SIX
SHANNON
LEAVING MY GRAMMY AT THE NURSING HOME was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. She literally had nothing since everything had burned in the trailer, and with the exception of me, no one else gave a damn about her. Knowing she only had me made it even harder to leave the building and go to my car.
A few months at Twin Oaks was paid for in advance, thanks to some savings Grammy had and a small insurance claim on her old trailer, but I knew how quickly time would fly by. I needed to be able to cover the costs once the payment was due again. I had no idea how I would do that, but it wasn’t as if I had a choice.
A second and a third job might be my only options.
I knew Lilly’s family had money, but I couldn’t find it in myself to ask her. I was too proud. So instead of even mentioning it to Lilly, I tucked the stress of money down deep and worked whenever Mrs. Franklin needed me to work. On slow days, I would sit at the front counter and search for jobs on my phone, hoping to at least snag one more that paid decently.
The good thing about Lilly having a new boyfriend was she worked less, using up tons of vacation time she had accrued. Not that I didn’t want to be around her, but the less she worked, the more hours I got. The more hours I got, the more money I brought in.
So that was what I did.
I worked and visited Grammy whenever I could.
With Lilly being gone a lot, it wasn’t like I had anything else to do anyway. The rest of my friends had jobs and lives, and I didn’t want to bring them down with my drama and depression.
On my next day off, I stopped by Maribelle’s, a café close to work, and got myself a salted caramel Frappuccino. Located in North Charleston, Twin Oaks was much closer to my job and apartment than Somersby was. Instead of driving an hour to visit Grammy, she was only twenty minutes away.
I sipped my Frappuccino on the ride over to the nursing home and tossed the empty cup in the trash can by the front entrance of Twin Oaks.
My boots clicked against the floor as I made my way to the front desk.
“I’m here to see Mrs. Iris Daniels,” I told the young girl behind the front desk.
She looked about my age, maybe a year or two older.
“One second,” she said with a smile as she turned and grabbed the sign-in paper, setting it on the counter in front of me.
She was pretty, much skinnier than I was, and her brown hair was perfectly curled. Her makeup was gorgeous, and I imagined she spent a ton of her downtime making YouTube videos about makeup application.
Scribbling my name on the sign-in sheet, I handed the paper back to her.
“Room three hundred. Turn down the first hall on your right and it’s about ten doors down.”
I already knew that, but still, I said, “Thank you.”
I tapped the top of the counter before turning toward Grammy’s room.
The long hallways of Twin Oaks were brightly lit. While the place had a somewhat comfortable, homey feel, the smell of antiseptic still stung my nose. A sage green decorated the walls, but the tile floor was still hospital grade and ancient.
The place used to be the old hospital before the new one was built. That was before I was even born, and while they had upgraded and renovated, you could still feel the age of the building. It was that way with a lot of Charleston buildings. The places were old—rooted—stained with the past and wrinkled with time.
Old beauty.
It was the only way to describe Charleston.
My boots squeaked with my steps as I moved into a part of the hallway that had recently been mopped. A tiny yellow sign warned me the floor was wet, and the smell of bleach stung my nose. I smiled, thankful the place my grammy was living in was at least clean.
As long as I pointed out the good things about Twin Oaks to myself, I could almost forget how badly I felt about leaving her in a nursing home with a bunch of strangers. It was a last resort. One I hoped to rectify at some point when I could afford to do so.
The rooms I passed had elderly people sitting in their chairs. Most of them stared out the windows like they missed the world they left behind. The more rooms I passed, the worse I felt, knowing Grammy was probably doing the same as she waited for me to visit.
Room three hundred was the next door I reached … Grammy’s room.
I stepped up to the doorway to find her sitting in her chair reading a book. A content smile upon her lips, she hummed softly as she turned the page. Interrupting felt wrong, but I knew she would be just as happy to see me as I was to see her.
Tapping on the doorframe, I smiled when she looked up from her book.
“Hey, Grammy. What are you reading?” I asked as I moved into her room.
She turned the old paperback to show a cover with a couple embracing. Grammy loved to read, but only the smutty historicals you could grab from the consignment shop for ten cents. If the storyline featured a duke or an earl, she was on board.
“Reading that smut again, I see,” I joked, sitting on the stool beside her reading chair.
She chuckled as she stuffed her bookmark between the pages and set the book down. The paper-thin skin on the top of her fragile hands showed all the blue veins and age spots. Her white hair was placed in a perfect bun on top of her head. She had super long hair, but only I knew that since she never took it down around anyone else.
“Oh, hush. You know how much I like my love stories.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief.
More like I knew how much she liked to reread the dirty parts.
“I’m glad you stopped by. I haven’t seen you in months. Where have you been hiding?” she asked, picking up her remote to flip through the channels.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d been by to visit her just three days before. Instead, I reached out and tugged at the new top she was wearing. I’d brought it for her the last time I’d visited since all her clothes had been burned. My goal was to bring her in a new piece of clothing each time I stopped by. This time, I had bought a new nightgown. It was pink with tiny flowers. My grammy loved pink.
“This looks nice on you, Grammy. Do you like how it fits?” I asked.
She hugged herself and smiled. “Oh, yes. The fabric is lovely. I got it years ago at a boutique in Charleston. It’s one of my favorites.”
Tears rushed to my eyes, and I turned away before they spilled down my cheeks.
“Well, isn’t that nice,” I said, keeping the broken sound out of my voice. “So any plans for today? Are the nurses here putting together some fun for the weekend?”
The weekend before, the nurses and caretakers had put together bingo in the main room. Everyone joined, played bingo, and ate snacks. It was a hit, and Grammy won a handmade scarf.
“No, dear, my husband has big date plans this weekend. Our daughter is staying at a friend’s house, and I’m supposed to wear something pink. He loves me in pink.”
That was how my visit continued. Me trying to discuss recent topics and Grammy believing she was thirty-five again. She talked about Pop as if he was still a young stud and my mother as if she was still a rebellious teenager. She never even mentioned me or looked at me as if I were familiar.
When I said my goodbyes, I did so holding back the dam of tears that threatened to break at any second. I closed her room door and quickly wiped away a lone tear that had escaped. Making it to my car so I could have my moment became crucial. Crying around a bunch of strangers wasn’t an option.
I moved fast down the hallway, ready to get out of the building before everything came crashing down on me. A short hallway, a long hallway, and then the exit. I could make that easily. I turned the corner onto the second hallway, slamming into a large, warm body.
It was more like running face first into a heated brick wall. His stomach was so toned I could feel his six-pack pressed against my front. I froze as long, strong fingers wrapped around my upper arms, pulling me against him and holding me in place.
My eyes followed the buttons up the front of his shirt until a tanned neckline and a strong, sexy jawline were all I could see. Dark hair lined his chin and luscious lips, and his nose was incredibly perfect and symmetrical. Then my eyes fell into his aqua blue irises, and I gasped.
Matthew Ellis.
Again, we had somehow managed to be pressed together, and my body was celebrating with shivers and warmth.
“Whoa,” he said, grinning so hard the dimple in his cheek winked at me.
I pulled from his grasp, accidentally slamming into the wall behind me.
“You again.” He moved closer to me, pulling all the oxygen around me away. “We really have to stop running into each other this way.”
When I didn’t respond, he chuckled softly. The deep and erotic sound rasped against my skin even though he wasn’t as close as before.
“Or we can keep bumping into each other if you’d like. I think I’d like to bump into you in more ways than one.”
He moved even closer, and I held my breath as a mix of fear and desire crashed over me. Again, I found myself rushing into an anxiety attack because he was near me while secretly wanting him closer.
He reached up, his fingers capturing a curl of my hair resting against my shoulder. He rubbed his fingers together, feeling the texture of my hair while he watched the curl fall apart.
“Lost your tongue?” he asked, his own tongue peeking out and swiping across his full bottom lip. “You don’t have anything to say to me, Red?”
I blinked up at him, my tongue stuck to the top of my mouth and my jaw clenched. Speaking was beyond me, and even though words bubbled up to the back of my throat and rolled across my tongue, they became trapped.
His fingers moved once again, fingering yet another of my curly strands. This time, his knuckles brushed against my cheek, and I slammed my eyes closed as I tried to curb my mixed emotions.
Fear.
Desire.
Anxiety.
And a rush of excitement that flew through my body like lightning.
My tongue released itself, and my voice came out broken and rusty.
“My name’s not Red,” I snapped.
His grin deepened. “But it’s perfect for you. What’s your name?”
“Shannon.”
“I think I like Red better.”
I sighed, more from him being so close than from aggravation, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
His eyes moved from the strand of hair he was fingering until he was looking me in my eyes.
Blue.
His eyes were so cerulean they blazed against his dark skin and dark hair like a flashing warning sign. A warning sign I knew to take to heart.
“Visiting someone. And you?”
“The same.” I tugged my hair from his fingers and moved to step around him. “Well, it was nice to run into you again, but—”
He blocked me, his palm resting against the wall beside me and caging me in.
“You don’t like me very much, do you?”
Looking around, I took note of the fact we were somehow completely alone in a long hallway of closed doors. I could have sworn all the doors were open before, but it wasn’t like any of the old people in the rooms would be able to do anything to help me if he tried something I didn’t like.
My heart drilled inside my chest, the sound of its pounding echoing in my ears.
“I don’t know you.”
And it was the truth.
I didn’t know him, but I did know he was one of the most attractive men I had ever laid eyes on, and something about his body spoke to mine. As if they had some secret silent language that pulled me to him like a magnetic signal.
“And isn’t that a shame.” His grin grew, the dimple taunting me yet again. “We should fix that.”
“Let me pass,” I demanded, not feeling any of the authority I heard in my voice. “I don’t have time for your childish games, and I have errands to run.”
It was a lie.
I was really going to go home and take a freezing shower until my mind decided to work properly and my body had a few minutes to cool down, but he didn’t need to know what he did to me. He didn’t understand the memories he made rush to the front row of my memory or that my body was being a traitor by feeling things my mind found utterly disgusting.
“Childish games?” He shook his head and chuckled. “Go out with me.”
It wasn’t a request; it was a demand.
“No.”
I moved again to step around him, yet he blocked me again.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know you,” I stressed.
“Yeah, but Lilly kind of does. You trust her, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure she never wants to see you again after the drama at her mom’s house.”
He chuckled. “That’s wasn’t me. That was Devin. Now again … go out with me.”
So much pressure.
“What is this?” I asked, unsure of his reasons for wanting me to go out with him.
He was gorgeous, rich, and flirty. I was positive getting dates wasn’t a problem for him, yet he was chasing after me, who, if I were honest with myself, had a little too much tummy and uneven skin.
“This is me asking you on a date. So what do you say? Want to go out with me?”
“But why me?” I was sure I sounded stupid and insecure, but I really wanted to know what it was about me that made him think going on a date with me was a possibility.
His eyes dipped to my lips before connecting with my eyes again. His blue orbs were so mesmerizing I felt like I was drowning.
Cliché much?
“You really want to know?” he asked.
I nodded. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.”
His ran his fingers through his thick, dark hair and shook his head. “Because I know going out with me is the last thing in the world you want to do.”
His answer confused me, and I was sure he could see that confusion in my expression because he chuckled.
“So because I don’t want to go out with you, you want to go out with me?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does to me.”
“Why not ask out someone you know wants to go out with you?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” He shrugged.
“And you think going out with me would be fun?”
“Yes.”
“But why? I’m super boring, I assure you.”
And I was.
I liked to read, and on occasion, I sewed. I wasn’t a heavy drinker, and I hated dancing. I was the most boring person I knew.
“Because I always go out with women who want to go out with me. It’s not exciting. You, on the other hand, you’re not falling for any of my bullshit. It makes me want to see what makes you tick. You’re a mystery I want to solve.”
“Well, I’m sorry. You’re going to have to find another woman who’s not interested in you.”
He laughed, his head falling back and his face lighting up.
“You’re not attracted to me at all, are you?”
Lies.
I was full of them these days, and when I opened my mouth to answer his question, yet another one slipped out.
“I’m not trying to be mean or anything. It’s just … you’re not my type.”
His mouth dropped open in shock. It was as if he couldn’t fathom a woman not finding him attractive, which made total sense. I was sure he had yet to meet one, and I wasn’t even sure one existed. I didn’t know what my type was since I hadn’t given it much thought, but standing there staring at him and feeling the way my body was reacting to him, he was definitely it. I was too attracted to him. It wasn’t safe for my sanity.
“You do realize I’m not going to give up until I get what I want?”
His confidence made him even sexier.
“I wish you would,” I said, honestly.
I wasn’t like most girls. I wasn’t enjoying his flirting, and he wasn’t making me feel good about myself. He was making me feel worse since I knew every time I turned him down, it was because I was broken beyond repair.
“I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises.” He grinned, and I felt the heat in my panties intensify.
“You should probably get over your obsession with me,” I said sarcastically, earning laughter from him.
His eyes sparkled down at me as if he was really enjoying our conversation.
I wasn’t.
“My obsession, huh?”
“Yep.”
I moved to go around him, and this time, he moved out of my way.
“Well, it was nice seeing you again. Enjoy the rest of your day,” I said as I moved away from him and started toward the exit.
“You, too,” he said from me behind me. “I’ll see you again real soon, Red.”
Not if I had anything to say about it.
Staying away from him was a good idea, which meant I could only hope the next time I visited Grammy, he wouldn’t be there. Visiting her wasn’t something I would stop doing, though. Even if he was there every time. Even if running into him left me feeling hung over from a bad high.
It wasn’t until I reached my car, got inside, and closed the door behind me that I realized I wasn’t almost in tears anymore. He had managed to take my mind off Grammy for a very limited time. He would never know it, but he had done me a huge favor. I drove away with the smell of his cologne on my shirt and a smile on my face.