“Got it in one.” He raised his hand and pointed at me before letting it drop back onto the couch cushion. “That’s actually where I was headed yesterday before I got caught up in the tornado drama. Anderson wanted me to start working for him as soon as I finished my final exam, but I delayed leaving college for as long as I could with every excuse I could think of. He probably thinks this is all just another delaying tactic. I’m waiting for him to blow up my phone before I send him pics of the damage.” He chanced another look toward Rose’s still-closed door. “That’s why I didn’t mind you talking to Mom too much. It’s easy enough for Anderson to dismiss me, but it’s much harder to dismiss someone he doesn’t know. With Mom talking to you andRose, it’ll hopefully prove that I’m not ‘blowing smoke up his ass.’” He tiredly crooked his fingers for the emphasis.
Understanding dawned a little more about why Evelyn, his mom, had been the way she was when I was talking to her. Sure, she’d been a riot of laughs, but there’d also been real concern simmering underneath, and not just about Marshall’s accommodations predicament or his Jeep needing to be fixed. It almost seemed like she was trying to find another escape for Marshall, to help him avoid a future she knew he didn’t want.
Idly, I wondered if I could find a job here in Rockdale for him so he didn’t have to go home. Maybe, just maybe, if we looked hard enough, he could make a home here instead.
Maybe his dad was right? Maybe everythingwouldwork out the way it was supposed to. Marshall deserved a chance at making his own destiny, not being subjected to the whims of his older brother.
Maybe Marshall was always meant to get stopped here in Rockdale?
And a small but growing part of me wondered if that meant he was always supposed to meet me and Rose. To live not only in the town of Rockdale but here in this house with us.
I still wasn’t convinced that our age gap wouldn’t be what destroyed anything between us before it even had a chance to start, but he’d felt so right, so very right, in my arms earlier. That gravitational pull I’d felt last night toward him had bloomed when we’d kissed.
I wanted more of that. Desperately.
The click of Rose’s door opening had us both turning our heads to look down the hallway. She emerged with a Cheshire cat grin on her face and Marshall’s phone still attached to her ear. “Thanks, Grandma Cougar.”
I groaned and glared at Rose when I heard the nickname. Marshall’s mom had been adopted, just like Marshall yesterday.We were never getting rid of either of them now if Rose had her way.
“Yes, I’ll do what you suggested.” She laughed as she sauntered lazily toward us. “Yeah, they’re both giving me death stares. Okay. Talk to you soon. Bye!” Without ending the call, she handed the phone over to Marshall. “Your mom’sawesome!”
“Yes, I know,” he deadpanned as he took the phone from her. He sighed as he lifted the phone to his ear. “All right, what’s the damage?” He shuffled himself around until he could lever himself off the couch, and then he walked over to the kitchen. “No, I refuse to put you back on speaker until you tell me what you and Rose talked about.”
I raised an eyebrow at Rose as she took his seat, still grinning from ear to ear. “Do I want to know what you two talked about?”
Without dropping her smile, she shook her head. “Probably not, no.”
“Oh, dear God.” I threw my head back and sighed long and loud. The perils of raising a daughter. No one ever warned me about this. When I’d expelled enough air to take another breath in, I looked up enough to narrow my eyes at her. “Grandma Cougar?”
She shrugged. “She’s cool. Like a cucumber. But I wasn’t going to call her Grandma Cucumber. That’d just be weird.”
I let my brow furrow. “And Grandma Cougar isn’t?”
She shrugged again but remained silent, although her smile stayed wide and toothy.
“I should probably punish you or something for running off with Marshall’s phone….” Scrubbing at my face, I sighed wearily, sat up, and rested my elbows on my knees, deciding to ignore it all until it became a bigger problem. “Okay. Let’s do this. For your punishment, you need to finish all your pending weekly chores before four today, then wash up quickly enough to be outof here by four thirty. We need to pick up the rest of Marshall’s belongings from Kajir’s before he shuts for the day.”
“Okay.” She nodded seriously. She knew it was going to be tough for her to get everything done by the time I’d given her. That would do for a punishment, right?
I swallowed uncertainly. “And then you, me, and Marshall are going to go have dinner at Malone’s.”
Her face lit up in excitement. She knew that me suggesting that was a big deal, because Malone’s was a local restaurant that sold old-style, classic fare with recipes that had been passed down over the generations and was beloved by everyone in Rockdale. It wastheplace in town to take a date, but it was also a bit of a risk. Everyone in town knew everyone else and their secrets. To take someone to Malone’s was declaring your interest in them publicly. For us all to eat there together? Rose knew just how significant that was.
I hadn’t set foot in Malone’s with anyone other than Rose since Jackson left us. If or, more likely,wheneverything fell apart after Marshall left Rockdale next week, the mere fact that I was willing to take someone other than Rose there was declaring to the town that I was officially back on the market.
Yes, I was beyond nervous.
Was I ready? Probably not. But I’d promised Marshall a date, and come hell or high water, I was going to do it.
God, help me make sure I didn’t fuck this up.
“What the fuck do you guys want?” The enormous giant that was Kajir glared at us as we walked into his still-open garage. Two of his colleagues were under the cars up on the hoists, while he was at the side wall that held all the shop’s tools with aclipboard in his greasy hands. “I don’t have the space to take on any more fucking work right now, so if you’re here for a basic oil change, you can fuck right off.”
The garage itself was big enough to easily cater to three or four cars at a time, which would normally have been ideal for the business’s needs. With the tornado damage from yesterday, however, there were vehicles of all shapes and sizes lining every spare inch of open land surrounding the old building.
“We’re just here for the rest of Marshall’s belongings,” I said, pointing toward the Jeep in question sitting forlornly in the far corner of the lot. A heavy tarp had been attached to the top of it to stop any water damage from rain, but I could see enough of the bottom of it to tell that it was Marshall’s. “We’ll be out of your hair in two minutes. If that.”
“Fine,” Kajir grunted, turning his attention back to his clipboard, but not before Bucky bounded over to him and nudged his knee for pets.
