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“Yes, doodle hearts.” I owned it. Jesse made me draw hearts and flowers on the discarded mail that laid on my dining table. What else was I going to do with it?
“Love makes you crazy, and don’t let him tell you otherwise,” Grams added. “I mean, he was crazy enough to get a tattoo with my name.”
I’d have choked on my food if my bite had been any bigger. A tattoo? I’d never seen Gramps with a tattoo. “I call bullshit. I’ve never seen a tattoo.”
“It's not where you’d ever look,” Grams winked, and I turned my shock to Gramps, who had a smirk on his face.
“Ew,” I gagged, jokingly, making both of them start laughing.
“You tell anyone else, including your brothers, and I’ll make sure the entire town knows about those doodles.”
His secret was safe with me, but I wasn’t too sure it was that big of a deal. It was romantic and showed his commitment to her. I’d get Jesse’s name across my forehead if I thought it’d help her see how much she meant to me.
The doodles, on the other hand, were better kept as our little secret.
Chapter Thirty-Five
JESSE
“I don’t mean to pry,”Ms. Ellison settled onto my couch with a cup of coffee, “but I have the candle that qualifies me to ask things that a nosy neighbor needs to know.”
My smile was hard to contain when she made a point like that. Afterall, she hadn’t asked about Easton in nearly a week, and that had to have been driving her crazy. I should have known she was bound to cave before the weekend. Using the candle I gave her as her justification to probe only made me love her more.
“Easton has sent a few text messages, but he hasn’t come by,” I explained, without her even having to ask.
“Well that’s because you have your car in the garage now. It wasn’t until I saw you and Max playing in the front yard the other day that I even knew you were home.”
“He knows where my car is,” I assured her. “But I think he knows I’m feeling a little guilty about my lack of parenting skills. I did exactly what I swore I wouldn’t do. I got distracted and Max ended up getting hurt.”
“Jesse, dear. Max getting hurt had nothing to do with your ability to parent. In fact, it was good that Max had Easton there and you know it. So what else is happening?”
Licking my lips, I shook my head and took a deep sigh. The conversation that I overheard in the gas station before I left for Atlanta replayed in my head.Remember what he did to Rory Marte?”
“What do you know about him and Rory Marte?”
“Rory?” Ms. Ellison sat back, looking confused at first then glancing up at me as if something had just struck her. “It is no secret that she has been in love with Easton since they were in high school. Then she left town for a few years after they graduated. I don’t know the whole story, but it was rumored that Easton took her innocence and left her heartbroken.”
“I don’t want to end up like that when I need to be strong and put together for my son. I can’t afford to be one of Easton’s victims.”
“Well that’s a pretty harsh word for a man that has no control over how women respond to him.”
“What if he’s still seeing her? I mean, besides a working relationship?”
Ms. Ellison turned white, and her jaw popped open before she closed it tight and shook her head. “No.”
“I overheard some things,” I confessed.
“As did I. But I never believed it. If I had, I’d have told you and kicked his ass.”
I believed her. I trusted that she would have warned me. But it was still my sign to let him go. It still mattered to me, even if it wasn’t the way Ms. Ellison thought it was.
Maybe it was time I called Easton and put us both out of our misery.
He tossed his keys from one hand to the other as he walked up the driveway. He looked nervous and I could see his throat moving up and down as he swallowed his feelings.
Before he could make it to the porch, I stepped out and greeted him. It was a simple smile and a small wave, but he stopped in his tracks and instantly looked at ease. As if seeing me had made everything he was feeling just disappear.
“Hey baby,” he breathed, making my knees wobble from the way that nickname sounded with his deep tone.
