Bet on It (59)

The only upside to the rumors becoming more unhinged was that they made others keep away from him. If he had to hear the rumors, he’d rather hear them from a distance.

He’d spent every other Fourth of July since at home on the couch, waiting until Gram came home with a foil-covered Styrofoam plate filled with delicious food. He planned to do the same this year.

“Do you think Aja’s comin’ to this year’s picnic?” Gram asked lightly, poking at bags of dark brown sugar to find the one she wanted.

“I don’t know, I haven’t asked her.”

What he didn’t say was that he seriously doubted it. He wasn’t about to tell Gram all of Aja’s business. It was her choice alone to tell people about her anxiety disorder, not his. And if she’d decided that she didn’t want Gram to know, he wasn’t going to go against that.

“Well, you should.” She pointed to the two bags of brown sugar she wanted, silently telling him to put them in the cart. “It might be nice for her to meet some more people in town. I’m sure there are plenty of handsome young men who would like to meet her.”

He gritted his teeth as he grabbed the bags. He’d be good goddamned. He had no right to feel the possessiveness that was welling up in his throat, making him ill at the very idea of her with another man. But he felt it anyway.

“Well, maybe you should tell her about it.” It took a ton of effort to tone down his smart-assed remark.

“Or maybe you could.” She pushed her glasses down the end of her nose as she browsed her paper list. “All that time you spend with her, you’d think it’d have already come up.”

Walker’s brain shorted out and his tongue followed, leaving his jaws flapping but soundless. He hadn’t told Gram that he’d been hanging out with Aja alone, outside of Monday-night bingo. He hadn’t been forthcoming about them getting dinner sometimes, going to the drive-in together, and certainly not about going over to her house. Frankly, he’d kept it from her because he didn’t want to hear her running her mouth.

Nor did he want her to keep entertaining the fantasy that he was going to fall in love with Aja and come running back to Greenbelt, pretending history was nothing in the face of newfound love. Plus, just the thought of the type of questions Gram wouldn’t be shy about asking sent a shock of fear up his spine.

He tried to recover as quickly as possible before she took her eyes off the jarred relish that he had held up to her face. He’d fold immediately under her gaze, and he didn’t want that yet—even if it was still inevitable.

“I don’t think I’m the right person to invite her when I’m not even goin’.”

“You’re still on that?” Gram huffed. “You don’t think you’d like to try comin’ again this year? Even for a little bit?”

He shot her a bland look, and she pursed her lips.

“Well, I know for a fact Minnie’s is supplying peach cobbler this year.”

“What?”

Normally answering her that way would have earned him a cuff on the ear. This time she just smirked, her eyes still on the jar.

“Yep, we’re still doing the pie competition, but this year, instead of that big cake, Mayor Harris is treatin’ everyone to cobbler. I figure he had to put in orders for at least thirty of them.”

“Do you think you could bring me home a piece?”

She looked at him, finally. “You know how much people love that cobbler, Wally. I have no doubt somebody would knock my old behind over if they saw me trying to sneak an extra piece. The only way for you to get some will be to come.”

He thought about it. Over a hundred people attended the Fourth of July picnic every year. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to sneak in, grab a plate, and sneak out before anyone noticed him. It wasn’t like he was unique in appearance. He wasn’t nearly the only blond-haired white boy in town. If he wore a cap low enough on his face, no one would ever know. It wasn’t exactly a master disguise, but it was more than enough for Greenbelt.

“All right, I’ll come,” he groaned. “But I’m not goin’ to stay long. Thirty minutes at most. I’ll come back and get you once it’s over, but please don’t expect me to stay the whole time. I’m gettin’ in there, gettin’ my cobbler, and gettin’ out.”

“As long as you stop by.” Her words were accepting, but the way she said them made it clear she expected him to stay longer. She was in for a rude awakening.

“And as long as you invite Aja,” she added.

“Gram…” His whine was shameless.

The look she sent him was withering, forcing him to physically draw his body back. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll invite Aja.”



* * *



July Fourth was the hottest day they’d had all summer. The sky was completely cloudless as they pulled up to the dirt-patch-turned-parking lot near the mansion. Neither he nor Gram had been able to give Aja usable directions, and according to Aja, it was impossible to locate on Google Maps. They’d picked her up instead. Gram had even gotten out when they pulled up to Aja’s place, letting her sit in the middle of the cab, right next to him.

The picnic was in full swing when they got there, but Walker knew there were still plenty more people left to arrive. They all piled out of the car, and Walker went around to the truck bed to grab the picnic chairs they’d stored back there.