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CHAPTER THIRTY

Emerson

“I’m not even sure what led me here,” I say as I look down at my hands twiddling in my lap. “I got in my car drove, and then I was in your driveway.”

“Here.” I look up as Granny June offers me a cup. “Drink,” she encourages and I notice she’s made me a cup of tea. I don’t know why but tears fill my eyes, making it blurry.

“Hey.” She sits down on the couch beside me, placing her hand on my forearm. “I know my grandson well, and I can guarantee you nothing took place with that hussy.” I can’t help but smile at her choice of words. “Kelton is a loyal man.”

“I know,” I confess. “I don’t think anything happened with her.” Lifting my gaze to meet hers I continue. “I think it’s more of he went out and someone recognized him, wanted a picture and then made it out to be more than it was.”

“Then what has you so upset?”

“It’s stupid.” I shrug, looking back at my tea.

“Nothing is stupid if it’s your true feelings,” she tells me and rubs her hand on my arm. “You ended up here for a reason, so talk to me.”

“His life is there, moving on without me and I know that is my fault. Because I could be there. He practically begged me to stay.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asks and I know she’s not being sarcastic or rude. I know she is asking because she truly wants to know. Granny June is sassy, she is stubborn and a little overbearing at times, but she is also kind and loving.

“If I drop everything and go there, leave it all behind, is that me folding to his dreams and putting my own aside. Will it change me, being there, living that life? It’s not a quiet peaceful life, it’s loud and busy, there is no time to enjoy it, because he is always on the go.”

“So is living without him the better option?”

I mull over her question. Allow it to roll around as I weigh it all out then I look back to her.

I’ve done it for the last two years, and then I got to live differently for a week.

” She nods, knowing everything without me having to tell her.

She gets it, I may not have been the one to tell her what has taken place between Kelton and me in the past, but she knows. I swear she always knows everything.

“I’d take that week over and over, versus going back to the way it was before,” I confess, the tears finally falling. “I just don’t want to lose the person I am.”

“He wouldn’t let that happen,” she tells me and I’d like to believe that. “Because the girl he fell in love with is the girl you are now.”

“He didn’t fall in love.” I smile, appreciating her trying to make me feel better but come on.

“I know that boy, I see him clearly, like a plate glass window there isn’t much he can hide.

I can promise you that my grandson is in love with you.

I think he was two years ago and I think he forced the idea out of his mind.

He’d gotten the chance of a lifetime and he was clouded by that accomplishment, but I know it wasn’t easy.

Not many know but he and I talk often, several times a week.

We share a lot, there are no secrets. When he got there, it took him several weeks to accept the decision he’d made. ”

She had no reason to lie.

“He struggled, missing his family, missing you.” I worry my lip.

“It may have been new, it may have been brief, but Kelton has known you practically his entire life. He always felt there was a fine line that he couldn’t cross with you.

Alizabeth, your friendship and risking getting in the middle of that, then there has always been the age thing.

That four years seems like nothing now but it’s big when he’s twenty and your sixteen. ”

I smile understanding the consequences.

“Have you talked to him?”

I shake my head. “Things have felt different over the last couple days. He’s quiet, I’m quiet, we don’t know what to say. It’s gotten awkward.”

“Only because you are both allowing it to be,” she insists.

This woman doesn’t sugarcoat it. “Young people don’t realize just how fast time flies by.

How easy it is to lose the years you wish you could get back.

I’m telling you that you and Kelton, you both need to wake up, get yourselves in line with one another and stop letting time float by.

Everything will fall into place, because I told him two years ago and I am telling you now, the time for the two of you hasn’t slipped by.

Your time will come, and I think that time is now. ”

I love this woman, not just for now but for the love she’s given to Liz and Kelton, even Brigette, though she doesn’t appreciate it. I love her honesty, even if it isn’t always what you want to hear. She is real, she is genuine, and she is so incredibly cute, it’s almost too much.

A tiny fireball with the biggest heart.