Page 39 of Cowboy Daddies

An extremely unpleasant voice on the other side of the door called out, confirming his suspicion.

He turned back to the bed and pointed at Sage. “Do not move,” he said, before opening the door wide enough to get through and shutting it behind him.

As he expected, Harriet Gulch stood just outside his door. She took one look at him and snarled, “Grady!”

The woman’s sharp, nasally voice had always gotten on his last nerve, and today it was worse. “I’m not dealing with you today, Harriet. But you should know I’ll be by your place first thing tomorrow, and we will be having words.”

“Grady Kane! What took you so long? What do you mean keeping me waiting like that? It’s rude.”

“When you come storming into my house uninvited and pound on my bedroom door, you get what you get. Now are you leaving, or do I need to escort you?” he demanded.

He walked toward her, forcing her back into the family room.

“You’re gonna want to move to the door of your own volition. If you don’t, I will move you.”

“If you lay a hand on me, I’ll have you charged with assault.”

“Woman, you broke into my house. Nobody is going to blame me for kicking you out.”

She held out her hand. “We need to get a few things straight.”

He wouldn’t have stopped, but he heard the creak of his bedroom door opening. Damn it. Turning, he watched as Sage walked into the living room. He glared at her, but his Little wildfire didn’t flinch. “I thought I told you to stay in the bedroom.”

Vowing to deal with his naughty Little girl later, he gave Harriet his attention. The woman stood ramrod straight, staring past him at Sage.

“What is she doing in my granddaughter’s house?” Harriet demanded.

“That’s none of your business,” he said. “Now, are you leaving, or do I have to throw you out?”

Ignoring his question, Harriet crossed her arms and stood her ground. “Why didn’t you tell me that Rose had started to talk?”

“Why would I tell you that?”

“Has she said anything about me?”

Grady took a moment to really look at Harriet. The woman was nervous. She had something on her mind, and everything inside him told him he needed to know what it was. “What could she possibly have to say about you, Harriet?”

A panicked look lit the older woman’s face. “I don’t know. I am her grandmother. I just wondered if she had said anything about the last conversations we had right after Tricia passed away.”

What in the hell was she talking about? His daughter had been four years old. “You haven’t seen Rose or tried to communicate with her in any way since then. No birthday presents, no cards, no phone calls… nothing. Why are you suddenly so interested in conversations that took place over two years ago?”

“Well, you have to know, Grady, I was in a lot of pain. I had just lost my only daughter, and looking back, I think I might have said something Rose misunderstood.”

She definitely had his attention now. What the hell had this witch done? “Just what is it you think she could have misunderstood?”

Harriet was now wringing her hands. “You have to understand, I was in mourning. I have a delicate constitution, and every time Rose came around, all she wanted to do was talk about Tricia.”

Oh yeah, a bad feeling was clawing hard at his chest. “What the hell did you say to my daughter?”

“I was only trying to make her understand. I told her that when she talked about her mother, it caused me so much pain. And that if it caused me pain, it probably caused you pain too. So I told her she should never mention Tricia’s name to either of us ever again. That, if Tricia was all she could talk about, it would be better not to talk at all.”

Holy. Fucking. Hell.

All the pieces fell into place. Rose hadn’t stopped talking because her mother had died. Rose stopped talking because Harriet told her that she would be hurting the only people she had left if she mentioned her mother’s name. Since her mother was all she wanted to talk about, she went silent.

It took everything he had not to do something that would land him in jail. But he’d forgotten he wasn’t the only one in the room with Harriet.

“You cow!” Sage yelled from behind him. “You absolute bitch! How could you say something like that to her? And how could you not tell Grady what you said? She hasn’t spoken for two years. In two years, you couldn’t find the time to tell him what you did so that he could get your granddaughter some help?”