“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

I shook my head and couldn’t help but smile. I had known exactly what I was walking into. Hadn’t I? Yeah, and that only made the next words out of my mouth a little easier. But they came out after I slid off my stool and paused before pecking Noah on the temple. Standing up beside where he sat, I told him as seriously as I could, “It means that it isn’t that I love him because I don’t want to love you. It’s that I know him, and I can’t help it.”

I made sure to look him right in the eyes. “If you ever want to try and be my friend again, you know my number, and if you don’t, I don’t know what to tell you. But I hope you’ll be happy and quit doing dumb shit like not doing enough cardio before a fight and then you end up running out of steam too fast.”

Taking a step away, I thought of something else and added, “You probably shouldn’t try talking to my grandpa anytime soon. Just saying.”

I wished I could have said that his face wasn’t bitter and angry as I gave him one last look, but it was. And as I weaved my way through the tables by the juice bar, going forward some more and alternating eye contact between my gramps and Jonah—who both had no shame because they didn’t even try to pretend like they were around for any other reason other than to snoop—I thought about life and how it worked out.

When I got to the table that held three of the five most important people in my life, I was already shaking my head at the two older ones even as I drew an arm over Grandpa Gus’s shoulders. “You two are the worst,” I said to both of them as I leaned down and started kissing the old man’s cheeks over and over again, hugging him tight in basically a chokehold.

“What are you doing?” He tried to squirm away.

I started kissing his other cheek repeatedly. “I love you so much, Grandpa. I love you, I love you, I love you.”

He made a choking sound and attempted to lean away from me. “Why are you doing this to me?” he tried to ask but started laughing almost instantly.

“Because you’re the best grandpa in the entire world, Count Chocula.” I pecked him on his forehead, one kiss after another after another as he pretended to try and get out of the hold I had him in.

But I knew he was just faking it. He was eating this shit up. He used to do this to me all the time.

“I just love you so, so much,” I told him, giving him two more kisses as he whispered, “Mo, help me.”

I laughed as I pulled away, seriously flying inside by the fact these two stalkers cared about me enough to be so meddlesome.

Grandpa moaned as he sat there, eyeing me like he was expecting me to give him another kiss attack as he said, without any remorse or embarrassment, “That’s my payment for making sure you didn’t do anything dumb?”

I kept my arm around the top of his shoulder and looked down at his old Dracula face before glancing over at Jonah, who was still sitting there with that weird look on his features. “What would I do that’s dumb?”

“You decide you loveee him or something,” Grandpa answered with a sly, knowing look in his eyes, and I witnessed a nerve under Jonah’s eye start to jump.

Did he… know? How I felt? I wondered, eyeing my grandpa suspiciously.

I wasn’t even sure why I was wondering it. Of course he knew. He had more than likely known before I did.

“Sure, because that’s me, falling in love left and right,” I said, glancing over at Jonah right as that nerve popped once more, and being pretty damn gleeful over it.

Grandpa tilted his head to the side and looked up at me in this way that warned me that he knew.

Hm.

I was going to give him shit over his temporary truce or new bromance later in private. And tell him what Noah had said too. He’d ask.

I pecked him on the cheek once more, set a hand on Jonah’s shoulder, hesitated for point five seconds, and then pecked him right beside his mouth as he eyeballed me quietly. Finally, I picked Mo up out of her dad’s arms, gave her a snuggle as I told her how amazing she was and then landed a couple kisses on her neck, forehead, and both hands.

With my mouth to her cheek, I glanced at both of them. “I’m going to leave in a minute. I’ll see you at home?”

I didn’t miss that Jonah didn’t say anything as my grandfather smirked, looking pretty pleased with himself, and said, “Yeah, yeah, see you at home.”

Noah was nowhere to be seen as I headed to the manager’s office after leaving Mo with her two protectors, and I couldn’t say I wasn’t glad that he didn’t witness me smiling on the walk there.

Chapter 19

Subject: I’ll pay you

Lenny DeMaio:

Wed 3/22/2019 1:29 p.m.

to Jonah Collins

I will literally pay you if you could just respond back to me. You don’t even need to say anything. I can do all the talking: $100 for 15 seconds of your life, Jonah. It’s the least you could fucking do.

About an hour later, after getting a call from Luna who wanted to do something on Saturday, grabbing my things from the office, and making a quick stop at the store, I was finally pulling up at home to find that there wasn’t a rental car parked anywhere on the street.

Grandpa Gus’s Camry was in the driveway. Peter was still at Maio House like usual. He didn’t get back home until nine on Thursdays.

I got out of my car, fighting back the flare of disappointment that Jonah wasn’t around, grabbed my backpack on the way out, and opened the door in the kitchen, straining my freaking ears to listen to what could be going on. The second I had it open, I found Jonah and Grandpa both standing at the stove, with Jonah stirring something, my grandpa watching him. Mo was sitting on the floor, a toy in each hand, apparently the only one who heard me open it because her gaze was instantly on me, shouting out with glee, “Ma!”

“Hey, booger,” I called out, swinging the door fully open and heading straight for that little body.

She babbled, really excited and animated, as I picked her up, going straight for that baby neck as she pulled at my hair like it wasn’t tied up in a ponytail.

“Your day was that good? What else happened?” I asked her, eating up the baby sounds coming out of her and how good she smelled and putting one baby fat wrist in my mouth and pretending to munch on it. “Oh my God, I can’t believe your poopy-face Grandpa did all that with you. Wow.”

“Are you going to give poopy-face Grandpa a hug or am I going to die before I get one?”

I groaned as I turned with Mo toward the stove where the two men were, but instead of looking at whatever was being cooked in the pot, they were watching us.

“Yeah, poopy face,” I said before going toward them, shifting her to one hip and giving Grandpa Gus, who was the closest, a one-armed hug and a kiss on the cheek, getting one back in return.

There was no hesitation in me before I let go of him and went for Jonah, wrapping an arm around his waist, surprising him if the way he tensed at the contact meant anything.

But just as quickly as he tensed up, he relaxed and put one arm around the middle of my back, his mouth being the one that dropped to my cheek—the corner of my mouth, really—before mine did that to his.