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With his footsteps growing quieter, I turned my attention on Grandma. I sat in Bertrand’s seat and reached gently for her hand, her palm soft against mine. The skin on the back of her hand looked papery, slightly glossy and cracked with age. When I was little, she’d hold my hand, and I’d press into her fingertips, watching the indentations formed there slowly bounce back in place.
These hands had loved us so well, from cooking treats to serving her husband on his deathbed to holding us when we were down. Grandma had always been there for us. Every football game, every scholar’s bowl competition, every graduation and dance recital, she had been there.
And I’d abandoned her.
A tear slipped down my cheek at the pull I felt between my new love and my family who had always been there for me. I’d only known Tyler for months, and I loved him with all my heart. But my family had been there forlife.
What future could there be with Tyler when he had a job that required such extensive travel? When he wanted to settle in a state over a thousand miles from California? I couldn’t ask him to give that up to move here, even if I had a house for us to share. Just like he couldn’t ask me the same question.
It was reckless to let my heart become so invested in him when this was the inevitable answer.
So I cried.
I cried for my grandma lying in this hospital bed, her life forever changed.
I cried for my first real love, the man of my dreams.
And I cried for the future we could never have together.
61
Tyler
My phone vibrated in my pocket, waking me up from where I’d slept in a waiting room chair the whole night. All of Hen’s brothers had gone home, but her mom and dad were here too, leaning against each other as they slept. My neck protested as I slowly stood, reaching into my pocket to see who was calling.
Jim Crenshaw’s name filled the screen, and my eyebrows drew together. He knew I was off work, and we didn’t have a meeting scheduled until the following Tuesday. And it was only nine in the morning. I swiped to answer, wondering what he could possibly want.
“Hello?” I asked, my voice rough from a poor night’s sleep. Hen hadn’t come out all night, and I wanted to know if she was okay.
“You really shit the bed on this one,” Jim growled.
My chest instantly tightened. In my ten years of working with him, Jimnevertalked to me like that. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Tyler. I understand needing to get your dick wet, but I never would have thought—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said, walking away from the waiting room and into the hallway so Hen’s parents wouldn’t overhear this conversation that had already turned into an explicit yelling match on Jim’s end. “Jim, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He cleared his throat, and it sounded more like a growl. “I get a call this morning from a suit at Blue Bird, and you know what she tells me? She thinks that you have been acting inappropriately on the job site.”
Ice filled my veins. My knees buckled, and I leaned against the cinderblock wall for support.
“But I tell her that’s impossible,” Jim railed on. “I’ve been working with Tyler for ten years, and he’s the best damn employee I have. So good, in fact, that I’m considering training him up to run the damn company once this project’s done. But she demanded a review of the security footage anyway.”
I raked my hands through my hair. The fucking cameras. I never thought much about them because we never reviewed footage unless there was vandalism. But Janessa had given him all the cause he needed.Clients firstwas Crenshaw Construction’s motto. The first line of our company mission statement. If a client wanted a video review, they got one.
“Imagine my surprise when our security guy sends me a clip of you gettingfucking blown on the job siteBY THE WOMAN WHO’S SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING THE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS RUN SMOOTHLY.”
I held the phone away from my ear, easily hearing him shouting even from a distance.
“Now what you do in your free time is your damn business. You can fuck whoever you want. Man. Woman. I don’t give a shit. But the second you step on the job site, it’s about the project. I can’t believe you would jeopardize our reputation like this and risk amulti-million-dollar project!”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. “Did they let us go?”
“I saved the deal on one condition. You’re off the job, Tyler. You need to pack your shit and go home by Sunday. They’re done with you, and so am I.”
“Jim, I—” I began, but the call ended.
I stared at the lock screen on my phone, the picture of Henrietta on the horse. I’d had Liv send it to me, and it made me smile so much, I’d put it there. But now I didn’t feel like smiling. I felt like an asshole.