It seemed to take the entire family to get Hannah and Nolan into the Range Rover, which Lincoln drove with Molly riding shotgun. Despite the teasing and bickering, every one of her siblings left to follow them to the hospital. Thankfully, it wasn’t snowing tonight, so they’d have clear roads.

“I need to be there,” Elmer said.

“I’ll take you, Dad,” Grayson’s mother said.

“Won’t say no to the company. It’s not every day a man becomes a great-grandfather for the second time.”

“Pictures,” Izzy said. “They’re going to need pictures.”

“Come with us, hon,” Hannah said to her daughter.

“Keep us posted,” Grayson said as he and Emma saw them off.

“You’re not coming?” his mother asked.

“I’ll help Emma with the dogs.”

“Right,” Hannah said with a twisted little smile. “The dogs.”

Grayson shut the door and locked it.

“She hates me,” Emma said.

“What? Who hates you?”

“Your mother.”

“She does not.” He put his arm around her and led her back to the family room. After he settled her on the sofa, he stepped around the game night carnage and threw another log on the fire before joining her. “Why do you say that?”

“It’s the way she looks at me, like I’m some sort of calculating gold digger out to land a daddy for my daughter.”

His smile lit up his eyes. “Are you a gold digger looking for a baby daddy?”

“No! I don’t need any of those things from you or any man.”

“I know that, and you know that, which is what matters.”

“It matters to me if your mom doesn’t like me.”

Sighing, he combed his fingers through his hair. “It’s not you. She has a twisted view of all things romance after what happened with my dad and then with Noah. She never liked the girl he married, and then she did exactly what my mother expected her to and hurt him badly.”

“What happened between them?”

“We have no idea. One minute they were happily married, or so we thought, and the next she was gone. He’s never spoken of it to any of us, but he’s different than he used to be.”

“How so?”

“He’s extremely withdrawn and antisocial. Even though he lives right down the street from Mom, she hardly ever sees him except at holidays and perfunctory visits in which he says nothing much of anything.”

“That’s sad. It sounds like he’s heartbroken.”

“Maybe so.”

“Have you tried to talk to him?”

“Many times, to no avail. When I was still in Boston, I made a pest out of myself, calling him all the time and talking about nothing for a few minutes. At least it was something.”

“It probably meant a lot to him.”