.

“Nana go bye-bye?”

“Goodness no,” his grandmother cackled happily. “Not for a long time, you scamp! Too much energy in this old frame to waste sleeping forever… nope. I’ve got friends to talk to, bingo to play, men to harass…”

“Nana…” Alex chided immediately. “One of these days you might actually need help, and they are going to be afraid to come within arm’s length of you, or someone will press charges.”

“Pshawww, boy,” she waved him off, smiling wickedly. “Tell me, if your friend reached out and grabbed a handful of you… would you be mad?”

Alex swallowed hard, because her words immediately made him picture Everly taking their single kiss to another level.

“Exactly,” she crowed in delight. “Don’t you lie to me either, young’un! Men like to know what a girl is thinking, and I think it has to do with the whole ‘caveman populating the world’genes…”

“Can we not talk about this? I regret even saying something now.”

“What? I mean, think about it. Girls have one egg that they release once a month, whereas your swimmers are in the millions and can say ‘hello’whenever you blink… case in point – Caleb.”

“I know about the birds and the bees, Nana…”

“Then you know that bees visit a lot of flowers in their lifetime…”

“Oh gosh,” Alex muttered, shoving his t-shirt into his bag and quickly trying to pack his things away fast. “Here we go…”

“Sock, Daddy?” Caleb volunteered, handing him a pair of underwear, that he shoved in his bag.

“It’s just not natural for one bee to only sample the syrup of one flower…”

“Sock?” This time Alex was handed a pair of pants that he’d just folded – and now were unfolded. Wadding them up, he grimaced. His grandmother was on a roll, and he knew how this conversation would go.

“Nana…”

“No matter how pretty that flower is or how many times it blooms, bees are driven by nature to visit as many flowers as possible, spreading pollen every time they stop, rubbing their…”

“NANA!” Alex balked, turning to look at her and smiling as she stood there in her pink rollers and bright yellow muumuu. “I love you dearly, but I am not a bee… and my friend is not a flower. I actually do believe in being faithful to someone, despite how it might all appear right now with me having a son already.”

“You must get that from your mama… because your daddy, my son, couldn’t keep his stinger out of a field of wildflowers, if you get my drift,” she said, reaching up and pinching his cheek before patting it, smiling at him.

“I do,” Alex chuckled.

“I love you, sweet boy.”

“Love you too, Nana.”

“Yuv you, Nana!” Caleb cried out happily, holding up another now-wadded up T-shirt. “Sock?”

“I just want you to be careful, Alex… but at the same time - live a little. Life is too short, and passes before you know it. A boy becomes a man before your very eyes – and then he becomes a father,” his grandmother whispered, her voice getting gruff as she looked at him with a clarity that hit home.

“You need to spend more time here and make memories with Caleb, because he will be bigger than you, smarter than you, and better looking than you one of these days… and will not want to hear your story about the birds and bees.”

Alex smiled tenderly and hugged his grandmother.

“I really do love you, Nana,” he whispered, kissing one of the rollers fitted snugly to her head and smiling. “I’m going to visit more than ever before, I promise.”

“You ain’t gotta promiseme, young’un,” she retorted, looking up at him, before grabbing his chin and moving his head left to right. “Your promises should be to Caleb – and you need a haircut. What is it with you long-haired twerps nowadays? Come in the kitchen and let Nana shear that mop off your head.”

---