Page 87 of The Dangers of Daydreaming

Finn

Iwasfixingtheroof when I got the call.

It was stupid, but we’d had a little storm and several shingles had come off, and I didn’t want a single thing added to Gram’s plate, so there I was, on top of the roof, when I saw her name flash across my phone.

Dread pooled in my stomach. Gram had been sending me updates two or three times a day until I could get there to visit, but she didn’t usually call. Why was she calling?

I couldn’t wait till I got off the roof. I needed to know now, even if it was bad news.

My fingers answered the call and pressed the phone to my ear in a dreamlike state. “Gram?”

“Finn! He’s… he’s awake!” Gram’s voice was halting and wet from sobs or hiccups or something, but her words were clearly heard.

“He’s awake?”

“He’s awake!”

I jumped to my feet, tossing the hammer to the side and making for the ladder propped against the side of the house with nimble feet. “I’m coming! I’m on my way now, I’m—” My shoe caught on a loose shingle, and I tripped on my feet, stumbling forward. My phone flew from my hand, over the edge, and my arms pinwheeled.

It was hopeless. I tipped over the edge, the wind pushing against me as fruitlessly as my attempts at grabbing the ladder. Then I hit the ground.

Chapter 29

Making Progress

Lucy

Ifrowneddownatmy phone, which was still completely lacking in messages at seven that night.

“Everything okay?” Mom asked from across the table where she was tucked under Brian’s arm.

I looked up, chagrined to be caught checking out of the conversation.

“Is it Finn?” she asked. One of the first things I’d done after getting home Friday evening was call my mom. It was a mark of motherly love that she’d not questioned my sudden increase in interest but just accepted it and let me move myself slowly back into her life.

So when she’d called and asked if she and Brian could take me out to celebrate the promotion, I’d been able to actually happily say yes, expecting a little, but not a lot, of awkwardness.

Which was the big news I was waiting to share with Finn—I’d gotten the promotion! Shannon had brought me into her office at four o’clock to offer me the position. Then she’d told me I had the weekend to form my team, and Tuesday morning, they wanted us to hit the ground running.

And yes, there was a pay increase. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t looked at that number and thought about how much easier it would be to visit Finn with a salary like that.

I was overjoyed. Thrilled. I’d stopped and bought myself a cake on the way home, even. But the excitement was a little dampened by the fact that I couldn’t get ahold of Finn. Was everything okay?

“Yeah,” I said in a belated response to my mom’s question. “It’s not like him to be this unreachable.”

It was another mark of my mom’s complete acceptance of me that she didn’t point out that I’d only been reacquainted with Finn for two and a half weeks. She seemed to understand that sometimes we get a crash course in getting to know someone, and that some connections are just immediately deeper.

Which was nice of her because, logically, I was still a little in shock over the whole thing. Several of my cousins were, too. Namely, Avery, but honestly, had she met her own fiancé? None of us liked that guy, but she was still planning to marry him in August. At least Chloe was happy for me. That was probably because she was in her own little love bubble right now after her crazy second-chance romance story. I was attending her going-away party in a few days—going away to move across the country with her boyfriend.

Meanwhile, my own romance story was giving me second thoughts already. Small ones… but still. Had my imagination gotten ahead of me in thinking this thing we had going was more serious than it was? Was it possible Finn had finally cracked and realized he didn’t want to do long distance? Had he found another fling in the next tour group?

My heart twisted at that, but that wasn’t like him. I wasn’t going to believe the worst.

I’d just like him to answer me.

“Have you tried calling the B&B? Maybe they know if something’s going on?” Brian suggested.

“Oh. That’s a great idea that I probably should have thought of.”

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