“She’ll come down if she knows it’s me,” it said. “All’s I have to do is just call for her, so you don’t have to waste your energy going up those steps, son.”
I heard Jarrod say something back, and then the door opened and he was standing there looking like he was going to burst out laughing.
Sighing, I tipped my head back and looked up at the ceiling. “It’s ok, I know you want to. Just go ahead and let it all out.”
I was five words away from the end of the last sentence when his deep laughter started. By the time I’d finished it, he was fully engrossed in his laughter endeavors to the point it took him a good while to stop.
“Your grandma’s a hoot,” he wheezed. “Came in and started talking to Ren and Cole like she saw them every day of their lives.” Yup, sounds about right. The old biddy had never met a stranger. “When Ren asked if they were working on her vehicle, she told them her car was fifteen years old and hadn’t even had an oil change, it was that reliable. His face…” he broke off, gasping in a breath. “I was in the back room,” he nodded at the wall that separated my office from the small stationery supply room next door, “but I heard every word.”
I didn’t reply, mostly because at that exact moment she called up, “Katarianne Joslyn Crew, get your butt down here and let me see you.”
Knowing that if I didn’t she’d just keep shouting for me, I got up and moved slowly to the door. I’d only just opened it when Jarrod swept me off my feet and started carrying me toward the stairs. She looked confused when she saw that I wasn’t walking, but by the second step her eyes were like saucers in her head. There was very little in life that could shut my grandmother up, but apparently the hotness that was Jarrod carrying her granddaughter down some stairs to her was one of them – good to know.
We were halfway down them when I called out, “Hey, Maude!”
Her hand lifted and grabbed a fistful of the neck of her top. “Have mercy.”
Ignoring that, I continued, “Just so you know, I hurt my ankle over the weekend when Duke dragged me behind him when he was chasing a ball and I stepped in a hole. It’s only a sprain, so that’s good.”
Looking behind me she asked, “Are you Duke?”
Jarrod’s laughter rocked my world again, but this time it was mainly because the movement made the arms holding me shake. “No, ma’am.”
“This is Jarrod. He’s my neighbor, but he’s also my elevator as you can see.”
Her head nodded slowly, and she said, “That looks like some ride. Lord have mercy.”
When we were four feet away from her, he gently lowered me to the ground, and then moved forward to shake her hand. “Nice to meet you. I live next door to Katy, too, so I’m sure I’ll see you around a lot.”
I swear he had to tear his hand out of her grip, and when he did, she reached out like she was going to hold on tight. In case it wasn’t clear, my grandmother had no shame.
“I’m thinking my Katarianne left some things out when we last spoke,” she muttered, shooting me a glare before she turned back to him. That’s when I knew she’d seen his eyes because she gasped and started fanning herself. “Sweet Jesus, heard about it, but never believed in the big man in the sky loving someone enough to make them into all that’s you.”
Jarrod tipped his head down and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck while I looked around me wondering if there was a hole I could fall into and stay in this time.
Cole chose that moment to break his silence (which had consisted of him standing with his mouth open while he listened to Maude talk, most probably thanking everything Holy that there was a grandparent worse than Hurst in the world). “He’s got three brothers who are identical to him, too.”
Hearing this news, her legs wobbled like her knees had given out and she walked over to pick up one of the clipboards with a worksheet attached to it from one of the counters. We all watched this, our heads moving at the same speed as she moved, confused as to why she was doing it. Welp, that lasted all of ten seconds because she started fanning herself in wide sweeps. I would say her hair moved with the big breeze those sweeps caused, but Maude Crew had been a hairdresser back in the day, and her brand of hair do was stuck back in the sixties. This meant that it was big – oh so fucking big – and not even a hurricane could make it move with the amount of hairspray she used.