Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
“Have a cup of tea with me, Layla,” she said.
Gray closed the front door behind us. “What? I’m not invited for tea?”
“You’re invited to make the tea. You stopped being a guest in my home when you were in diapers. Now mind your manners and go put on the kettle. Rustle us up something to have with our tea. I think there’s some biscotti in the cabinet to the left of the refrigerator.”
Gray looked from Etta to me and then back to Etta. “Fine.”
I found it amusing how such a large, dominant presence like Gray was easily transformed into something totally different by this woman. Their interactions were interesting, to say the least.
Etta walked over to a chair that sat across from a couch. “Come, dear. Sit. We don’t have much time.”
Something told me she didn’t mean time was limited because Gray and I had to get going for work. Curiously, I took a seat across from her.
She smiled warmly at me before beginning to speak. “Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Gray can be a real asshole.”
My eyebrows jumped. “Wow.” I laughed. “I’m not sure what I expected you to say, but it certainly wasn’t that.”
“I passed the age where you stop to think about whether it’s appropriate to say something or not a long time ago.”
“I appreciate that. I’m actually pretty direct myself.”
“I know. That’s one of the things that first attracted Zippy to you.”
I’d suspected by her reaction when we were introduced that she knew something about me, and something about my history with Gray.
“Gray told you about me?”
She opened the drawer on the end table next to her and lifted out a thick batch of rubber-banded envelopes. “You were in every letter since the day he walked into that library and saw you. Can’t visit a prisoner unless they put you on their visitor list. The little shit wouldn’t add my name; he didn’t want me to see him in that light. But he wrote every week.”
“I didn’t know. That’s very sweet.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Grayson is sweet. He’s made some poor choices, didn’t have the best role models in life, but he’s not the man you think he is.”
“Not to be disrespectful, Etta, but how do you know who I think he is?”
She nodded with a smile. “I was married for more than forty years before my Henry passed away.” She looked over to a framed wedding picture on the wall, and her eyes softened. “He was a charming man. Could talk the pants off of any woman. This woman included. We met at The Plaza Hotel—literally walked into each other in the lobby. He was new in town, and the two of us hit it off pretty well. He’d told me he’d never had a serious girlfriend before. About a month or so after we became inseparable, I found out he’d been married. I’d say that was about as serious of a girlfriend as you could get, wouldn’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Anyway, to make a long story short, I stopped seeing Henry after finding out he’d lied to me. Later, I came to find out Henry had been in a car accident with his wife. He was at the wheel, and she’d died in the wreck. They’d only been married a few weeks. He held himself responsible for it, even though the accident wasn’t his fault. Unable to shake the memories in the small town they’d lived in, he’d relocated to New York, where he’d grown up, and left everything behind. It was too painful for him to talk about, so he just pretended it never happened.”
“That’s so sad.”
“It is, isn’t it? The best thing I ever did was give Henry a chance and hear him out. He’d lied to me. But sometimes people tell lies for reasons other than keeping the truth from us. Sometimes those lies are to protect themselves.”
“I don’t know, Etta. Gray’s wife didn’t die. I can’t imagine what reason he could have to justify a lie like that. It wasn’t like we had a normal relationship. We couldn’t go out to dinner or the movies. All we had were long talks and truth. That’s why it really hurt when I found out he was married. I spent all day on Saturdays visiting him for a year after my six-month teaching assignment was over. He had every opportunity to talk to me.” I took a deep breath. “Besides, I’ve moved on. It honestly took me a really long time to do it. But I did. And now I’m dating a great guy.”
She reached over and patted my knee. “Okay, sweetheart. I don’t want to upset you. I just wanted you to know that I’ve known the man all of his life. And he’s as loyal as they come. In fact, that’s what got him into trouble. You’re as lovely as he’s said you were in his letters. I hope you’re happy, dear.”