Page 60 of The Dangers of Daydreaming

Finn looked at me. “What do you say? Wanna grab a bite to eat?” His eyes were laughing with hidden meaning.

“I’m actually pretty full, but thank you for the invitation,” I demurred.

Finn bit his lips together.

“Sit down, you two,” Gram said, not unkindly, and Finn crossed the room to push the recliner closer to the bed for Gram and grabbed a couple of hard-backed chairs for him and me. He put them close together, and I moved mine a little away as I sat.

It was a pointless attempt, though, because the second my butt hit the chair, he grabbed one of the legs and pulled it back next to him.

I couldn’t look at him. I was sure his eyes were either laughing or smoldering, and I was growing helpless to either.

Thankfully, Finn’s grandpa chose that moment to speak. “Miss Lucy, Finn has told us a lot about you.”

So much for not looking at him: my eyes flew to Finn’s. This time, he was the one avoiding my gaze.

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Harrison said with a smile reminiscent of his grandson’s, “all good things. I understand it’s pretty coincidental that you both ended up here after knowing each other in junior high. Finn tells us you have quite a love forAnne of Green Gables.”

It wasn’t really a question, but he’d paused to take a bite of mac and cheese, so I felt like it was the right thing to do to respond. “I do. Though to be totally honest, I can’t see how anyone couldn’t. I consider it a deciding factor in whether a person is a good human being or not if they like Anne.”

Finn’s grandpa laughed. “Do you just work that into your first conversations with new people, then?”

“Oh, yeah. ‘What do you do for work? We’ve had a lot of rain lately. And what are your thoughts onAnne of Green Gables?’ It’s fairly easy, no finesse needed.”

The man chuckled, taking another bite.

“Have you both lived here your whole lives?” I asked.

Finn was the one to answer, his shoulder up against mine when he leaned closer to share the information, though not strictly necessary—I could hear him just fine from a whole two inches away. “They met on the mainland at college and moved here after my dad was born.”

Gram smiled. “Imagine our excitement when Finn went to the very same college. It was like coming full circle. Dropping him off was such a treat.”

“What did you study?” I asked him. Despite how close we’d gotten in the last week, there was still so much I didn't know.

Finn didn’t answer right away.

“He graduated with a degree in biochemistry and pre-med,” Mr. Harrison said. His pride was clear. “Refused to sit through the ceremony, though, so we hardly got to celebrate.”

“You didn’t tell me that.”

Finn was watching his grandparents, a guarded expression on his face. “Well, you know, those ceremonies are long and boring,” he told me. “I didn’t see the point.”

I whacked his leg. “I mean that you got a pre-med degree.” I gasped. “Youended up as big a nerd as me!”

Usually, I would have gotten a good laugh out of that, and I did. But not from Finn. He just gave me a halfhearted smile.

“And why didn’t you go to med school?” He’d said that his goal growing up was to be a doctor, but not that he’d gone so far as to get an undergraduate degree headed straight for it.

He shrugged.

“He came back to help us,” Gram supplied. It was a whole lot easier to get answers about Finn with these two around, but still, Finn was looking strangely uncomfortable.

Did he just not like talking about himself? Had I not realized how incredibly shy the guy was? He was always so charming and extroverted, but maybe he hated having attention on him.

“Of course, he could still go back. It’s only been a couple of years since he graduated.”

Finn gavehis grandma a tight smile. “Yep. Hey, anyone up for some old people games?”

I gave him an assist with the topic change. “Old people games?”

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