“I think you feel the same way. But both of you are too chicken shit to do anything about it. Often the things that scare us the most are the ones that have the potential to change our lives. But if you open your heart and believe your happiness can happen, it will.”
I wasn’t so sure about manifesting happiness, but she wasn’t wrong that something about Merrick terrified me, and not the way he wanted to keep people at a distance. But I thought she was off base that Merrick had feelings for me—well, the feeling of lust, maybe. That’s all it was.
Kitty smiled. “You don’t believe me, even though a part of you wants to. I’ve had my share of gentleman friends over the years, but there was only one love of my life. You know how I knew my Redmond felt the same way?”
“How?”
“I kept catching him watching me when he didn’t think I was paying attention. My guess is you might have already noticed it once or twice with my grandson, but you haven’t been ready to let yourself consider the meaning.”
I had caught Merrick watching me once or twice, but he was an attentive man. It was a large part of the reason he was so successful.
When I didn’t say anything, Kitty patted my hand. “Humor me. Next time you’re in the same room with him, don’t pay him any mind. Then look over at him when he doesn’t expect it. I’d bet my house that you’ll find him already looking at you.”
Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of Merrick grumbling from the other room. “Damn airlines.”
Kitty lowered her voice and leaned forward once more. “One more thing—I’ve changed his diaper. You won’t be disappointed. Sometimes zigging and zagging not only finds you a new path to take, but it makes getting there a hell of a lot of fun, too.”
• • •
Merrick swiped his cell phone off. That was his third call to the airline since this morning, and it was now going on three in the afternoon. “They finally have my luggage in Atlanta.”
“Oh good. Are they delivering it?”
He shook his head. “Not if I want it sooner than one to three days. They’re backed up, so I’m going to have to go to the airport to pick it up.”
“Oh, that stinks. Do you want me to take a ride with you so you don’t have to park? I can drop you at the terminal and circle while you pick it up and come back.” I looked through the sliding glass doors that led to the lanai. Kitty was sitting with Marvin, both her casted and booted feet up on his lap. They laughed about something. “I think her stud muffin can take care of her while we’re gone.”
Merrick groaned. “Please don’t use the words stud and grandmother in the same sentence.”
“Oh yeah. Of course.” I grinned. “Do you prefer I call him her rocket ride or boy toy?”
“You’re going to be over my knee again in about two seconds.”
Does he think that’s a deterrent? Just the opposite.
Marvin slid the glass door open. “I’m going to cook the four of us some dinner tonight—a stick-to-your-ribs, southern meal.” He looked back and forth between us. “You’re not those types who only eat rabbit food, are you?”
I smiled. “No, neither of us is vegetarian.”
“Good.”
“Marv, are you planning on staying here this afternoon?” I asked. “Merrick needs to run to the airport to get his luggage, and I was thinking of taking the ride with him, but I don’t want to leave Kitty unattended.”
“I’ll be here taking care of my girl all day. She’s got a Zoom call with one of the new relatives she found on Ancestry later, and I like to read the Sunday paper from cover to cover. So take your time. It’s a beautiful day out there.”
I nodded with a smile. “Okay, thanks, Marvin.”
A little while later, Merrick and I borrowed Kitty’s car and headed to the airport. He drove while I looked out the window, feeling a lot of emotions. When we came to the Buckhead exit, I pointed. “I would be living somewhere out there if things hadn’t derailed between me and Christian.”
Merrick’s eyes slanted to me before returning to the road. “You were going to live down here?”
I nodded. “Christian is from Atlanta. I think I told you we met when we were both students down here. We moved up to New York so he could work for a few years at his family’s corporate headquarters, and I did my internship there. But he wanted to move back after our wedding. His company has a huge research-and-development facility down here that he was being trained to run.”
“Is that what you wanted? To live down here, I mean?”
I shook my head. “Not really. I like it down here, but I love New York, and I wanted to be near my sister. I always imagined we’d have kids at the same time and they’d grow up together.”
“Yet you were going to move anyway?”