"Let me know when the coast's clear and I'll come over."
They disconnected and Olive turned to Gram's house just as the front door opened.
"You're finally here!" Gram cried, wiping her hands on the same floral apron she'd worn for as long as Olive could remember. In the blink of an eye, she was being hugged by arms much frailer than they'd ever been, but no less fierce or short of love. She held on tight, smiling because, as always, her grandma smelled like roses and vanilla and childhood dreams.
"Oh, honey, are you a sight for sore eyes..." Gram's face tightened with worry. "But about your room—"
"It's okay. Katie told me about your renters. I'll sleep at her place, but are you okay? If you're short money, I can—"
"No, I'm good. Really," she promised. "The Bunco girls are planning a trip to Hawaii this winter. Renting out the extra rooms seemed like a great way to get the money. I hear about these great mai tais, and how at a luau you can watch hot men dance while they twirl firesticks every night." She smiled and gently patted Olive's cheeks. "Oh, I've missed you."
"Missed you more." The words were woefully inadequate.
"Before I forget, have you talked to Mom or Dad? Yesterday was our monthly check-in call, and they didn't answer or call me back."
Gram shook her head. "They're probably traveling to some festival or craft fair to sell their wares and forgot. Remember last year when they went to Burning Man? It was two weeks before they remembered to check in." Holding on to Olive's hands, she spread their arms out. "You didn't have to dress up for me."
In her sundress, denim jacket, and wedge sandals, Olive wasn't all that dressed up. But she supposed, compared to the secondhand clothes she used to wear, she looked very different. She'd eventually learned to dress the part of the polished, elegant, self-reliant, successful woman she'd wanted to be. In her line of work, image was everything. Image and confidence. Which, let's face it, she was still working on.
"You look fantastic, but you also look worried."
"I am. For Katie."
"Of course. But it's also more."
Olive didn't bother denying this, it wouldn't work. She was a grade A plus liar when she needed to be, after all she was in public relations, but she'd never been able to fool Gram.
Proving it, she found herself being pulled through the house and out the slider to the side yard and the patio there, where she took her first true deep breath in...she had no idea. She hadn't realized until this very moment just how much she'd been missing the stability Gram always provided.
"Sit," her grandma said. "I'll be right back with the cure."
"Mew."
Olive looked down and found herself being stared at by a tiny gray-and-white kitten with slightly crossed blue eyes. "Well, hello." She reached for her, but the little thing hissed and backed away. "Tiny but mighty, huh? I come in peace."
"Maybe you do, but she most definitely doesn't," Gram said, coming back out. "She's a stray, just appeared out of nowhere yesterday. I'm calling her Pepper because she's so spicy."
"She's so thin."
"I know. I've been putting out food and water for her. And I'm about to do the same for you."
Olive turned to Gram and laughed because the woman had a tray of milk and cookies, just like the old days.
Gram grinned. "I do love the strays."
Olive dipped a cookie into her mug of milk, watching it carefully because it was a fine line between not enough soakage and too much soakage.
"Is it your job stressing you?" Gram asked. "I thought you loved living in the UK, running your own company."
Olive thought about that as she leaned over her mug, and yet still managed to dribble milk down the front of her dress. Awesome. "I do love it, both London and being my own boss."
Gram expertly lifted her perfectly soaked cookie to her mouth without getting a single drop of milk on herself. "While you're here, I could use your skills at the senior center. We're trying to expand and need funding."
"Happy to."
Gram smiled. "And the boyfriend? What's his name again? Ian? The one who gave you a pretty bracelet."
No, Ian had given her emotional whiplash and a headache with a splash of trust issues after he'd cheated on her with some one she'd thought was a friend. She'd bought herself the bracelet after she'd dumped him. "I'm...seeing someone new."
"Oh, that's wonderful," Gram said. "What's his name?"
