“Oh,” Hailey sighed. “No…it’s just a word that means…”
“I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, Sugar,” Grant cut her off in his best southern drawl.
Hailey turned to Grant, her cheeks red and her eyes wide. “Get in the truck,” she pointed.
“Gladly,” Grant enunciated as Hailey herded him out the door.
There was complete silence until both truck doors were closed.
“I can’t believe you,” Hailey spoke slowly, letting each word linger.
“Me?” Grant protested.
“Grant, she is an old woman!” Hailey exclaimed. “And your grandmother, no less!”
“She hates me, which effectively negates the last part of your argument!” Grant shouted. “And she’s got all her sense; didn’t you hear that? Stop defending her, or I’ll have no choice but to believe you enjoyed her attempts to hook you up with my dead brother who would have been sixteen years older than you but is apparently still a better catch than I am, despite the fact that he’s deceased!”
“Grant, take a deep breath,” Hailey sighed as she slid the keys from the ignition.
“What are you doing?” Grant snapped.
“I’m not riding with you when you’re like this,” Hailey shook her head. “And, by the way, it really upsets me when you speak so flippantly about your brother.”
Grant slapped the steering wheel with an open palm. “I’ve been told my whole life that I won’t live up to the legacy of perfection he left behind; everybody else might conjure a contrived, soft, reverent tone every time they mention the sacred name of their immortal prototype for all mankind, but I don’t feel obligated to strive for or honor his fraudulent superiority. ”
“Grant,” Hailey rubbed his arm, using every ounce of her energy to remain on an even keel. “They remember him as our age. He is frozen in time as an eighteen-year-old. When they look at you now, they see the him they have thought about every day for the past sixteen years. That’s what happens when someone dies…suddenly people only remember the good; sometimes the good even gets amplified in their minds. Everyone’s guilty. I do it too. I never even knew my mother, so every trait I have conjured up in my mind about her could be completely false. She may as well have been a fairy godmother instead of a real live woman for all the imaginative what-ifs that dance around in my head. I can’t even imagine ever being upset with her, and that’s not real…”
Grant opened his mouth, prepared to unleash a linguistic masterpiece on the psychological implications of pseudo-retention, but he knew Hailey would probably appreciate it if he brought the topic of conversation back to more immediate relevance. “I was showing restraint you know,” he huffed.
“That was you showing restraint?” Hailey laughed dismissively.
“Yes!” Grant screamed.
“Grant,” Hailey said softly, trying not to let on that she had been fully aware of and rather impressed by his considerable level of restraint, though she felt he had a long way to go. “Sweetheart…I don’t want Ike. I’m not looking for someone like Ike. I’m not looking for anyone else. I don’t want anyone but you.”
“Thank you,” Grant nodded, fully aware that he was pouting now.
Hailey smiled. “I do, however, expect you to go in there and apologize.”
“For what?” Grant exploded.
“You’re a smart boy; I will let you figure that one out,” Hailey nodded.
“Why would I apologize? I’m not sorry,” Grant shrugged.
“All I’m saying is that you didn’t have to be rude,” Hailey shook her head. “We didn’t have to leave Granny Miller’s house in a huff.”
“We haven’t left!” Grant pointed.
Hailey cracked a smiled.
“Besides,” Grant shrugged, “I figured you didn’t want to hear Granny pushing your father on a married woman any more than I did.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “Grant, she’s wrong; she usually is, but I’m a big believer in the old adage that sometimes it’s less about what you say and more about how you say it. You have a very sharp tongue when you get angry. I’m not asking you to apologize for how you felt, just how you chose to convey it. You have to learn to let people’s ignorance go…otherwise you always end up making yourself look like the bad guy.”
“I ignore a lot; I put up with a lot,” Grant defended himself. “It’s just that when I’ve had enough, I’ve had enough. I don’t care what Granny, her little friends, and, by this point, the gathering lunch crowd at Maude’s, think about me!”
“Hmm,” Hailey wrinkled her nose. “Feels a little like de ja moo!”
Grant rolled his eyes. “You mean de ja vu?”
“Nope,” Hailey quipped. “De ja moo…the overwhelming feeling that I have heard this bull before!”
Grant couldn’t hide his grin, and, when he laughed, Hailey saw dimples that looked too innocent.
“I’m not mad at you, Grant,” Hailey shook her head. “Not at all. I get it. I do. But, for your sake, I want you to go in there and apologize.”
“Hailey, I don’t want to,” Grant whined.
“Please,” Hailey nodded. She rubbed his arm encouragingly. “I know it’s hard, but you need to do it. You are not responsible for how anyone else behaves, but the standard of behavior you hold yourself to…the way you react…the way you chose to respond… is totally in your power.”
“I don’t really think this is in our best interest,” Grant sighed.
“You’re gonna need to explain that one,” Hailey wrinkled her nose.
“It’s hard to explain,” Grant shook his head.
“Well,” Hailey sighed, “now they are staring at us from behind the curtains, so please articulate an explanation in the next two seconds, or get in there and apologize to her.”
