Chapter 9 - GRANDMA COMES WHEN YOU ARE BUSY
After the counseling session, Lily refused to leave with Grant.
She did not cry or throw a tantrum. She simply stood beside Taylor’s car and held the door handle.
“Mommy’s taking me.”
Grant crouched in front of her. “You’re supposed to stay with me this week.”
“Grandma comes when you’re busy.”
The sentence contained no anger, which made it worse.
“I won’t call her again.”
Lily looked at him with the careful expression of a child deciding whether an adult understood his own promises.
“What if somebody’s heater breaks?”
Grant had no answer that would erase the previous winter.
He allowed Taylor to take her.
That evening he sat alone in his workshop, staring at a furnace control board he had repaired hundreds of times. He connected the wrong wire twice.
Shortly before midnight, Taylor texted.
Lily wants the blue mug. She won’t sleep without it.
Grant drove across Colorado Springs with the mug wrapped in a dish towel on the passenger seat.
Taylor opened the door wearing sweatpants and socks. The hallway behind her was dim except for Lily’s night-light.
“She’s asleep,” Taylor said.
Grant held out the mug.
Taylor took it but did not close the door immediately.
“She used to ask me to keep every door cracked,” she said. “I thought it started because we separated.”
Grant looked down the hallway. Lily’s bedroom door stood open two inches.
“I should’ve listened.”
“Yes.”
“I should’ve believed you.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know how to fix what I did.”
Taylor’s face softened, but not into forgiveness.
“You start by not asking Lily to make you feel better.”
Grant nodded.
He stepped onto the porch.
“Taylor.”
She waited.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry because you finally understand.”
“Yes.”
“I needed you to be sorry when understanding was a choice.”
She closed the door gently.
Grant sat in his truck for a long time, watching the porch light.
May you like
For three weeks he had blamed Taylor for treating him like a stranger.
Now he understood that strangers were often safer because they had not spent years insisting they knew you better than your fear.
