Page 10 of The Dangers of Daydreaming

Chloe: Ooooh. What she asked.

Avery: Can you maybe try to be more careful?

Sadie: I demand proof of life!

Poppy: You shouldn’t have mentioned the plants… now I’m torn…

The front door creaked open, and a male voice greeted Stephanie. Then Finn ducked into the lounge area.

Somuch for not seeing him often.

His eyes caught mine, and he leaned against the door frame.

I was still gripping my phone, and for some reason, the sight of him had my stomach twisting into knots. The boy I remembered from junior high was still there, but overwhelmed by the man he’d grown into. Easily over six feet, dark hair that was styled a little longer on the top, and a great jaw not obscured by a close-cut beard.

And I was not staring. I was just waiting for him to say something.

“Got settled okay?”

“Uh. Yeah, thanks.”

He nodded. “Good.”

Silence stretched, and I shifted in my seat.

“What are the odds that we’d run into each other here?”

I lifted a shoulder. “Pretty rare, I’d guess. Thanks for… saving me at the airport.”

Don’t ask me how, but I could tell he was trying to hold back some comment about being my hero or something. To his credit, he just said, “Sorry, I see you’re busy.” He gestured to my open laptop. “I’ll only be a second; I just needed to check on the coffee table. Stephanie said one of the legs is wobbly.” He crossed the room, coming to crouch beside the table in question and lifting it to examine the legs.

I didn’t feel like I could return to work with him only a few feet from me. “So, you shuttle guests and fix up stuff around the inn?”

“Yep.” He reached around one of the legs, twisting something. “Whatever my grandparents need. I also run the tours.”

My eyebrows lifted. “You must be busy.”

He looked up, nodding at my laptop. “You too. Work trip?”

“Yeah.” I didn’t expound; half his jokes in junior high revolved around my love ofAnne of Green Gables.I didn’t need him bringing up the six months I’d spent painting freckles on my nose to look more like Anne when he learned I was here to plan an itinerary around the books.

“So, how did you end up in Canada?” Last I remembered seeing him, it had been the start of fall break in eighth grade; he’d said nothing about leaving, but had never come back. There had been rumors about his dad getting into trouble, but I hadn’t paid much attention to them because I really hadn’t liked Finn Harrison. And I didn’t enjoy all the talk about the cute, popular kid. It had been a bit of a sore spot how much everyone loved him when he was such a menace to me. Even my friends had harbored crushes on him, though they’d tried to hide it.

“My grandparents live here.”

I jumped a little. What had I asked him? “Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning that a few times at school.”

His lips stretched at that, but he didn’t need to seem so pleased with himself that I would remember things about him. After all, I recalled that tidbit because he’d made fun of my obsession with Prince Edward Island, stating that his grandparents lived there, he visited every summer, and it was nothing special.

He pushed on the table leg, and it didn’t move. Nodding to himself, he lowered it back to the ground. “And what’s your work trip for?” he asked.

I sighed internally. “I work for a travel agency. I’m here to build an itinerary. Go on tours and stuff.”

“Oh, so you have things planned?” He leaned a hip against the back of the couch as if settling in for story time. Another door opened and closed upstairs.

I, meanwhile, was ready for him to go. I didn’t know how to act around this guy that I had known, and severely disliked, for several of my formative years. “This was a bit of a last-minute trip. I’ll need to book everything here. That’s what I was about to do.”

Noise sounded in the stairwell; it seemed like the Hastings family was headed downstairs for something.

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