Legal Seagull

Chapter Sixteen

Somewhere amid the rolling hills of Iowa, we finally settled into our drive. In fact, I didn’t even argue when Octo-Cat asked to listen to his audiobook a second time.

“I just want to make sure I’m one hundred percent prepared to woo and wow my love, Grizabella,” he explained with a contented sigh.

And it could have been a byproduct of just how boring it was to drive on the expressway for thirty-plus hours at a stretch, but the things Dr. Roman was saying actually started to make sense the second time around.

Romance is a verb because it requires action.

On the surface level, Charles battling the seagulls on my behalf wasn’t exactly romantic. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was the best gift he’d ever given me. In just about a week’s time, I could be standing face to face with my long-lost biological grandmother, and it would be because Charles had stepped up to help.

I owed him one heck of a souvenir from Boulder, although I already knew nothing could come close to what he’d already freely offered me and my family.

“Nan,” I asked after internally debating whether I should broach this topic at all. Ultimately, I knew it would eat at my insides until I finally let it out. “Are you sure you’re okay with me reaching out to my other grandmother?”

She was the one driving now, and as much as I didn’t want to upset her by talking about difficult topics, I just couldn’t get this particular one off my mind. If anyone could understand the need to let it all out, it was my nan. She had a habit of letting it all hang out—for better or for worse—and her choosing to share my secret with her online friends was even more proof of that. Still, as angry as I was with her for that, I would never voluntarily hurt her feelings. I needed to know I had her blessing for whatever happened next with my bio grandma. I needed to hear her say it was okay and to believe her when she said it.

Nan clenched the wheel so hard her knuckles turned white. Not a good sign. “It was wrong of me to keep her from you for this long. I just hope you and your mother can one day forgive me for that.”

“We already have,” I promised, placing a hand on her shoulder so she could feel all the love I had for her, still and always.

She sighed and adjusted her grip on the wheel, returning her knuckles to their usual pale flesh color. “You, maybe. But it will take your mother a bit longer, I’m afraid.”

“I’ll talk to her,” I insisted, my voice strong and sure.

“No,” Nan snapped, which startled me.

“No?”

“She’s right to be angry. In fact, I’m surprised you aren’t more upset with me, dear.”

“You did a bad thing, but you did it for the right reasons.” The truth was I just didn’t have it in me to be angry with her. At least not for the long term. I’d already worked through all those feelings and was ready to move forward. Nan, however, seemed to carry a heavy burden of guilt that had only gotten heavier as the years passed.

“Maybe at first,” she agreed, tightening her grip on the wheel once more, “but I acted selfishly all the same. When she came searching for Laura in New York and your grandfather and I chose to run away rather than meet her face-to-face.”

“But how could you know what she wanted? Or whether she’d press charges? Heck, even why Grandpa McAllister lied to you in the first place?”

I still remembered that autumn evening when Pringle had offered the stolen letter that revealed Nan wasn’t my grandmother by blood. She’d been tricked into taking my mother at her oldest and best friend’s request. Once I learned about this, Charles and I tried to track the old man down, but it was too late. He’d already passed, leaving the reason behind his actions a mystery that only the wronged mother—my real grandmother—could illuminate for us.

While terrible, none of these revelations made me love Nan any less. She’d raised me. She’d given me nearly thirty years of true unconditional love, had always been my biggest support and my closest friend. Maybe our family started as a lie, but it had grown into something much more.

I longed to meet the missing woman who shared my DNA, to give her some kind of closure and offer back a small part of what had been stolen from her, but not if it hurt the one person who mattered most in my world—Nan.

“I didn’t know,” she said hardly above a whisper. “But I also didn’t try very hard to find out. I fell in love with your mother from day one, and that was that. I would have done anything to keep her with us.”

“We’ll find out soon. Bravo will make sure of it. He says he’s been following her for even longer than he’s been following me, and he’s had his eyes on me ever since I first met Octo-Cat. When he leads us to her, we can ask why William would have done what he did. I’m sure he had his reasons, whatever they were.”

Nan shrugged, but the tension in her form remained. “I accept whatever happens next, and I’ll support you and your mother as you repair your family.”

“She can’t replace you. That’s not why we want to meet her.”

“I know.” Nan flashed me a sad smile, then returned her focus to the road. How I wished I could hug her right now, but my words would have to be enough until we made our next pit stop.

“I love y—”

“I’ve gotta make!” Octo-Cat yowled at the top of his lungs, completely ruining the emotional, heartfelt moment. “I’ve gotta make! Pull over, pull over! I need my litter box, and I need it now.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. Leave it to the cat to make everything about himself every second of every day. “Nan, can you stop?”

She chuckled. “I may not know what he’s saying, but I can definitely tell it’s urgent.” She changed lanes and pulled to the shoulder without delay.

“Do you need the pee pad?” I asked as I unbuckled myself.

“No, I need my litter box,” he insisted, his voice cold with fury. “And if you don’t give it to me, I’ll go right here in the car, and you’ll have to smell it the rest of the trip.”

Wonderful. While I normally wasn’t one to negotiate with terrorists, Nan’s poor car had already been through enough.

I was also emotionally drained from the tender conversation we’d just had.

So I gritted my teeth and set up Octo-Cat’s box with a thin layer of litter. We could toss the soiled bit at the next rest stop and pick up a fresh bag once we reached Colorado if needed.

At least we were more than three-quarters of the way there. Then again, we were only three-quarters of the way there! We still had several more hours to go, even though it felt like it had been at least a week since we set off yesterday morning. Seriously, we hadn’t even reached our destination, and already I’d had more than enough of this road trip.

Admittedly, he’d come a long way since our first couple of drives together. He could even handle the trip without being dosed with sleepy medicine. Those things helped, but being locked in a tin can with him for hours on end would never be pleasant, no matter what precautions we made.

All this meant that next time Octo-Cat wanted to see Grizabella, she could come to us. And if he wanted to go anywhere else, we’d be flying—and that was that.