Chasing Perfect (Fool's Gold #1)(52)

He looked concerned and uneasy, not to mention his usual stunningly handsome self.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey, yourself.”

He paused in front of her. “I’m here to make sure you’re all right.”

How could he possibly know what was going on? There hadn’t been enough time for him to hear the story from Marsha. Unless he already knew.

“When did she tell you she was my grandmother?” she asked, not sure if she was pissed or not.

“The day before the first interview.”

The interview. The job. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “Marsha hired me because I’m her granddaughter.”

He sat next to her and put his arm around her. “She hired you because you were the best one for the job. She didn’t make the decision by herself and you weren’t the only candidate. It was a group decision. Don’t you have enough on your plate without going there?”

“Maybe,” she admitted, relaxing against him. She didn’t want to. She wanted to be strong all on her own. But it felt so good to lean into his strength. As if he could hold all of her problems at bay.

“Who else knows?” she asked.

“Just me. She needed someone to talk to. Then after you got here, she wanted me to keep an eye on you.”

Charity sat straight up. “What? Is that why you’ve been so nice to me? Did you sleep with me because my grandmother told you to?”

He grinned. “Want to run that last sentence by your common sense? What grandmother asks a guy to sleep with her only granddaughter?”

“Oh. You’re probably right.”

“Probably?”

Some of her outrage faded. She sagged back against him. “My head hurts.”

“It’ll get better. You need a little time to take everything in. But if you’re going to have some surprise family, she’s the one to have. Marsha’s one of the good guys.”

“I know, but it’s so strange to think about. She’s known about me all my life. She wanted to be a part of things. She wanted us to be together.” Her eyes began to burn. She blinked away the sensation.

“My mother was the most stubborn person in the world,” Charity whispered. “She was totally unconventional. She didn’t care if I ate cake for breakfast, or what time I went to bed. She said she’d grown up with too many rules, that she didn’t believe in them.”

She glanced at him. “It sounds great in theory, but the truth was, I would have liked a few rules. I had to take responsibility for everything myself. I knew she wouldn’t. I was making sure there was food in the house by the time I was nine and handling the bills by the time I was twelve. I wanted to be a kid, but I was too scared of what would happen if no one was in charge.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, stroking her hair. “You should have had better.”

“I had better than a lot of people. I never went hungry. I had clothes and a roof over my head.”

A pretty low bar, Josh thought, seriously pissed, but determined not to show it. The last thing Charity needed was to deal with his feelings. This was about her.

“She wasn’t a bad person,” Charity said. “Sandra loved me.”

Another point he wouldn’t argue, but he didn’t believe Sandra was all that good a person. He doubted Marsha had been a perfect mother—no one was—but she’d always led with her heart. She was tough, but fair. No one changed that much and the woman he’d known since he was ten years old was giving and loving, and if she’d been strict, there would have been a reason. He would know—she’d looked after him, offering advice and support.

He knew she’d supplemented dozens of kids’ college educations, gave both money and time to several charities and ached for the one thing she’d lost—a family.

To his way of thinking, the fault was Sandra’s. Not for running away, but for insisting that Charity not have anything to do with her grandmother. It was one thing for Sandra to hold a grudge, but she’d had no right to impose those rules on her daughter.

“I don’t know what to think,” Charity admitted.

“Give it time. Things have a way of getting clearer.”

“I ran out on Marsha. I have to say something to her. Explain.”

“She knows you were overwhelmed. That’s why she called me.”

“The neutral third party?”

“The brilliant and hunky guy who will distract you.”

Charity managed a smile. “Oh, right. Silly me.” She straightened. “You’re right. I need to give it time. This has been a huge shock and I don’t have to do anything about it right now. I can live with the information, then decide what it means to me.”

“An excellent plan.”

The smile faded. “The worst of it is, I can’t get closure. Not totally. Sandra’s gone and I can’t go back and ask why she never told me about my grandmother.”

“She had her reasons,” he said carefully, not wanting to step into anything unpleasant.

“Stupid ones.” She stood. “Okay. I need to get back to work. That will distract me.” She lightly kissed him. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You didn’t have to come after me. I would have been fine.”