Page 34 of Hopeless Romantic
“Then don’t tell people my business,” Paisley said, accelerating to a whopping twenty-five in a thirty-five zone. “Gawd, now if I fail, Yaya will know I failed.”
“Tell her she’ll do just great,” Ida said from the floorboard.
Levi picked up the phone. “Now’s not a good time, Ma.”
There was a beat. “Should I call her phone instead?”
“No.” He turned to Paisley. “Grandma says you’ll do great.”
Paisley leaned over to yell into his phone, pulling the steering wheel with her. “Thanks, Yaya! Love you!”
“Love you too, Sweet P,” Ida said, and when Levi didn’t relay the message, because he’d reached out and grabbed the wheel to angle them into the center of the lane, Ida got stern. “Tell her.”
“Mom, she needs to focus on driving.” On how close to the curb she was again. Or, perhaps, the guy behind them who kept flashing his brights.
Satisfied that Paisley had things under control for the moment, Levi turned and lifted an apologetic hand. The guy lifted a well-deserved finger their way.
“She needs to know her grandmother loves her.”
“Grandma loves you,” he passed along.
“Love you too!” P said, again with the swerving.
“Okay, really gotta go.” The stop sign ahead of them was getting closer by the second, and he needed to make sure she stopped.
“Oh, okay.” Which was followed by a long, impatient sigh. “I can tell you have your hands full—I didn’t mean to be a bother. I’ll let you go.”
Knowing his mom was lonely and missing Michelle, he asked, “Did you need something?”
“Now that you mention it. Someone accidentally moved my pink craft box to the top shelf in the basement.”
“I did. You wanted to make room for your holiday things and asked me to move it to that exact spot.”
“Because it was Christmas. Now it’s spring. What am I going to do with holiday-themed supplies in spring?” she wondered aloud. “My pink box has spring-appropriate supplies that I need before my scrapbooking class tomorrow.” She let out a long-suffering sigh. “But I don’t want to bother you, since things arecrazythere. I’ll find a way to reach it myself.”
“No, Mom.” God, the last time she got out the ladder, Levi spent three hours in the ER while she had her head stitched up. “I’ll come over after I drop P off at home.” Which would eat up any time he might have had to swing by his boat and change into a shirt that wasn’t sweat-soaked before the dinner rush.
“If you feel that strongly about it, I’ll wait. Be sure to drive safe and ask Paisley how her day was. When I dropped off her lunch this afternoon, I got a feeling something was wrong. And you know how accurate my feelings are.”
After successfully predicting three Powerball numbers in a row, Ida began telling people she had “the sight.” It didn’t matter that she hadn’t purchased any of the three lotto tickets, or that she hadn’t successfully predicted anything since.
“Will do. And don’t even touch the ladder,” he said, ending the call before Ida could talk him into putting her on speaker so she could ask Paisley herself.
“What happened to the twenty bucks you got for lunch?” he asked Paisley.
“How do you always know everything?” she accused. “Are you on the dads’ text thread?”
“Yes, but I was referring to the twenty I gave you last night.”
“Oh, right.”
“Who else gave you money?” And how long had she been fleecing him?
“No one. And how do you know I didn’t spend it on lunch?”
“Because you’re a terrible liar.” She got that from her mom, since her dad was a world-class liar. “And Yaya told me she brought you a hot meal for lunch today.”
Her eyes remained locked on the road. “I can’t talk about this right now. I need to focus on the stop sign ahead.”
