APRIL 12

I dribbled the ball, watching Pappy carefully. We tried to get together to hang out every couple of weeks or so. Today we'd chosen basketball, although I don't know why I agreed. I usually lost. And even though he was almost sixty, he was in really good shape.

And, sadly, he was just a little better than me at basketball.

"You're going down, Stryker," he said. "You are going to lose. You're already down by five points."

I snorted. "Whatever, old man. I'll catch up." I probably wouldn't, but I had to at least try.

He narrowed his eyes at me. Then he rushed toward me and stole the ball from my grasp. He shot, making a hoop. "Oh, look at that. Nothing but net! How's that for an old man?"

"Weak," I taunted, even though it had been a pretty good shot. "Totally pathetic."

"That's it."

Next thing I knew, Pappy was putting me in a headlock. Like I said, he was pretty strong for a guy in his late fifties. But I was stronger.

I pulled out of the headlock, once we were near the grass and not the concrete driveway, and tackled my grandfather. We wrestled on the ground for a few minutes, until I ended up on top. I kept him pinned down.

"Old person abuse!" Pappy yelled, but he had a grin on his face. "Old person abuse!"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not even putting any of my weight on you. Not really." I had just enough on him to keep him on the ground, but that was it. It wasn't like I was hurting him. He was just being ridiculous.

I could see where my mom got it.

"Old person abuse!"

Before I could say anything else, Mamie came out of the house, carrying a tray with lemonade and probably some kind of treat. She always made some kind of treat when I came over. My grandparents totally spoiled me. Not that I was complaining. I loved it.

"Arthur, stop being a doofus. If you two boys are done rough-housing, I've got lemonade and cookies for you."

"What kind of cookies?" I asked.

My grandmother smiled at me. "Your favorite, of course. Double chocolate."

"You are the best grandma ever."

"Of course I am. Now, how long do you plan to keep my husband on the ground? Not that I mind. I'm just curious."

"Merlin! You're supposed to be on my side, not his!"

I smirked. "I don't know. I'm pretty comfortable where I'm at."

"Stryker," Pappy complained.

"Oh, all right." I stood up, reaching down to help him to his feet.

Almost as soon as he was standing, he put me into another headlock and rubbed his fist into my hair. "That's what you get for tackling me," he said with a grin.

I pulled away quickly. "Brat," I muttered. "I only tackled you because you put me in a headlock. You deserved it."

Pappy just smirked and went to sit in one of the deck chairs on the front porch. Mamie and I sat down beside him, taking some of the cookies.

"So, Stryker. You're almost done with your sophomore year. Have you thought about what you want to do after high school?" Pappy wanted to know.

I shrugged. "A little bit. I would really like to do something with acting. You know, become a famous movie star or something."

Mamie grinned. "If any of my books ever get made into a movie, you'll be the first to know."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Wait a minute. Weren't you saying something last week about some production company buying the movie rights to one of your books?"

"Yes. But nothing's for sure yet. They're just talking about it. It could be another three years before the rights are bought. But, like I said, if anything happens with it, I'll let you know. Is acting the only thing you've thought about doing? You've certainly got the talent for it."

"I've also thought about teaching drama. To high school or college kids."

"You'd be good at that, Stryk. You've got the right kind of personality for it," my grandmother said.

"But I haven't decided for sure just yet. I definitely don't want to teach the younger grades. I've done enough babysitting, thanks. I don't want to work with those little kids for a living. But high schoolers or college kids, those might be fun."

Pappy poured me a glass of lemonade. "Well, you've still got plenty of time to decide. How's your mom doing with her pregnancy? And Jon's fiancée?"

"Mom's good. Super cranky, but good. Jonathan says that Charlie's doing well. She's about a month further along than Mom." I glanced sideways at my grandparents. Neither of them had seemed to be too upset when Jonathan showed up back in my life. I hadn't really talked to them much about it. "Can I ask you guys something?"

"Sure."

"When Mom and Jonathan were dating, what did you think of him? Did you like him?"

Mamie sighed. "We did like him, actually. He didn't really seem to have much ambition in life, and we would have liked it if he'd had more of a plan for his future, but he was a good kid. And he and Mac were really happy together. Until…" she trailed off.

"Until I came along," I finished for her.

Pappy nodded. "Unfortunately. We didn't really like him after that, not with the way he reacted to the news. He didn't show any kind of concern when your mother was in the hospital, the same day she'd told him she was pregnant." Mom had told me that she'd ran her truck into a pole when she was driving home from Jonathan's. I knew that she'd almost lost me, and that Jonathan hadn't talked to her since that day. "He didn't even check up on her, as far as we knew. I'm sure that he did find out if she was okay, but he probably did it secretly. I wasn't very happy with him at the time. And I was really disappointed that he wasn't facing his responsibilities."

I nodded thoughtfully. I'd never really heard what my grandparents felt about my biological father. I was actually a little surprised that they didn't seem to hold any bitter feelings toward him. Then again, what good would it have done for them to be angry with him after all this time?