Ladies' Night by Andrews, Kay (popular books of all time .TXT) 📕

Wyatt rolled his eyes. “We gave your mom a schedule of all the games at the beginning of the season, son. I’m sorry she yelled at you, but I’ll call her later and we’ll get it straightened out.”

“Dad, Mom made me put Granddad on the phone when she got done talking to me. And he got super, super angry. He was yelling and saying bad words. Some of it didn’t even make any sense. Now he’s breathing kind of funny. Dad, can you come back? I’m kind of scared.”

“I’ll be right there,” Wyatt said firmly. “Don’t be scared. You did just the right thing to call me. We’re just over at the plant nursery. We’ll be back at the house in five minutes.”

Wyatt stood and pulled his shirt over his head. Grace dressed hurriedly, straightening her hair, and packed the wine bottle and glasses in the brown paper sack.

“Do you want me to stay on the phone with you while we ride back?” Wyatt asked. Grace climbed onto the seat of the golf cart, and a moment later they were rocketing down the path.

“No, that’s okay,” Bo said.

“Where is Granddad right now?” Wyatt asked. “Is he awake? What’s he doing?”

“He’s just staring at the television, talking to himself,” Bo said. “It’s okay now. He’s not dead or nothing.”

Wyatt laughed, despite himself. “That’s good news. I’m on the way.”

“Bye.”

Grace gripped Wyatt’s arm. “I heard part of that. What’s the problem? Is your father okay?”

“To quote my son, ‘he’s not dead or nothin,’” Wyatt said, his facial features taught. “Callie called to ream Bo out because she missed his game today. Then, after she’d finished making him feel like crap, she got on the phone and picked a fight with Dad. She knows just how to push his buttons. Apparently, he was yelling and ranting and raving at her, and of course Bo overheard all of it, and, naturally, it got him pretty worried. He says Dad is breathing funny, just staring at the television, talking to himself. Bo’s a smart kid. I think he senses that Dad is starting to slip a little, and he’s protective of his grandfather.”

“Thank God for that,” Grace said. “And thank God we weren’t far away.”

*   *   *

“I’ll just pack up my stuff and get out of your way,” Grace said, as the cart approached the double-wide.

“No! This is not how I wanted the evening to end,” Wyatt said. “It’s probably nothing. I’ll get Dad calmed down and pack Bo off to bed. It’ll be fine.”

“You need to spend time with them, not worry about me,” Grace said. “We can have other nights.”

“Really? When? We both work all the time, and the rest of the time, my life is like this,” he said, pulling the cart beneath the carport. “Just stay a few minutes, please? Just ’til I get these guys sorted out.”

“I don’t want to be in the way,” Grace protested.

“You’re not in the way. I promise,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Your being there will probably make Bo feel a little better. He likes you.”

“He just likes my dog,” Grace said, laughing.

“Whatever works.”

Bo met them at the door. He was dressed in his pajamas, and his freckled face looked worried. “Don’t tell Granddad I called, okay?”

Wyatt leaned down and hugged his son. “It’s a deal.”

He walked into the living room, where Nelson sat rigidly in his recliner, muttering incoherently. His face was pale except for two scarlet patches on his cheeks. The television volume was turned all the way up.

Wyatt touched his father’s shoulder. He found the remote control and turned the television down. “Dad? What’s going on?”

Nelson didn’t look up. “That woman got no right to talk to me like that. No respect. No morals. I told her that, too. Told her it looks bad for her son, her living in sin with that man. Did I cuss her out? Hell yeah, I cussed her out. Do it again, too, next time.”

Wyatt sat on the sofa. “I’m sorry Callie got you so upset. I’ll talk to her about that. But maybe it would be better if you just didn’t speak to her at all.”

“She called me!” Nelson shouted. “Didn’t even know she was the one on the phone until Bo said his mom wanted to talk to me. I told Bo to tell her I was asleep, but she could hear me, and she insisted Bo give the phone to me.”

“What did she want?” Wyatt asked.

“What she always wants. She wanted to raise hell with me. Wanted to know where you really were. If you were out with your new girlfriend. She claimed you didn’t tell her about Bo’s game because you wanted your girlfriend to go to the game instead of her. I told her if you did have a girlfriend it was none of her goddamn business. Then she wanted to know why Bo wasn’t in bed, since it was after nine, which is his bedtime at her house. I told her it was Saturday night and there’s no school tomorrow and I didn’t give a tinker’s damn what time he went to bed at her house.”

Nelson’s voice was rising, his breathing getting shallow. He waved his arms as he shouted, and from the corner of his eye, Wyatt saw Bo, standing, wide-eyed in the doorway. A moment later, Grace was behind him, gently shepherding him into the kitchen.

He leaned forward and grasped his father’s arms, forcing the old man to look at him. “Okay, Dad, calm down. I am going to have a discussion with Callie and her lawyer, and tell them that she is not to talk to you anymore. All right? This isn’t your fault. But you need to settle down. Did you take your blood pressure meds this morning?”

“What? Hell, who remembers that long ago?” Nelson grabbed for the remote control, but Wyatt held it out of his reach.

*   *   *

Bo sat at the kitchen table, clutching Sweetie in his