No, I tell her, more sternly than before.
It’s my job and I’ll finish it. I also badly need the work today to keep my mind off Captain McNasty.
I’ve always let others do too much for me.
Marty for sure. He was the one to run after Gram all these years while I nursed my anger and pain, while I escaped over losing Weston the first time.
Now, I’ve let Faye cook and clean for days—all so I could live out terrible fantasies with a man I desperately wanted to see.
And even seeing him naked didn’t show me who he really is.
Time to do some more growin’ up, as Grandpa would say.
Time to take responsibility for myself, for my own visions and dreams.
I can’t get my life figured out until I get myself figured out.
That could take some time. I’m here for Gram, for Amelia’s B&B, after all.
Not for personal therapy over an old crush I was a grinning fool to indulge.
The next few hours, I give every empty room a thorough cleaning, and by the time I make it downstairs to put away supplies, I find Gram in the kitchen. She’s whisking up fresh cookie dough by hand, some sort of pumpkin-cinnamon decadence by the smell.
“Oh, Gram, I wish you’d use the mixer!”
“And miss my morning workout? Nonsense, girl,” she says with a devilish smirk.
“At least let Faye help. Where’s she off to?” I ask.
Gram sighs. “She’s packing up and heading home, Shelly Bean. Said it was high time to check-in on her purr-ball and that fancy new security thing the boys rigged up.”
My heart crawls lower.
“She did?”
“Yep. Guess she felt she’d worn out her welcome, between us girls. She’s been a darling.”
“Why? What happened?”
Gram sets down her metal whisk and gives me one of her gentle stares. “Well, Lord knows I’m not a mind reader, but you might’ve scratched her feelings a tad when you snapped this morning.”
Oh, no.
“I didn’t really snap at her...did I?” I’m not sure of anything.
Also, Weston’s smirky, handsome, and entirely punchable face flashes through my mind. Just how bad have I let him screw me up again?
“I know you meant no harm, dearie. But she’s rather sensitive to a person’s feelings after everything she went through with Grady and his girls...I told her to shake it off, but evidently, she worried she was getting on your nerves.”
I turn, pressing my fingers into my eyes before facing my grandmother again.
“Gram, I just...I didn’t want her to feel like she needed to help me clean. I just wanted her to take a morning off. It’s my job. My responsibility, right? I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings...or yours.”
Gram gives me a half smile and pats the stool beside her.
I walk over on lead feet and sit down.
“Fret not, it’ll take more than a harsh word or two to upset this old gal. I know you didn’t mean anything with Faye, and I told her so. She still chose to go, and she’s got valid reasons besides being too up in her own head. She had to go back sometime and let West finish up priming that fancy new burglar alarm. No need to fret over it,” she says, patting my shoulder. “What I don’t understand is what had you so keyed up so early. You love mornings, usually. Why are you so out of sorts today? Is it that blasted pig again?”