Broken (4 page)

D
inner with Grant was fantastic
. Bella enjoyed a real home-cooked meal for the first time in a long time. She hadn’t had a lot of home-cooked meals in her life. She and Lori had been bumped around from house to house in foster care, and most of their stand-in parents weren’t much for cooking.

Without a mother figure in her life, Bella had missed out on being taught to cook. She’d always wanted to learn, and maybe one day she would. Now that she was Ethan’s mother figure, maybe she needed to do just that.

“Where did you learn to cook?” she asked Grant after polishing off her second bowl of chili.

“My grandmother is an amazing cook, so she taught me a bit. Slow-cooker meals are not really ‘cooking’, though. This was easy,” he said as he cleared the table and rinsed a few dishes in the sink.

“As little as I know about cooking, a slow-cooker meal would be like something from a five star restaurant,” she said giggling. Ethan had left them alone after dinner, opting instead to watch cartoons on Grant’s tablet computer in the living room.

“Care for some wine?” he asked.

“Sure.”

Grant poured two glasses of white wine and handed a glass to Bella. “Why don’t we sit in the den where it’s more comfortable?” he asked. “Ethan will be fine in the living room. He seems occupied,” he said laughing.

Ethan was giggling out loud as he watched videos. Bella was so happy to see him smiling again. Maybe feeling like he was part of a family for a night would be good for him. Tomorrow, he would go back to reality like she would. They were alone, and they only had each other.

“So, tell me how Ethan is doing. I mean, aside from slugging other kids,” Grant said with a slight smile.

“Well, I hear him crying at night in his room sometimes. I try to give him his space, but let him know that I am always there for him. This is so new to me, and I don’t know if I am doing it right. I’m thinking about finding a good counselor for him, just so he can express any feelings he needs to talk about.”

“You couldn’t do it wrong as long as you show him love and compassion. That’s all any kid really wants,” he said taking a sip of his wine.

“Yeah, I know that all too well,” she said under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing. So, tell me about yourself. How long have you lived here?”

“Three years, and don’t change the subject, Bella.” A mischievous grin slid across his face as he waited for her to explain.

“I don’t know you well enough to start spilling my life story,” she said raising one of her eyebrows.

“How well do you have to know me?” he asked tilting his head at her. Why did she want to tell him?

“It’s getting late,” she said as she stood up.

“Please don’t go. Ethan is enjoying himself. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” he said standing up. “Plus, I don’t get a lot of company.”

“Really? I would think you’d get a lot of ladies over here,” she said, smirking as she sat back down.

“The singles scene in Madison Falls is pretty lackluster.”

“I saw a VFW down on Main Street. Maybe you could go to some of their dances,” she said, snickering.

“You’re quite witty, huh?”

“I try. So, tell me your story, Mr. Brady.”

“Grant.”

“Okay, Grant. What’s your story?”

“I haven’t known you very long…” he repeated her words back to her.

“Very funny.”

“Fine. I have nothing to hide,” he said not knowing how she was being eaten up inside keeping the secret of her two years in the porn industry. “Married at twenty-two to my college sweetheart. Lasted three years, and we divorced three years ago. Moved back to Madison Falls to be closer to my grandmother who basically raised me.”

“What went wrong?” she asked hoping that his honesty would continue.

“She slept with my best friend from college.”

“Yikes. Sorry. What’d you do to him?”

“What makes you think I did anything?” he asked, taking a nervous sip of his wine.

“Because I know you did. You don’t strike me as the type of guy to just let something like that slide.”

“I broke his nose. And I’m not proud of it,” he said, trying to hold back a grin.

“You kind of look proud of it,” she said, kicking her foot at his leg. Both of them broke down into hysterics.

“Okay, I was proud of it when I did it. I guess that’s why I thought Ethan’s little situation was pretty funny.”

“Well, don’t tell Mrs. Dalton that,” she said. “I don’t think she has very high hopes for me as his guardian.”

“Mrs. Dalton is a little uptight. Take her with a grain of salt.”

“I can’t take anything with a grain of salt. My life suddenly became very serious, very quickly.”

“I know. I can’t imagine how much of a change this has been for you. I remember Lori saying that you were working for some make-up company out in California, right?” he asked. She knew it was an innocent question, but it made her stomach twist in knots.

“Right.”

“Don’t you miss working there?”

“Of course. But, Ethan comes first. Besides, I have a job down at the coffee shop.”

“With Miss Roslyn?” he asked with a big grin.

“Yes. I love her. She’s fantastic.”

“That she is,” he said, getting up and taking her empty glass.

“Well, I’d better get home and get Ethan in bed. I have to figure out what to do with him for the next week while I have him at home and no way to get to work. Talk about roadblocks.”

“I might be able to help you out with one thing,” he said.

“And what is that?” she asked as she stood up and followed him to the kitchen.

“I have an extra car in my garage that you could borrow… on one condition.”

Condition? She was used to men having conditions, and she doubted she would like his any more than theirs.

“Condition?” she said flatly.

“That you come back for dinner tomorrow night,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I’ll show you some real home cooking.”

“You drive a hard bargain, but I suppose I can do that. And thank you, for everything.”

“You are more than welcome, Bella. Just being neighborly.”

Grant woke up Ethan who had already fallen asleep on his sofa with his tablet computer on his stomach. He carried him across their two yards and helped Bella get him inside. She quickly tucked him into bed, leaving his clothes on.

“Listen, I’ll pull the car out in the morning and gas it up for you. It will be in the driveway in the morning, and I’ll just put the keys in your front flower pot,” he whispered. “It ain’t much, but it’s a safe, reliable car until you can get Lori’s fixed.”

“I can’t say thank you enough. For the ride, the dinner, the car… and the company. This was the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” she said smiling as she leaned against the door frame.

“Then you need to get out more often. It was nothing, really,” he said. “Good night, Bella.”

“Good night,” she whispered as he backed up and walked across the yards. She didn’t know why, but she felt so much safer knowing Grant Brady was just two doors away from her.

A
s expected
, Bella woke up the next morning to find a car in her driveway and keys in the flower pot. Just by talking to him for one day, she could tell that Grant Brady was definitely a man of his word, and she was very thankful to have that kind of new friend in town.

She got ready for work and woke up Ethan so he could eat breakfast. Since she hadn’t yet done her full grocery shopping, she had very little to serve him. Still, she managed to find a box of microwaveable waffles in the very back of the freezer. When she had gotten custody of Lori as a teenager, Bella had to learn how to make something out of nothing when it came to food in the house, so she could certainly do it this morning. Some of her concoctions were less than stellar, but it was food.

As she drove Grant’s car to the coffee shop, she looked around for clues that would tell her more about him. The car was immaculate, just like his house, and he had a brand new air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror. In the city, they might call him “metrosexual”, but in the country he was just a clean cut, good looking, reliable man you could bring home to Mom.

“Morning, Roslyn,” Bella said as she walked into the coffee shop with Ethan trailing behind her. Thankfully, she had spoken to Roslyn after Ethan went to bed, and she was okay with Bella bringing him to work for the week. Sharon had agreed to pick him up when Howie got out of school each day and take him to her house for the last couple of hours of Bella’s shift.

“Morning, Bella. Hey there, Ethan! I’m Miss Roslyn,” she said, kneeling down to shake Ethan’s hand. “I understand a kid said some very unkind things to you at school?”

“Yes, ma’m,” he said looking down at his shoes.

“Well, let me tell you something. When I was about your age, my Mommy died too. And do you know that I still have such wonderful memories of her even today? I mean, I’m a pretty old gal, but I can still smell her perfume sometimes. So, nothing that silly boy says to you can ever take away the magic of your mother in your heart. Understand?” she asked rubbing the side of his arm.

“I understand,” he said.

“Now, how would you like a nice cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows?” she asked.

“That’d be great!” he said as he ran over to the table in the corner and put down his back pack. Bella was requiring him to do some extra work while he was off school.

“How did you know about what the boy said?” Bella asked Roslyn cocking her head. Although she had told her that Ethan was suspended for a week, she never told her the whole story.

“A little birdie told me,” she said with a wicked grin while she made Ethan’s hot chocolate.

“Huh?” Bella said, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as she tied on her apron.

“Scooter!” Roslyn yelled out when the coffee shop door opened. With a big grin, she walked around the cash register and embraced a man who had just walked through the door.

“Grandma,” he said as he hugged her. Bella, who was wiping up some spilled coffee, looked up to see Grant standing there. In utter confusion, she looked at the two of them as if she was watching a tennis match.

“Grandma?” she asked, looking at Grant.

“This is my handsome grandson, Bella,” Roslyn said putting her arm around Grant.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked Grant.

“I thought it’d be more fun this way,” he said with a laugh as Bella lightly punched him in the arm.

“What brings you down here, Scooter?” Roslyn asked.

“Grandma, please don’t call me that in front of people. You’re ruining my reputation around here,” he said bumping Roslyn’s shoulder. Bella was still standing there with her mouth agape trying to get her bearings.

“Why do you call him ‘Scooter’?” Bella asked with a grin on her face.

“Don’t…” Grant instructed his grandmother to no avail.

“When he was a baby, he would scoot on his butt all over the place. He was too lazy to crawl, so he scooted until he could walk,” she said, slapping her leg with a laugh.

“Scooter. I love it,” Bella said, tapping her finger over her bottom lip as if it was a great idea to start calling him by that name.

“Anyway…” Grant said, trying to change the subject.

“I’m sorry, honey,” Roslyn said, reaching up to pat his head. Bella felt a pang of jealously course through her veins when she saw the interaction between Grant and his grandmother. How she longed for that kind of relationship with anyone in the world. Even though she was close to Lori and Ethan, she’d never really experienced that love between parent and child or grandparent and child. Her mother had loved her, but she was single and working and busy much of the time. She had no grandparents, so she often thought about how wonderful that feeling would have been to watch her grandmother bake cookies or make her a pot of chicken soup when she was sick.

"So what are you doing here? I thought you were at school," Bella asked.

"Well, I was, but we have a teacher work day today, and I got finished early. Did you forget about the work day?"

"I guess I did. Of course, this whole mothering thing is brand-new to me." Bella looked at her watch and was surprised to see it was already ten in the morning. She had come into work later than normal since Roslyn was trying to help her out with Ethan’s suspension situation.

"No problem, I figured you forgot. I just wanted to come by here and see what time you'd like to eat dinner?" he asked. She had almost forgotten that she’d promised to eat dinner at his house again.

"How about around six o'clock?" she responded.

“Sounds good.”

“Scooter, you’re cooking for Bella?” Roslyn asked, cocking her head a bit.

“Yes, ma’m. I’m going to show off my culinary skills,” he said with a wink as he kissed Roslyn on top of the head.

“He was always my best cooking partner, Bella. You and Ethan will be in good hands,” she said, smiling at him as she moved back behind the counter to wait on another customer.

“I’d better let you get back to work. I know what a bossy little lady she can be,” Grant said, nodding his head in Roslyn’s direction.

“Yeah, I’d better get back. Thanks for stopping by,” she said, trying to act unaffected by the fact that he had come by just to see if she remembered dinner.

“See you tonight, bud,” he called out to Ethan who was deeply immersed in a comic book he’d brought from home. Ethan waved with a grin and went right back to reading. “See ya later, Bella,” he said in a husky voice that made her legs quiver.

“See ya. Oh, and Grant, no more secrets, okay?” she said pointing at him with a forced scowl. He chuckled and nodded as he pushed the glass door open and went to his car. She wasn’t sure what the odd feeling was she had swirling around in her stomach, but she knew he did things to her. Things that she refused to allow. Bella didn’t let people in, because when she did, they hurt her. As far as she was concerned, if you never loved, you never lost. She loved her mother and lost her. She loved her sister and lost her. Loving Ethan was terrifying enough, but she would not put her heart out to any man.