Page 29 of The Saint

Her brow furrowed. “Nah. Couldn’t be. Must be that girl who’s got you so distracted.”

My stomach sank. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No?” One of her eyebrows raised and she sat back in her chair. And for a moment, it felt like I was back in my uncle’s office, the day he caught Jael and me hiding out in his closet.

“Do you know why you’re here?” Zio had asked, and Jael’s lie flowed so easily from her tongue.

“No, sir.”

As if we hadn’t been making out in his office. As if we hadn’t been caught by the man himself.

“Huh.” Mrs. T rubbed a knuckle across her jawline before pointing to the sketchbook I’d left across the room. “Coulda swore there was some new girl in that picture you were drawing earlier.”

My sinking stomach twisted violently.

She wasn’t supposed to see that. She wasn’t supposed to remember that.

Before I could dash to my sketchbook and slam it shut, before I could race to the bathroom and lose my breakfast, keys sounded in the lock on the door.

Relief flooded me at the sight of Mrs. T’s granddaughter.

“Sorry we’re late,” Penny said as she came rushing in. “Old Frank was out sick again, so Jim was working just as fast as he could.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told her as Tyler came running my way. I ran a hand over his fresh new flat top fade. “Looking good, Lil’ T.”

The boy looked up at me with the widest grin. “You really like it?”

“I love it.” I pulled the kid into a hug, enjoying the few minutes I’d have with him today.

“You ‘bout ready to go, Grams?” Penny asked, walking over to Mrs. T’s chair.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” the old woman said with a sigh.

“Go get your bag, then. Tyler, help Grams get her things, okay?”

“Come on, Grams!” he said, excitement bouncing him across the room. “Let’s get moving!”

Mrs. T grumbled as she pushed out of the chair and followed Tyler down the hall to their room. Penny gave me a small smile as she helped me pick up the tiles on the card table. “How was she?”

I let out a huff and ran a hand across my jaw. “Back to her old, rascally self. She beat me five times. And she doesn’t seem to have any problems remembering how to distract me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she had no memory issues at all.”

Penny shook her head, holding the lid to the game out to me. “Hopefully that means this weekend will go well.”

“I sure hope so.”

“She does better around you.”

Nodding, I chewed my bottom lip. “I know. I wish I could go with you and help you out.”

Penny’s sister, Jeannine, hated me for reasons she’d never disclosed. She’d threatened to take Mrs. T out of Penny’s home just to keep her away from me. It wasn’t until Penny called her bluff, letting her think she’d won and would have to take care of Mrs. T all by herself, that Jeannine had a change of heart.

So while the three of them could spend a long weekend at Jeannine’s, they had to act like I didn’t exist the entire time there.

“You going to be okay?” I asked when Penny didn’t move from in front of me. Her eyes were focused on something off to the side, and I turned, following her gaze.

It was my picture.

I knew I should have closed my sketchbook, hid that part of my life from their view.