Page 29 of The Dangers of Daydreaming

“Do you need any more water?” Lucy suddenly asked, looking down at Gram’s again-empty cup.

“No, thank you.”

Lucy stood, taking the plastic cup and walking to the trash cans. But she kept talking. “Every day, it seemed our poor heroine would have to come face to face with her nemesis in one way or another. If he wasn’t teasing her for using too big of words or making fun of her red hair, he was spoiling the endings of novels she was in the middle of.”

“How was I supposed to know you weren’t aware that Dumbledore died in Harry Potter? Everyone knew!”

Lucy didn’t even comment on my breaking the vow of silence, rounding on me with flashing eyes. “It had come out just that summer! I hadn’t read it yet because I wanted to reread the rest of the series first!”

“Ooof, still a lot of pent-up anger over that, huh?”

“Understandably, I think.” She crossed her arms as she lowered herself back into her chair.

I looked to Gram for support, and she hooked a thumb at Lucy. “I’m with her on this.”

I gasped. “Against your own flesh and blood, Gram?”

“Those puppy dog eyes won’t work on me here, mister. You owe this girl an apology.”

“It’s been over a decade!”

She just quirked a brow.

I sighed, turning back to Lucy. She was watching me expectantly, her own brows lifted, evidently enjoying my reprimand.

I was, too, but I’d never tell. “Lucy—hey, what’s your middle name?”

“Rose,” she said, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why?”

“If I’m going to apologize, I’ve got to do a good job of it.” I cleared my throat. “Lucy Rose Sinclair, I am terribly, deeply, horribly apologetic for what I’ve done. Though it may be in the past, the pain I caused is ever present, and I wish I could—”

“Much as I enjoy this wholly insincere apology, I think I’m good now.”

“But I thought you liked elaborate apologies. Isn’t that something your Sarah of Blue Fields would have done?”

Her look could have killed a small animal. “It’s Anne of Green Gables. You should know, you ruined my copy of it.”

“Ruined?” I scoffed.

“Yep.” She turned to Gram and prepared to turn the sweet old lady against me. “Turned over the corner of the page I was on—a huge crease. Didn’t stop there either; he folded over about twenty more pages, too. And his excuse?” Her eyes cut to me, and I was glad to see she seemed just as entertained by her retelling as I was. She wasn’t actually still mad at me, that much was clear, and I was surprisingly relieved at that realization. “Hedidn’t want me to lose my spot.”

“It was true.”

“All twenty-three spots?”

“I was marking your favorite parts. You came back from your bathroom break before I could finish, or I’m sure you would have seen the pattern.”

“You’re hopeless.”

I was going to comment on her newest term of endearment, but Gram was watching us, her head moving back and forth, and her smile a little too wide. Plans were spinning in her head, I could just tell. Sure, I was attracted to Lucy, who wouldn’t be? But if my grandma got involved, it would become a lot more than a little flirting and catching up.

So, before she could impose her schemes on me and my love life, I stood up, hands in pockets. “I’m going to find a nurse and see if we can get an update.”

Lucy’s head was tilted as she watched me, but I avoided her look, turning to Gram. “She can malign my character without interruption now. But I beg of you not to believe her entire smear campaign.”

Gram shook her head with a much smaller smile now. “You forget I helped raise you. I bet I could give her a slew of my own stories.”

Now that almost made me pause and sit back down. What if she broke out baby pictures? My ninth-grade dance photo was enough to send any woman running. But instead, I said, “Have at it, ladies. I’ll get you some paper and a pen to properly map out my miscreant past while I’m gone.”

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