Page 95 of Here With Me

I frown, looking away. “Thanks.”

“Gramma, you need to share your story about Grandpa still,” Noah intervenes.

I can’t look at her, not right now, but I appreciate her taking the attention off me.

Dena groans as Gramma Grace shifts to look for a different album spread out in front of us.

“Here it is...” She opens it and flips a few pages before revealing their wedding photo. “Your grandfather was fifteen years older, but ya wouldn’t know it because he hardly aged a day until he was seventy.”

“Even then, he was pretty good-lookin’,” Dena says, smirking as she digs around for more stickers and embellishment pieces.

“Where’d ya meet?” Noah asks.

I grab my coffee, wishing it were caffeinated after not getting much sleep last night.

“Well...he was the pastor at my high school.”

Nearly spitting out my drink, I bring a hand to my mouth and force the liquid down, but not before Noah notices.

“Gramma!” Noah’s jaw drops.

Dena shakes her head as Garrett stifles a laugh. He must know this story.

Gramma Grace shrugs with an innocent smile on her face. “We didn’t date until after graduation. I started workin’ as a youth leader that summer, and we grew closer.”

“I can’t believe you bagged a pastor.”

“Noah!” Dena scolds.

Noah giggles and holds up her palm, giving each other high fives. “Good job, Gramma.”

“He was a very nice gentleman, but even so, many people didn’t approve. Includin’ my own mother.”

“So what’d ya do?” Noah asks, her attention solely focused on her as if she’s hoping for answers to our current dilemma.

“What any other rebellious teenager who was told no would do...” Gramma Grace glances up with a devious smirk. “We snuck around.”

I hold back an amused grin, keeping my focus on the album so they don’t notice my reaction. Butholy shit.

Noah laughs as she rummages through more pieces and paper.

Gramma Grace might be the only one who’d accept Noah and me being together, but having her blessing would be a bonus.

“For how long?” Noah asks.

“Two years,” she notes. “By that time, I no longer cared what anyone else thought because I was madly in love with him.”

“You weren’t a pastor’s wife, though. At least not that I recall...”

“After we got married, we moved to Sugarland Creek, and he decided to go into carpentry. I became a homemaker and stay-at-home mom.”

“What kind of furniture did he make?” I ask.

“Everythin’,” Gramma Grace responds with pride. “Furnished most of our house as well as many other locals. He was the busiest man I knew but always made time for Sunday supper.”

“It’s where the tradition came from,” Noah explains.

“He made most of the furniture in the guest cabins,” Dena says. “Lots in here, too.”