Page 98 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition

“Well…” She smirks. “If we stay here, there’s less chance of you losing me.”

“Too soon, Grams.” Now I’m really frowning at her. “Too soon.”

We’re sitting in her living room, and the scent of my grandfather’s cherry vanilla tobacco smoke still permeates everything. It has mellowed a bit over the years, but it’s still here, stubborn and lovely. Kind of like my grandmother, although she’s not being very lovely at the moment. She’s just being a stubborn ass.

“Well, I’m only going to be here for a couple more days. What do you want to do? Should we visit Mom and Dad?”

“No, just calm down. I want to talk to you.”

“I am calm. You calm down.”

“You are not calm. You’re miserable.”

“Well, you’re not exactly helping to change that situation at the moment.”

“I just want to tell you that I was wrong.”

Ten words I never thought I’d hear this woman say. “Sorry, what?”

“You heard me.”

“Regarding?”

“This job. I don’t think you should take it.”

“Well, I don’t think I can afford not to. I mean, I can get a job waiting tables in LA until I’m making enough from my own sales, but that’ll just drive Nico nuts and he’ll be impossible to live with.”

“Then live with Shane.”

“You’retelling me to live with Shane? Dora Cruella Todd. You?”

“That’s not my middle name. Let go of that heart pendant.”

I let go of it. I’ve been unconsciously rubbing it so much for the past few days, I’m surprised it hasn’t melted. The other one, the one that Shane gave me, just makes me sad, so I try to ignore it. But I’m not ready to stop wearing it yet.

“That’s what I was wrong about,” she continues. “You and Shane. I shouldn’t have worried about you.” She closes her eyes and inhales deeply. “I loved your grandpa so much. Losing him was the worst thing that ever happened to me, and I never wanted anyone I love to go through that. I saw how meeting Shane sparked something in you. Something big and beautiful, and it all happened without him even being around. I was afraid that when you moved in with him, you’d hang on to that fantasy of him, even though it wasn’t real for Shane.”

“Well. I wouldn’t say you were wrong to think that.”

“No, I was. It just took Shane about twelve years longer to realize what you knew when you met him.”

I bark out a laugh while wiping a tear from my eye. “I think perhaps you’re the one who’s prone to flights of fancy, Grams.”

She smiles at me. She’s so pretty when she isn’t being a bossy know-it-all. “I wouldn’t trade the pain of losingthe love of my life for anything if it meant not having all that time with him. It took me so long to grasp that. Fortunately, you and Shane are more clever than I am. So forget what I said before. Don’t listen to me. About this one topic, I mean. You’re a wonderful girl. Of course you can live without him. But you don’t have to.”

I’m about to get up to hug her when the doorbell rings.

“Finally,” she says on an exhale. “I’ve been expecting a delivery. Go get that for me, will you? I have to check on something.” She disappears out of the room without any hug or explanation.

Thanks, Grammie.She never was much of a hugger.

I wipe my nose with the back of my hand and go to the front door. I suddenly get this ridiculous idea that maybe Shane had a big flower arrangement delivered here and Grammie knows about it. I run my fingers through my hair as I peer through the peephole. But I don’t see anyone there.

I open the door, and the reason I didn’t see anyone through the peephole is that the two people who are standing on the porch are under four feet tall. Shane is getting out of the passenger side of a parked car at the curb. His tired blue eyes are still magnetic, even from this far away. Even when they aren’t illuminated on screen.

“Knock knock!” Summer says, laughing.

I am so happy to see them I can barely speak. “Who’s there?”