“I’d heard she moved away,” Silas said. “After what happened with your parents and stuff…”
“She didn’t move far away,” I said. “But she’s here in town now. I want to take you to meet her.”
The smile that crossed Silas’ face couldn’t have gotten any fucking bigger if it tried. “All right.”
“It’s no big deal,” I said, holding my hand up. “I mean, it’s not some giant thing. Don’t make a giant thing about it.”
I was lying. It was the biggest of things. I couldn’t believe I’d just offered to have Silas meet my grandmother. She’d think I was marrying him.
Silas was still grinning. “Yeah,” he said. “No big deal. When?”
“Seriously,” I said. “You’re making it a thing. I can see it in your face. Don’t. You can meet her whenever. Maybe tomorrow or something.”
“No way,” he said. “How about now?”
“Now is sudden.”
“Exactly,” Silas said. “I don’t need to give you an opportunity to change your mind.”
Nana gasped audibly, her hand over her mouth, doing her best to be as dramatic as possible. “Oh my stars,” he said. “This is Silas, isn’t it? My, my, my, look at those eyes.”
Silas chuckled. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Weston.”
“Oh, and he’s as polite as he is good-looking, isn’t he?” she asked, gesturing to the chairs in the room. “Call me Letty. Mrs. Weston makes me feel like my mother, and that makes me feel like I’m a hundred years old and I’m not quite there yet. Sit with me and visit, will you? I told you he was a young Paul Newman, didn’t I? Those eyes. Of course, I hadn’t seen you in person, just photos from your mother.”
“You were friends with my mother,” Silas said.
Letty sank into her armchair and smoothed the pant leg of her tracksuit, today’s choice a pink and purple rhinestone studded number. “I don’t know that I’d call us friends exactly,” she said. “Your mother - God rest her soul - I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead, but your mother was a...complicated...person.”
Silas made a sound that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a cough. “Complicated is a good way of putting it.”
“Well, then you know, I don’t think your mother really had friends,” Letty said. “I’m not sure she was really that capable of something of that nature. But we were good acquaintances, I’d say, on account of us both being black sheep in the town. Your family and mine, we had that in common.”
“People didn’t take too kindly to my parents and me running out of town the way we did,” I said. I felt badly about the effect we’d had on so many people.
“Oh now, I can see that worry line right in the middle of your forehead,” Letty said. “A young girl like you shouldn’t have lines already. Stop concerning yourself with things that happened years ago. I’ve always been a bit of a black sheep, well before your parents did their thing. And besides, it adds a little color to my life, having a salacious story like that-my grifter daughter and her con man husband. It ain’t hurting me a bit.”
I laughed. “Nana, I’m not sure you need any more salaciousness added to your life.”
My grandmother leaned forward and looked at Silas. “She’s talking about my active social life here,” she said, winking. “Of course, if I were sixty years younger, I’d give someone like you a run for your money, young man.”
“Oh my God, Nana,” I interrupted. “Please do not hit on Silas. Holy shit.”
“Watch your mouth,” she said, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’re the one who said you were, and I quote, fucking fantastic the last time I came to see you, Nana.”
“I’m not talking about your language,” she said. “I’m talking about your telling me to not hit on this man sitting in front of me who’s a dead ringer for Paul Newman. Or, who’s that other fellow, the young one with the blue eyes?”
“I don’t know, Nana,” I said, laughing and shaking my head. Silas leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, smirking as he watched us go back and forth.
My grandmother waved her hand. “You know who I’m talking about,” she said. “That actor. The one who plays bongos naked in his house.”
Silas laughed out loud. “You mean Matthew McConaughey,” he said. “Well, thank you very much, Letty.”
I shook my head. “Don’t encourage her,” I warned. “The next thing you know, she’ll be telling you to stand up so she can get a better view of your ass.”
“Oh, would you like me to stand, Letty?” Silas asked, smiling and feigning standing. “I’m happy to oblige.”
“You two make me out to be some kind of lecherous old woman,” Letty said.
I raised my eyebrows. “Well, you are certainly no nun.”
Letty laughed. “There’s no confusing me with a nun, that’s for sure,” she said. “Now, more importantly, this Silas. Is he your boyfriend?” She turned to me, making a show of ignoring Silas.