Page 70 of Grumpy

Maddie shook her head, nodded, then shook her head again. “I mean, I do. Want to sleep, that is. I’m in desperate need of a nap. But I’m also certain about going to Mount Grove with you.” She waved at the SUV out the window. “Not like I need to pack. I have no idea what the protocol is for ditching school mid-semester, but I truly don’t have the patience or the brainpower to think about that right now.”

“Let’s get a hotel in the area,” Kelly suggested. “Rest up, grab whatever else you might need, and start out fresh in the morning. How does that sound to everyone?”

“I don’t want you wasting money on me,” Maddie argued, shaking her head. “I’ll stay at my dorm room.”

“And risk Colton finding you there?” Grumpy snapped. “Absolutely not. You’re an adult now, Mads, and you can make your own choices. But when it comes to your safety, both of yours,” he added pointedly to Kelly, “I have the final say. Is that understood?”

“Pretty sure you gave me a similar speech when I was ten,” Maddie said, crossing her arms over her chest.

The grafts on Grumpy’s face pulled when he lifted his eyebrow in challenge. “Then you should already be familiar with how it works.”

Maddie rolled her eyes, just as she had when she was ten years old. “Fine. I’m not even sure I have anything worth keeping in my dorm room anyway.” She started to scoot herself out of the booth. “Let’s get going. But first, I have to pee again.”

Jackson was right there, helping her up and escorting her to the bathroom for the third time.

Grumpy turned to face Kelly. His heart was thundering in his chest, like he’d just run a marathon. “There’s so much to do. We need to find a hotel tonight. Somewhere with a decent restaurant so we don’t have to travel far for dinner. I need to text the club that I’m claiming that final plot. Talk to Cage about starting to build. Although he might not be able to do anything until after we choose a model house. We have to do that too. Fuck, talk to your mom. Last we spoke to her, I was selling my house and moving into yours. Not to mention talking to Keys about Mads’ schooling. I don’t even know if he knows about transferring colleges or how it would even work for her. Maybe she should take a year off, settle in with the babies, and then go back to college.”

Kelly grabbed Grumpy’s face, careful not to press on his scars and grafts. “Baby. Stop and breathe. It’s fine. It’s going to be fine. None of this is a today decision. Today’s been big enough as it is! Meeting Maddie again after all this time, learning you’re going to be a grandfather, getting her to agree to come home with us… That’s enough for today. The rest? The rest is tomorrow’s problem.”

Grumpy took several large breaths, trying to calm down. “My mind’s whirling like it’s in a blender.”

“No doubt.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “I love you.”

Grumpy let out a shaky breath, feeling the wave of peacefulness fall over him at those words. He’d never get tired of hearing them. “I love you, too.”

* * *

They ended up getting a hotel just outside of Austin. Between Maddie’s need for frequent pee stops and Grumpy’s requirement to get out and walk every couple of hours, no one was anticipating the drive back to Pennsylvania to be a quick one. Everyone but Jackson took a nap upon arriving, and then they ordered room service to start planning the route back.

As soon as it was announced to the club that Maddie would be returning with Grumpy and Kelly, Keys immediately took over her phone. He added everyone’s numbers as well as all the apps he’d created for the club, including the club’s bet tracking system. The ol’ ladies already added her into their group chat, though technically Maddie was a club kid. Demo also announced that he would have a cut waiting for her upon their arrival.

While no decisions on type of house were made yet, Grumpy did officially claim the last plot on the Square with the intent to build in the spring. Ruth was more excited about great-grandbabies than she was disappointed about needing to sell her home. It might be rough, moving twice so soon, but they’d make it work. The important part was that they would all be together as a family.

Grumpy’s jaw was beyond sore upon waking from his nap. He ended up spending the evening after dinner lying supine on the couch with his head in Kelly’s lap as she made a dozen little braids in his hair while she chatted with Maddie. Kelly made it clear to Maddie that she would never try to replace her mother, and offered her hand in friendship before stepping into any maternal role. This seemed to make Maddie relax and more accepting of Kelly’s place in her life.

By the time they left the next morning, it was nearing eleven. Grumpy was moving slowly, and as much as he wanted to sit in the back with Maddie, he needed the support and extra room of the captain’s chair in the front. Hopefully his body would be in a better mood that afternoon where he could sit with Maddie for a bit.

Almost immediately after they got on the road, there was a warning about their original route. A water leak had caused a sinkhole near the highway. The road was still open, but traffic would be a nightmare with cars being redirected. Instead of getting on I-30 when they got to Dallas, they would be taking a more northern route through Oklahoma.

But they were on their way. Jackson had gone out the afternoon before to buy a tarp to wrap the crib box in and then strap it more securely to the roof rack. Which was good, because distant thunder chased them as they neared the Texas/Oklahoma border. Both Maddie and Kelly had commented on the humidity at their last stop, but Grumpy honestly couldn’t feel the difference. Hopefully any rainstorm would be over by the time they reached their hotel room that night.

Kelly and Maddie chatted endlessly, lulling Grumpy in and out of sleep all afternoon. He heard familiar tales, like how Pumpkin had gotten his road name, to new ones, like when Maddie had won her high school’s spelling bee but lost at the regional level when she misspelled “chrysanthemum”.

Grumpy wasn’t even sure he could pronounce that, let alone spell it.

Kelly talked about Grumpy, too. About his garage and how she could tell the time in her work schedule by his precise meal schedule and what day of the week it was based on what pie he ordered for dessert. Maddie laughed, and told Kelly about some of the activities Grumpy used to do with her when she was a kid.

By the time dusk approached, they were on a long stretch of highway about two hours from their hotel and the rain had started to lightly fall. Grumpy was more concerned about the gusts of wind that seemed to come out of nowhere. Light was fading fast as dark storm clouds moved from the southwest.

Grumpy’s back started to itch, but it was higher this time. More towards his neck than lower back where it usually was. Thunder rumbled as he stared out the window into the passenger mirror.

He just registered the greenish-yellow tint in the sky when suddenly there was a brief torrential downpour. Like someone had dumped a bucket of water on them, it was over as quick as it fell.

Kelly yelped in surprise, gripping the steering wheel tighter. “What the hell was that?”

Grumpy was already leaning forward to get a better look at the sky, giving him a peripheral view of Kelly.

“Dad?” Maddie said from the backseat, her voice full of worry.