Midlife Baby (Small Town Lovers)

She folded her arms. “I saw what I saw, Grady.”

“And what exactly did you see besides some drunk wannabe country star with her paws all over me? She was drunk and threatening to go out to Derek’s place to record with him. I called him and he asked me to keep her there so she didn’t hurt herself or get hurt by Bella.” I shook my head again. “I didn’t kiss her, didn’t encourage her flirting and I didn’t go home and fuck her so I don’t really see what I did that was so horrible.” I paced the length of the hospital room and fumed. Everything I’d done the past few months to show her I was a standup guy and it didn’t matter. “You never planned on seeing me differently,” I accused.

“I am old and fat and pregnant, Grady. Excuse me for being jealous of some woman hanging on you who is my exact opposite.”

I let out a huff of laughter. “What do you even care, Margot? You clearly don’t like me or trust me so what difference does it make who flirts with me? I’m a bartender, that’s what people do. They flirt and tell me their problems.”

“Of course I care,” she roared and then gripped her head as she cried out in pain.

“Relax,” I told her in a much calmer voice than I felt. “You’re only those things in your head, fat and pregnant and old. None of that is what I think about you, it’s all in your head.” I sighed and dropped down in the hard plastic chair with a grunt. “I’m here because I want to be, because despite my best efforts I like you. A lot. And you’re in this bed all because of how poorly you think of me.”

“It’s not you Grady.”

“Of course it’s me!” I jumped from the chair and started to pace the room once again. “I should have listened to you from the start. You think I’m trash and you’re only allowing me to be involved because you have no choice.” As the truth really and truly dawned on me, I felt like an idiot. “You told me time and again what you thought of me and I refused to listen.”

“I was wrong,” she insisted through tears. “That’s what I was coming to tell you.”

“Yeah? You must have really meant it to have your opinion change so quickly. You must have really believed it to run into oncoming traffic.”

“Grady,” she cried out. “Stop. Please.” She covered her eyes in shame or pain, it was hard to tell at the moment and that made me feel bad.

The hospital door burst open and Mama stepped inside looking mad enough to spit fire. “I heard the yelling down the hall. What the hell is going on in here?”

“Nothing. Apparently.”

Mama’s eyes missed nothing, not Margot’s tears and not the way my nostrils flared angrily. “All right. Emotions are high right now so Grady go take a walk while I sit with Margot for a while.”

I wanted to argue but I also wanted to be gone, so I nodded and stepped outside the room and continued to pace the floor until the tiles started to wear thin.

Margot was who she was and as a man who often marched to my own beat I understood and respected that. Which meant it was time to stop waiting for Margot to see what she was intentionally blind to and it was time to accept her for the woman she was because that wasn’t going to change.

I would take care of her in any way that I could, that she would allow.

Otherwise I would do exactly as she had done. I would keep my distance.

Chapter 23

Margot

Claire paced the length of my room the same way her son had, the only difference being that she didn’t radiate quite as much righteous anger as Grady had. She was angry without a doubt, but it was more subdued, almost understanding. “Don’t hold it in Claire, it’s not good for a woman your age.” She looked at me with fury in her eyes and I shrugged. In for a penny, in for a pound I figured.

“I just want to throttle you Margot and I don’t mean just shake some damn sense into you, I mean I want to take these fists and pound them into you until you can see things clearly.” She stopped pacing and let out a heavy sigh full of exasperation and exhaustion. “Margot, sweetheart you shaved about a decade off my life. You know that right?”

I could see how worried she was about me and that filled me with guilt. This woman who didn’t know me a month ago was so worried about me that it made her angry, the thought of serious injury or worse. “I know and I’m sorry but it’s not like I did it on purpose.”