Honey

My Sunday drive gave me an hour to think. Time I didn’t need. I was grateful when the security gates came into view.

“Hillary Hunter to see Georgia Hunter,” I said to the guard.

He checked my driver’s license against the approved list before letting me pass. I parked the car and then took the inside elevator to my grandmother’s floor. I knocked on her door.

“Honey,” she said, enveloping me in a warm hug.

I stepped into her tiny one-bedroom apartment. It was cute and furnished much like her house had been, but on a smaller scale. The kitchen and living room area dominated the footprint. She had a smallish two-person table to the side. Off to the other side was one bedroom with an unattached bath next to it.

“Grams.”

She patted my hair like it had been months since we’d last seen each other.

I kissed her cheeks and felt more at peace than I had in days.

“What are we cooking today?”

Every Sunday we spent time in the kitchen. Grams taught me her tricks to her favorite dishes.

“I thought we’d start by making my famous beer-can roasted chicken with all the fixings.”

We worked seamlessly together after much practice.

“Tell me about your job,” she said.

I sighed and smashed garlic using the flat part of the knife. I might have hit it a little too hard. She noticed.

“I’m like a nurse-slash-housekeeper for a family.”

“Housekeeper?”

I looked up to see her eyebrow raised. “It’s not that bad. Jake didn’t ask me to cook and clean, but it’s just him, his dad, who has Alzheimer’s, and his young daughter. I feel sorry for them.”

“You and your big heart. I raised you well.”

I grinned.

“Now you call him Jake and not by his surname with a mister attached?”

She’d caught that.

“I knew him from before.” Grams would never leave me to that explanation. I tried to hide behind a curtain of my hair. “He’s my boss.”

“That explains why you’re blushing.” Her sarcasm wasn’t lost on me. “Tell me about this young man.”

I instead chopped the garlic into tiny bits. Finally, I spoke. “He’s a man trying to take care of his family and run the family business. I’m just the help.”

I tried to avoid her gaze. “You don’t have to lie to me. I might be old, but I’m not stupid.”

The hair I’d used as a shield, I tucked behind my ear. “I like him. But I need this job and I can’t mess it up. His daughter is the only girl there. It’s so cute how she’s followed me around the last few days when her dad wasn’t around. She’s full of questions. I feel like I’m making a difference, even if it’s just a small one. They treat me like family, not like help. It’s better than a lot of nursing jobs.”

“And you’ve only been there days and not months?”

“Yes.”

But it felt like months. Outside of Jake, Ford and Jamie made me feel useful.

Grams switched gears on me. “Have you talked to your mother?”

“No,” I said, and swiftly changed the topic. “Is there anything else I should chop?”

It was a bad segue.

“You should call her.”

“Why?” I snapped, but realized my mistake. “Sorry, Grams. I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s just every time I talk to her, I feel like a burden.”

She patted my hand.

“You know your mother has a hard time dealing with her emotions.” I rolled my eyes, unable to stop myself. “You remind her of your dad.”

“So that gives her the right to ignore me and move on like I never existed?”

“No,” Grams said. “But she loves you in her own way. Never doubt that.”

I sat on a stool in her small kitchen. “I know she loves me. When I was growing up, she never missed a school function, even after Dad died. It was the way she left, so fast and right after I graduated. I know there are a lot of years between me and my brother, but I feel left out of his life.”

Grams sat on her stool, taking her time with cutting fresh green beans.

“Have you ever asked her why?” I shook my head. “I think if you did, you might find out that there was pressure from her husband to move long before she did. You may learn that she promised to move once you graduated.”

She eyed me like she knew this was fact.

“How do you know?”

“She came to me and we talked. She was torn between doing what was best for her husband and what was best for you. I told her she had an obligation to you long before she met that man.” Grams nearly growled out the words. “And that she should wait, let you graduate with your friends before uprooting to another part of the country.”

“That’s why you offered to let me stay with you. You’d talked about me moving in with you before then. Did you stay in your house for me?”

She shrugged. “Your father couldn’t be there for you. It was my duty as a grandmother to be there for you when you needed me.”

I practically leaped from the chair and hugged her so tight, I might have broken a few bones.

She patted my back before cupping my cheek. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

Tears streamed from my eyes thinking about Mom put in the position to choose between her husband and me. I needed to call her.

“Let me offer you some advice,” Grams said.

I thought she would impart wisdom about loving thy mother or something like that.

“A love like what your grandfather and I had, or what your mother had with your father, happens once in a lifetime. If this young man makes you happy, you should go for it.”

She made it sound easy.

“And my job,” I scoffed.

“Jobs come and go. Love can be everlasting.”

My grandmother’s words sat heavier in my gut than the full meal I’d eaten. As I pulled up to the ranch, I checked that the leftovers she insisted I take back with me hadn’t spilled. The sweet smell of peach cobbler filled my car. After parking, I was trying to balance everything in my hands when a man came up behind me.

“Let me help.”

I turned around and one of Jake’s ranch hands transferred the covered dishes from my arms to his.

“Thank you.”

He was awfully cute and had dimples to spare. I needed to fan myself. If every man on the ranch was this good-looking, I wasn’t going to survive here for long.

The house was quiet when we walked in.

“You can set them here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Now didn’t that make me feel old, and I was still in my twenties.

After everything was set down, he took off his hat. Blond hair was plastered to the top of his head and curled around the edges where the hat hadn’t covered.

“I was wondering …” he began.

“Mitch.”

We were both startled by Jake’s appearance at the door.

“I—I was just helping her bring packages in,” Mitch said, before nodding at me and practically running out the door.

“Why did you do that?” I asked.