Page 80 of Hopeless Romantic
Paisley stopped sanding and met his gaze. “Why would you say that?”
“Because your voice just rose into an octave that only dogs can hear.”
She smirked. “I’m getting a cold.”
“Now you’re just compounding lies. Your mom used to do that whenever she got caught in a lie.”
“According to her, she only got caught because you ratted her out. Are you going to rat me out?”
Bingo. Right on target. Again. Gray and Emmitt really needed to take daughter-reading lessons from him. “As long as you always tell me what’s going on, and stop hiding things, my lips are sealed.” When she sighed with relief, he asked, “So, who is he?”
“Oh my god.” Her eyes went wide. “You do know everything.”
Not really, but he had been a teenager once upon a time, and he could vaguely recollect what motivated him to change his mind back then.
“This is true,” he lied. “Plus, I used to be the guy who convinced the girl to go on the overnight field trip. So I know exactly what’s behind your sudden change of heart. What’s his name?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it and refocused on attacking the stairs with the sanding block. “I never admitted there was any guy.”
“You might want to work on that innocent routine before you talk to your dads about the trip again, since it’s on the same weekend as the bachelor party.”
“All the better,” she said. “They’ll be forced to let some other parents chaperone for a change.”
“I don’t see that happening.”
“You guys are so overprotective.” The earlier whine reentered her voice.
“We’re involved, not overprotective. There are a lot of kids who would give their right arm to have parents as involved as us.”
“And kids are starving in other countries—I get it.” She looked up and met his gaze. “But I can handle this, seriously. I just want to go skiing with my friends. And yes, one of them is a boy. And he’s age-appropriate. Not that it matters, since boys and girls have to sleep in different cabins.”
“Same rules as when I was a junior. And guess what, all I had to do was go around back and tap on the girls’ window.”
“I won’t do that, I promise. And it’s only one night. For gosh sakes, I’m going off to college in another year. This would be a chance to let me get the feel of it.”
“To see how you handle it?”
She snorted. “No. To see how you guys handle it. I’m going to handle it just fine.”
Levi laughed, and they both got lost in their work for a while.
“Some of my friends are getting jobs this summer,” she said, and Levi knew she’d just dropped the bait.
“You’re about that age,” he said, knowing where this was going. Knowing why that uneasy feeling settled in his chest, as if he were losing something precious but gaining something more.
“I thought it might be fun. Getting a summer job.”
“You’ve got that trip to Europe in July. And then there’s also club soccer.” Which he’d coached since Paisley was six. It was the one place he still had some relevance in her world.
“I don’t have to do club soccer to play. I’ve been playing on varsity since I was a freshman.” She squinted into the sun, her hair coming loose from her ponytail and blowing in the wind. No longer the little niece who always loved to tag along. “I’m helping Yiayia with this scrapbook she’s making. It’s mainly pictures of Mom. Did you know that she backpacked across Europe the summer before college?”
“You’re going to Europe, this summer. With your dad and Annie.”
“Which will only make it easier when I go with Owen,” she said. “We both know he’s MIT bound, and I don’t know what I want to do yet. So we thought it would be cool to take one last big trip together. Like Mom did.”
“Have you told your dads this?”
She sighed. “Not yet. But I was hoping you’d be there when I did.”
