Page 14 of The Dangers of Daydreaming

Then her shoulders drooped. “I’ve been planning and calling places all day, trying to get into tours. Half of them are closed for the weekend, and several are booked. I…” Her nose scrunched up, and she sighed. “Yes, Finn, I would really appreciate it if I could join your tour group.”

I stood, clapping my hands on my knees as I did. “Perfect. We leave tomorrow at ten a.m.”

She pressed her eyes closed, and I thought I read relief on her expression before they popped open again. “Thank you. I’ll be ready.” And, shock of all shocks… she smiled at me.

I wasn’t going to tell her that tomorrow was a tour stop not at all related to Lucy Maud Montgomery. She hadn’t asked and maybe it was a little mean but… I wanted to spend more time with Lucy Sinclair. Because, as I stepped from the room and the weight of the evening dropped back on me like a heavy backpack, I realized that I hadn’t thought about the problems with Pops and the farm once during our conversation.

That was the kind of distraction I needed. And I only felt a twinge of guilt to use Lucy that way. But I settled my guilt with the thought that knowing PEI in its entirety would be useful to her.

She just might not agree.

Chapter 5

Potatoes and Plans

Lucy

Thecloudless,sapphireskycould have entranced my gaze, or the long grass waving in the breeze, or the glittering ocean water… but I was too mad.

I tried again to, unsuccessfully, catch Finn’s eye. He was straight up ignoring me. And by the smirk playing across his lips, he was enjoying it.

I crossed my arms against the chill in the breeze—it was the least of my problems. The biggest one at the moment was that I had just spent the last hour and a half traveling to this location and another touring the West Point Lighthouse. Which was beautiful and stately and had some fascinating history to it but had NOTHING to do withAnne of Green Gables.

Dang it, Finn. I should have expected a trick like this: offering to take me on tours, but conveniently not mentioning that the first tour would be of zero help to me.

At my breaking point, I stalked toward Finn, ready to interrupt his conversation with Mrs. Hastings, the cute little (emphasis on little) old matriarch of the Hastings reunion, when my phone started ringing.

I pulled it out and looked at the screen in relief. Finally. Turning, I found a bench and sat, answering the call.

“Ellie.” I felt like a mom trying to keep the reprimand out of my tone, but still having plenty of disappointment bleed in.

A harried voice came through the phone. “Ms. Sinclair, I just got your messages! I was out all weekend, and I don’t know what happened. I swear I made the phone calls—I have the bank transactions to show that your car and hotel went through, but no matter what I search in my email, I can’t find the confirmations anywhere!”

The poor girl sounded close to tears, and the frustration bled out of me.

“Ellie, it’s okay, mistakes happen. Why don’t you send me over what you have, and I’ll look into it? Maybe it was a scam site—those are becoming more and more common.” And were something that I should have warned her about. Management material at its finest. “Don’t worry about me, I was able to get a place to stay.”

“And the rental car?”

I opened my mouth. Sure, I had Finn offering to chauffeur me around, but after this little prank of his, I wasn’t putting all my eggs in his basket. “I do still need one of those. Try to find a place between the Seaside Barn and Breakfast and the West Point Lighthouse; I’ll pick it up on my way back from this tour I’m on.”

There was some shuffling on Ellie’s end, then tapping on keys as she presumably started pulling up car rental locations.

“And, Ellie?”

“Yes?” Background noise on her end halted as she gave me her full attention.

“I’m going to teach you how to fill out a reimbursement form. I need to be reimbursed for the charge of this bed-and-breakfast I’m staying at.”

“Yes, okay, I can do that. Just tell me what to do.”

I explained the basics, including a file in the company database listing everything for reference. I could mentally see her nodding along, her brunette ponytail bobbing.

“Also,” I added as we were about to hang up, unable to help myself, “double check for confirmation on the rental car booking.”

I hoped that was a hint of amusement, not more crying when she responded in the affirmative. I shook my head as I hung up, the subconscious load of that credit card charge for the B&B lessening now that the process for reimbursement had been started. There was a red bubble on my messaging app. Oh yeah. I’d forgotten to answer my cousins the day before. I pulled open the message thread and saw more messages from them.

Sadie: You alive? It was a funny joke until you didn’t message again…

---