The Bad Boy's Girl (Now Available as a Paperback and ebook)

Chapter Seventeen: Don't Strip On Top Of The Pool Table Nana

Dedicated to xxLastSummerxx for the banner on the side. It's s beachy/sea side cuteness and fits this chapter perfectly <3

Chapter Seventeen: Don't Strip On Top Of The Pool Table Nana

The members of the Stone family, well at least the ones I know are not the kind of people who subject themselves to conformity. Growing up, I always found it rather odd that Sheriff Stone was so strict and disciplined while the rest of his family were anything but. Nana Stone was far from being a sweater knitting, cookie baking, slobbery kiss giving kind of grandmother. Her husband always seemed as if he were the older version of Cole himself. They even looked alike so it wasn't really a surprise that they were like two peas in a pod. When his Grandpa died, Cole lost his partner in crime. I remember my heart breaking for him. I remember the funeral, where he silently shed tears. A thirteen year old boy had just lost his best friend and it didn't matter how I felt about him, I still wanted the tears to go away.

I think about our pasts as we drive through an obviously elite beach town. It's kind of like the Hamptons but the glamour is more subdued. It looks like the kind of place where the extremely rich would come to retire. I can see the ocean from the car window and the large Spanish villa style houses that line the streets. It's beautiful, of course it is but everything screams money and it's kind of confusing me.

That's not the only thing that's confusing me right now.

"What do you mean she ran away?"

"I mean exactly that, damn that crazy Nana." Cole slams his fist against the steering wheel and hangs up on whoever he's talking to. His free hand is still clutching mine and while I'm all for caring about his escape artist Grandmother, I cannot for the life of me concentrate on anything but the small touch. Oh boy, we've only just established this thing between us and I'm already turning into the psycho from Swimfan.

"So you're saying that she knocked out her caretaker and busted out from the senior's home after stealing said caretaker's car?"

I find it a little hard to believe that a sixty-five year old woman is capable of doing all that. I mean seriously, she might be a Stone but even they aren't invincible.

"I told her to wait for me; I would've gotten her a much better car than that beat up old Mustang."

Ha! He's not mad that his elderly grandmother ran away from a facility which obviously provides excellent care, he's mad that she made a poor choice of car to steal. Who says I know boring people?

"Well then, since you obviously were going to help her you'll know where she went. Problem solved, call your dad and tell him everything's fine."

Sheriff Stone had called us about half an hour ago. Apparently he'd been informed that his mother attacked an employ before busting out, oh and stealing a car. He's fuming and he thinks Cole somehow assisted her. That's where I came in, I told him feeling absolutely mortified that Cole had been with me for the better part of last night and today. Obviously, things got really awkward really fast and he dropped the subject. When he found out that we were on our way to meet Nana Stone, in some cruel twist of fate, he asked her to find her and take her back to the Home.

Cole, it turns out has done this a few times. He's a Nana Stone whisperer and whenever she pulls a stunt like this, he's more or less involved in the process. He knows how she thinks, so if she's hitchhiking her way to Texas, we'll find her.

"It's not that simple Shortcake. If she didn't wait for me, then she's obviously planning something big. She knows that in the end I'll tell my dad where she is because we all worry about her. She doesn't want to be found."

He squeezes his eyes shut, tapping fingers against his forehead as if willing for the answers to suddenly come to him. I've known Nana Stone for a long time but even that doesn't qualify me to figure out where on earth she is. It's one thing to help her carry water balloons to the terrace to throw on the mailman but it's another to pinpoint her location after she runs away. The woman is an enigma that I can say honestly.