Page 65 of Grumpy

Grumpy stared down at this letter for a long time. Based on her saying that Maddie was twenty and the date on the envelope, it was sent two years ago. His mom never mentioned receiving one letter at her house from Tanya, let alone two. Yet, from recent discoveries, Grumpy wasn’t all that surprised to learn that she’d hidden something like this from him, too.

Grumpy folded up both letters and placed them back in the envelope. Maddie had eaten most of the fries, though from the worried expression on her face, he wondered if it was more of stress eating than pregnancy hunger.

Maddie gestured to the rest of the letters. “You can read them later if you like, but they’re basically all the same. Her cowardly apologizing for what happened. Too little too late, in my opinion. But they’re the reason I went to Mount Grove to find you. Obviously I knew your name is Jesse Bell, but I was twelve the last time we spoke. Wasn’t like I knew your social security number or your mom’s name or any other way to find you. When I couldn’t find anything about you online, I figured I needed to hire a private investigator. But those can be really expensive. I didn’t want to waste money on a cheap or lazy one. I decided to save up. But that’s when I saw the news about the bar explosion in Mount Grove. It wasn’t much, but it gave me a location to filter down my search in. Once I knew it was really you, I took the first flight I could out to see you.”

Her cheeks flamed as her eyes dropped to the table.

Grumpy placed Maddie’s picture down on top of the envelopes in case there was anything nasty on the table. “Mads,” he asked gently, “what did my mother say to you?”

Maddie’s blue eyes flicked upward at him, then over to Kelly, and then back down again. “I didn’t recognize her at first. I only met her a couple of times a dozen years ago. I barely got to your hospital room when I was suddenly grabbed by the arm and yanked away. I thought she was security or something at first. Then she starts asking what my ‘skank ass’ is doing there.” She picked up a fry and bit off half of it. “She told me horrible things. Like how you repeatedly said you never wanted to see me or my mother again. How you never loved me. You called me a ‘tick’, something you had to deal with to sleep with my mom. It was…” Maddie shook her head. “She said you were remarried with children of your own now.” Her eyes moved to Kelly. “I’m sorry if I⁠—”

“We’re not married—yet—and we don’t have any kids,” Kelly told her honestly. “She was lying to you, Maddie. She lied to me, too.” Grumpy turned as Kelly looked his way. “I left your dad at his most vulnerable time because I was scared, and I let her get into my head.”

Grumpy bent and kissed her in front of his daughter. “Water under the bridge, Kell Bell.”

Kelly smiled up at him before turning her attention back to Maddie. “My point is that Margery is an evil, vindictive woman who has this weird obsession about being the only woman in Grumpy’s life.”

Maddie, though, frowned at Kelly’s explanation. “I heard you call him that earlier. Why?”

Kelly gestured to Grumpy for him to explain. Grumpy scowled at her, to which she just smiled like this was the happiest moment of her life. Facing his daughter, Grumpy said, “When I left Texas, I told you I wasn’t in a good mindset.”

“Understatement,” Kelly muttered under her breath.

Grumpy’s eye twitched and he took a drink of his milkshake before he continued. “I met other veterans in Mount Grove, men who were building a motorcycle club. Their president, Steel, encouraged me to stay. He could tell I was hurting, floating, and he offered me roots. It was exactly what I needed back then, and I’m very grateful I chose to stay.”

“Me, too,” Kelly added, gently nudging him.

“The club was just starting out. For a while, it was just me and the officers. Lucky, our VP, has a son with Down syndrome. He was ten or eleven years old, and even back then, he was just a ball of sunshine. Apparently,” Grumpy cleared his throat, “when we were first introduced, I made a grunting sound. He asked me why I was so ‘grumpy’, and the name stuck.”

At Maddie’s surprised expression, Kelly continued the story, “You need to understand, this is a lot for him. He normally only talks to me like this. Short, one word sentences are his usual, if he talks at all. His brothers taunt him endlessly about it, and it didn’t help that the doctors actually had to wire his jaw closed for eight weeks. They claim they didn’t even notice because he still talked just as much as he always did.”

Maddie covered her mouth with her hand, as if to hide a smile. “Oh. So this is a normal thing for you now?”

“You’ve changed, too,” he reminded her pointedly.

Her cheeks flushed. “Touché,” she said, putting her hand over her belly. She likely thought he was referring to her pregnancy, but he’d been talking in general.

“I am sorry for what my mom said to you. Regardless of her lies, she had no right to speak to you like that.”

Maddie lowered her hand, nodding. “Thank you. I’m sorry I didn’t have the courage to stick around and speak to you myself.”

“I was in a lot of pain six months ago,” Grumpy reminded her gently. “I would not have been good company.” He looked at Kelly. “To either of you.”

“Will you tell me what happened?” Maddie asked. “The extent of your injuries. I can see something’s wrong with your left eye. Your scars obviously, but you still have your arms wrapped and you’re talking funny sometimes… I just want to make sure you’re truly okay,” she added, like she owed him an explanation for her curiosity.

“Mads, I’m not going to hide anything from you. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” He reached for his milkshake again.

“How about I explain while you eat?” Kelly offered, squeezing his hand.

Grumpy grunted, but nodded. He reached for his getting-cold mashed potatoes. Grumpy had never been a gravy person before recently, but it added calories and helped the mashed potatoes go down smoother. He liked Tally’s gravy better, though. She did something with cranberries with it.

“The explosion was in the club’s bar,” Kelly told Maddie as Grumpy ate. “He’s very lucky to be alive.”

“Others died, didn’t they?” Maddie asked softly. “I remember reading about it.”

“Yes. Four lost their lives, and several others were injured. For a while there, we didn’t know if Grumpy was going to survive or not. He was the most critically injured. He had severe second and third degree burns across his torso, arms, neck, and part of his face. They harvested skin from donor sites on his legs to create skin grafts, which were done over multiple surgeries. He is required to wear compression wraps daily, and will have those for several months still.

“His left eye was destroyed by a glass shard in the blast. They surgically removed his eye, and now he has a prosthetic. That’s why his eye movement doesn’t match his right eye. And there’s more. He had fractures to his cheekbone as well as both jaw bones. He required surgery for that, too, which was why his jaw was wired closed for two months. He’s got a lot of hardware holding his face together, and that causes dry mouth. He’s also on a pureed diet,” she gestured to his mashed potatoes.