CHAPTER 14

GIA

While I’d been excited to see Tristan, I hadn’t missed the cool way that Navy had greeted him nor the way he’d been eyeing him all through breakfast.

I guess it would take time for him to see that Tristan was nothing like Julian. I’d been relieved when he’d left with Bas, Derek, and the children to help sort out the loft in the barn for next weekend.

Tristan knew me well though and the first thing he said as Navy left was, “Don’t be hard on him, G,” Tristan smiled, “he doesn’t know me and as far as he’s concerned, I left you and Gram to rot for nearly a year. I’ll speak to him. I like that he’s so protective of you and he’s not wrong. I should have tried harder to get in touch.”

“It’s not your fault, Tris, I should have realised he’d use my phone. It’s good to see you though, catch me up with everything.”

Tris had just started to fill me in when Gram appeared in the doorway. Hurriedly, he got up to go and greet her.

Her eyes filled with tears when she saw him. Shakily, she lifted her hands up to his face when he reached her, “Oh, baby boy. It’s so good to see you. We’ve been so worried about you.”

Tris wrapped his arms around our grandmother and hugged her close. The stark relief on both their faces made tears well in my eyes. How could Julian have done what he did? He’d worried us all for no reason other than he was a greedy bastard who was too lazy to work for his money and instead thought he could steal it from his siblings.

Ugh, just the thought of him made me so mad.

Tristan helped Gram to a chair before turning to Hetty, who was hovering in the doorway.

Walking over to her, he took her hands in his, “Thank you, Hetty, for looking after them for me. I’m deeply indebted to you. Anything you need, you just let me know.”

“Pshaw, Mr. Tristan,” Hetty waved him off, “it was nothing. I was in the right place at the right time, that’s all.”

“Still, thank you, Hetty,” Tristan insisted. “Now how about you fill me in so that I know what’s been happening and we’ll go from there? Although it seems G’s husband has everything in hand,” Tristan winks at me with a grin.

“Gia certainly lucked out catching his eye,” Gram agrees. “Navy and his family have been very helpful. It pains me that it’s my blood that’s causing all this trouble.”

“Not just your blood, Gram,” Tristan assures her, “it’s mine too, and he’s a bloody idiot. I’m not sure what he’s playing at but he’s not going to win. I only have a few more months until I’m finished at university. In that time, Gia can run the business for me. From what I understand from Derek, Navy is more than qualified to help her. I’ll be able to take over next May once I’m done with my degree and I’ll be twenty-one by then.”

We spent the next few hours hashing out a plan. Tristan got in touch with the lawyers and the board members to update them on what was happening. We had a meeting booked for the next morning with the lawyer.

By the time we were done with everything, it was lunchtime. Hetty had left us to it and had said she would help Aggie in the kitchen. Between the two of them, they set a feast on the table. Navy, Bas, Derek, and the children came back from the barn absolutely filthy.

Hope sent them to wash hands and faces but that was it. I loved that she didn’t make them go and change and told her that. She’d just shrugged and said it was pointless; they were just going to get dirty again when they went back to cleaning the barn loft out after lunch.

Lunch was much the same as breakfast, loud and filled with laughter. So different to how Tristan and I’d grown up.

“This, G, is how family is supposed to be,” he whispered in my ear.

Turing to my little brother, I rested my forehead against his. “It can still be, Tris; we’re not going to be like them. This is how our families are going to be,” I reassured him.

Navy wrapped a heavy hand around the nape of my neck, squeezing gently. Patting Tris’s hand, I sit back in my chair, smiling at Navy when he gave me a concerned look. Whatever he saw in my eyes had him relaxing and going back to teasing his niece and nephew.

Not long after that, they all left to go back to get things sorted for when Navy’s MC family would arrive. Tristan went with them. Hope and I said we’d clean up and shooed Hetty and Aggie away. Hetty went with Gram to help back to her room, where she said she was going to take a little nap. I was concerned about her health, and we’d managed to get an appointment for her with a doctor later that week. Realistically, I knew a lot of it was her age. She was nearly eighty years old, and she hadn’t had her medication for the last two months. I was hoping once we got her back on them that she’d perk up a little bit. Until then, all we could do was keep an eye on her.