Sweet Nothings (23 page)

That was way more than her mother had ever done.

With tears in her own eyes, Joanie leaned forward and pulled her grandmother into an embrace, both of them holding each other in a way she couldn’t remember them ever doing.

“It’s okay, GiGi,” she whispered.

“I’m so sorry,” her grandmother repeated again. “I didn’t think she’d leave. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Joanie pulled back and wiped at the tears streaking GiGi’s face. “I suspect it was for the best.” And she honestly did. Her mother hadn’t cared for her. At least someone had cared enough to see that as a problem.

“I should have told you about it a long time ago.” GiGi’s words were almost too soft to hear. “I wanted to. But I didn’t know how.”

Joanie closed her eyes as if that would hide the pain. She suspected GiGi was only telling her now because she knew her days were numbered. The thought made Joanie replay her and Nick’s conversation from the night before. The one about her mother. Should she ask GiGi about Grace? She didn’t want to upset her more than she already was. But then she felt Nick’s strength as if he were right there beside her, holding her hand.

She opened her eyes. She needed to do this.

“Have you heard from her at all since she left?” Joanie asked. “Anything?”

A sad look came over her grandmother, dulling her eyes and making her seem even more fragile than she was. “Never one word,” she whispered. “It was as if she was glad I’d given her the ultimatum.”

Grace’s leaving hadn’t just hurt Joanie, it had broken GiGi’s heart.

That had to destroy a person in a way Joanie couldn’t even imagine.

In a vivid moment of clarity, Joanie realized she had to do better for her grandmother. She had to bring her home.

She didn’t know how, but she’d figure it out.

“I’m going to bring you home with me, GiGi. As soon as I can make arrangements so I can take good care of you.”

Only…
how
?

When GiGi’s house sold, she could use the money to hire a nurse. They could put a bed in the living room of Joanie’s rental.

It wouldn’t be ideal, but it would work.

Or she could find a different place to rent with a bedroom on the first floor.

“I can’t do it today.” She squeezed her grandmother’s hand. “I wish I could. But I’ll come visit more often. I’ll be back Monday. How’s that? I can stay longer on Mondays. And then again next Saturday. I’ll come twice a week. After the house sells we’ll make it work. You’ll live with me.”

Again, the thought of getting rid of the Barn caused Joanie a moment of pain. She didn’t want to sell the house. But she had no choice. It wasn’t as if she could give up her rental and move her and GiGi there. She owed too much on the upgrades.

But she would do something. She’d figure it out. And she would not let GiGi die here alone. Maybe being back in Sugar Springs would even extend the time she had left.

Thin, wispy gray hair moved slowly up and down as her grandmother nodded. Her eyes were watery again, but no more tears fell. She gave a hesitant smile. “You’re a good granddaughter,” GiGi said, which felt like a lie. She wasn’t. She hadn’t been in years.

Better late than never, she thought. She
would
be a good granddaughter.

“I’m going to take all these pictures and make a scrapbook for you.” The idea popped into her head from nowhere. “I’ve found so many things in the house that I know you love. I want to take some of them, as well as these pictures and the rest I’ll make as we finish up, and create a scrapbook. We’ll call it ‘The Barn Book.’”

The smile on GiGi’s face wavered, and two narrow lines of tears once again slipped over her bottom lids. “I like that,” she admitted. “ ‘The Barn Book.’ Your grandfather would have loved it.”

Silence fell over the room at the mention of Pepaw, and Joanie caught herself thinking back over the letters she’d read the night before.

She wanted to understand what had gone wrong.

It wasn’t as if she
needed
the knowledge. But she wanted desperately to know what had happened between her grandparents. Nothing about his leaving had ever made sense.

Why had Pepaw left not only GiGi, but her, as well?

Squeezing GiGi’s hand, she took a deep breath and silently prayed she wasn’t making a mistake by bringing it up. It had already been an emotional day. “Why did Pepaw leave, GiGi?” she finally asked.

Her grandmother looked at her with wide eyes, and then lowered her gaze and shook her head. “He didn’t leave, hon.”

Joanie blinked. “Yes, he did. Twenty-five years ago. Then you went to DC and buried him eight years later.”

Had her grandmother blocked it? Forgotten?

Was she finally losing her mind?

GiGi shook her head, but kept her eyes downcast. “He couldn’t help it. He didn’t leave us.”

“Of course he did,” Joanie insisted, fighting the small flame of anger. She remembered it with clarity. “He told me good-bye before I went to school that morning. He
told
me he was leaving. I cried at school all day. And then when I came home, he was gone. And he never came back.”

It occurred to her that his not coming back hurt more than her mother not coming back. That seemed like an odd thing, but given he’d been the more stable one in her life, she supposed that made sense.

Her grandmother just shook her head. “He didn’t leave. He was a good man. A proud man.”

Well, he may not have left GiGi, but he’d certainly left Joanie.

GiGi reached for the pictures in Joanie’s hand. “Show me what you brought.” Her tone was back to being tight and hard. She’d closed off.

Joanie stared at her for several seconds, wanting to push for more, but she knew her grandmother well. That stubborn tilt to her jaw was in place. She was not talking about Pepaw any more today.

Joanie let out a frustrated sigh and opened the pictures.

They spent the next thirty minutes with somewhat stilted conversation, going through photos that Joanie had taken from every angle of the house. There were even a few shots of Nick in there. She flipped through those quickly, but her grandmother stopped her on one.

It was of Nick from the night before. She’d taken the picture when she’d first gotten there, right before he’d gone off to shower. He’d been standing in the new third-floor room—which was nothing but studs and framing at this point—sawdust and sweat covering him, his eyes glowing as he’d explained every detail the room was going to have. He’d followed up the description by telling her what he wanted to do with her in that room once it was finished.

She gulped, seeing the ardor in Nick’s eyes, and hoping her grandmother didn’t.

“He’s good-looking,” GiGi said. “He and you would make pretty babies.”

This brought Joanie to her feet, spilling the pictures onto the floor.

“We’re not having babies, GiGi. He’s working on the house. That’s all.”

“Okay,” GiGi whispered. “I’m just saying he’s a pretty boy. He’d make pretty babies.”

Joanie realized her grandmother had grown tired. She was struggling just to keep her eyes open, and her shoulders had slumped down farther on the bed.

They’d been talking for well over an hour, and GiGi had been sitting up that whole time. Plus, she’d gotten upset. Twice. Joanie needed to go and let her rest. She rose and gathered the pictures, then set the packet on the bedside table. She’d get more printed out for the scrapbook, and leave these here for GiGi.

“I’m going to let you sleep now, GiGi.”

Her grandmother nodded and Joanie helped her down to a prone position. Joanie hovered another minute as if unsure what to do next, then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, fighting her own tears at the feel of the paper-thin skin beneath her lips.

“I’ll be back Monday, GiGi. I’ll bring the scrapbook.” She pulled the cupcakes from her bag and set them on the bedside table, then turned to go, but stopped at GiGi’s next words.

“I had a pretty boy once.”

Joanie eyed her grandmother whose eyes were now closed. Was she talking about Pepaw?

She must be. There had been no other boy in her life, as far as Joanie knew.

Heck, maybe her grandmother really was losing her mind. Joanie just hoped it hadn’t been exacerbated by bringing up Pepaw.

Before she could come up with a response, she heard soft snoring from the bed.

With one last glance at her grandmother, Joanie stepped quietly from the room, holding a love in her heart she’d never realized was there. It felt right. They were going to fix this thing that had been between them for so long.

She was going to do right by GiGi.

Chapter Thirteen

L
ed Zeppelin pumped from the speaker of Nick’s docked iPod as he worked at loosening a board inside the shed. It was Saturday afternoon, and he was at the house alone. The guys he’d hired had been working ten-hour days for over two weeks, so he’d given them the day off. That didn’t mean he got one. Instead of working in the house, though, he’d decided to spend the early-spring day cleaning out the sheds in the backyard. Doing so would allow him to dump the junk before letting Joanie have a look, risking her dragging the majority of the contents home with her.

The woman had issues. She was as much of a pack rat as her relatives, but every time he tried to talk her out of something, she was so darn cute for her reasons for wanting to keep it that he caved. In the end, she
was
getting rid of most of the junk in the house. He’d just been surprised at how much she’d kept.

There were two sheds in the yard, and he’d already emptied the majority of the first one into the Dumpster. What he hadn’t been sure about, he’d piled up for Joanie to decide. This building, however, was proving more difficult. He’d uncovered a few pieces of furniture that looked as if they could be of value, several boxes of Christmas ornaments that seemed unique enough he couldn’t bring himself to toss them, and
now was working his way through a haphazard stack of lumber, trying to get at what lay beneath.

He wasn’t sure what he’d find at the bottom, but the chains he’d caught sight of had given him a suggestion. If it turned out to be what he thought, it would be the perfect birthday present for Joanie.

The board came loose with a strong, two-handed yank, and he lost his footing, nearly catching himself as he stumbled backward, but ending up in the dust on the floor. Luckily, the board hadn’t released any of the other random pieces, and nothing rained down on his head.

He shoved himself up, exhausted, but knowing there was little time to spare. He’d already spent too many hours during the week with Joanie when he should have been putting in work on the house, not to mention that he needed to make a quick run to Nashville the next day. There were a few details at the office he needed to handle, and he should check in on his house. He lived in a good neighborhood, but a house sitting for weeks unattended could attract any kind of trouble.

His mind went to Joanie again, and of how every night with her he felt as if a clock were ticking down. It would be nice if she’d stay over once in a while, or invite him to her place. But he supposed her actions fit within the definition of what they were doing. Though he did have to admit the definition was starting to get to him.

He hauled a few more pieces out of the building, then came up short when he realized he had company. A black, overcompensating-for-something sports car sat parked beside his truck. One he’d seen before when it had held Joanie and Brian, kissing as if the world were coming to an end and they didn’t want to go out breathing.

“Seems you’ve made progress out here.” Brian stood under the new roof of the back porch, the door to the house open behind him. “Looks good.”

Nick tossed his load into the Dumpster before turning to the other man. Did people just show up and walk through houses unannounced in Sugar Springs? He’d liked the place until now.

“I have. What are you doing here, Marshall?” He could be more polite, but the sight of him and Joanie kissing had left an impact.

Brian pushed off the support post, and headed toward Nick. “Pop sent me over to check out your work. Said you were looking to build some cabins on our property.”

The Marshalls had a six-room bed-and-breakfast, offered several year-round tourist activities, and had seventy-five acres backing up to the river that edged the county. They were looking to expand.

“That’s right.” Guess this meant he was going to have to be civil to the guy. He jerked his chin at the house. “Want a look around or did you already see everything?”

“I only walked straight through. You didn’t answer so I figured you were working. Heard the music out here and came on back.” Brian went silent while Nick bent to the speaker and shut off the song. “Also wanted to ask what your deal was with Joanie.”

Ah. The real reason for the visit.

“I’m pretty sure that’s none of your business.” He stared the man in the eyes, jealousy eating him up inside. This person had known Joanie a long time, and whether Brian wanted her in his bed or not, they had a closeness she and Nick didn’t share. That bothered him. “Did you want to see the house, or were you just stopping by to piss me off?”