“Why the hell not?” Elana asked, her brows pinching. The cashier mumbled the total. Elana kept her eyes on Gloria’s face while she handed over a credit card.
“It’s nothing.” Gloria was quick to shake her head and play down her feelings of inadequacy. “I’m…I don’t really know what I am in this situation. She wasn’t wrong about me not having any experience with children.”
Elana huffed, signed for her purchases, and dropped her credit card into her purse. “I’m not sure about that.” She then paused at the door to address the cashier, throwing a clipped, “Thanks, hon. And listen, you smile through this day and you’ll be much happier for it,” over her shoulder.
Outside, Elana strode to a kick-ass white convertible and stowed the bags in the minuscule trunk. Once behind the wheel, she took her time weaving through the back roads of Evergreen Cove.
“Groupies are a dime a dozen, sweetheart,” Elana said. “Asher’s dad used to be in a rock band in his twenties. Did you know that?”
“Ash mentioned it.”
“He never made it big-time, but that didn’t stop the local girls from trying to get into his pants.”
Gloria smiled at Asher’s mom’s frankness. “And did they?” She pushed her hair away from her face, whipping in the warm lake air as Elana took a curve smoothly.
“Fuck no! He had me.”
Gloria chuckled.
“And Asher has you.”
She didn’t know what to say to that.
“I know all about you, Gloria Shields,” Elana said to the windshield, her hair blowing, sunglasses on. “He’s been chattering about you since the first time he met you. Smart, intimidating, beautiful, and a badass.” She spared Gloria a glance. “That’s an exact quote.”
Words. There were no words for this conversation. Gloria focused on the road and kept her lips pressed together.
“You don’t think you’re good enough to care for Hawk?”
Since that was a direct question, Glo didn’t have a choice but to answer. She did so with a shrug and a head shake.
On Endless Avenue, Elana parked in front of Sugar Hi and put her convertible in Park. She arranged her hair in the vanity mirror and said, “Let’s discuss this over dessert. I sense this is going to be a long answer. And I intend for you to share everything with me.”
*
Gloria cradled her coffee mug and eyed the crinkled wrapper that once held a Devil Dog. She ate every last bite of it while Elana had chosen a carrot cake cupcake that looked equally luscious.
“Okay, let’s hear it.” Elana sipped her coffee.
“Where to start?” Gloria asked her mug. She imagined being questioned by Elana Knight was a lot like being captured by the KGB. If she tried to lie, Elana would know.
“Where are your parents?” Elana asked.
Ah, so they were starting with the ugliest topic of all. Elana wore a no-BS look on her attractive face, eyebrows lifted in genuine curiosity. Gloria had no idea why she trusted this woman. But she did. And so she decided to tell her the unvarnished truth. A rare occurrence considering Gloria rarely opened up to anyone, but in Elana she sensed a kindred spirit.
“My father died of a drug overdose when I was twelve. My mother’s recreational use became a daily habit and eventually, because I stopped showing up at school, Children’s Services found out she was unfit and took me away at age sixteen.”
“Foster care?” To her testament, Elana hadn’t flinched.
“Yep. I had three homes over the next year and a half. By then I’d aged out or, well, close enough.”
“Were they abusive, your foster parents?”
Gloria shook her head. “They weren’t. I sensed that they were more interested in the paycheck from the state than in reforming a misbehaving teenager, but that’s fair. I was not a good girl. I’d sneak out at night. I had a lot of boyfriends.”
Elana’s head moved up and down in a subtle nod. Her intense stare was unnerving.
Glo averted her gaze to her hands wrapped around her cooling coffee and tapped the porcelain with her fingernails. There it was. All the ugly. She braced for judgment.
“And you think this makes you unqualified to be with my grandson?”
“Well, it’s not in the plus column,” Glo said with a wry smile.
“Yeah. It is,” she snapped. “Sounds to me like you know exactly what not to do with a child.”
“I’m…sorry?”
Elana sounded almost angry, which threw her.
“What not to do is often more important than what you do,” Elana said. “I bet you would never ignore a child, especially if he was misbehaving. I further wager you’d avoid getting too close unless you knew for sure you were going to be in that child’s life long-term.” She sipped her coffee. “If you’ve been avoiding spending time with Hawk, maybe you should reconsider.”
“I haven’t avoided him,” Gloria said, feeling her face grow warm. She hadn’t exactly been actively seeking a relationship with him, had she? “Not on purpose,” she mumbled.
“You’re nuts about him, aren’t you?” A sly smile played on Elana’s lips.
“Hawk?”
“Well, that’s an eventuality.” Elana waved a hand. “I’m talking about Asher.”