Page 20 of The Dangers of Daydreaming (Love Connections #2)

Only One… Hotel Room?

Lucy

I knocked on the bathroom door. “Lily? You okay in there?”

The sound that reached my ears then was not one for polite company. I suddenly felt terrible for even asking. I was drawing attention to the fact that her insides clearly wanted to be on her outsides.

Sure enough, a completely mortified voice called back. “I’m so sorry. I just feel—” It was cut off by the sound of her heaving.

I had to check myself to stop the sympathetic barfing that was about to occur.

I’d already had a close call fifteen minutes before when we’d been chatting about books and work and what life looked like for each of us, and she’d suddenly grabbed her mouth and run for the bathroom.

“Can I get you anything?” I called, my voice a little mangled.

I really should just leave. Sleep in the lobby or something.

Hit up Gemma’s room. Anything to be away from poor Lily and her even poorer stomach. For her and for me.

“No. No, I’m fine, just g—” She didn’t get to finish the sentence, but I got the picture.

She did not need an audience right now. I swiped my key card and phone from the top of the dark wooden dresser, then grabbed some crackers from my bag and a water bottle from the fridge and set them next to the bathroom door without a word.

I should have just done that from the beginning.

A knock sounded at the door. Still clutching my things, I peeked through the peephole.

Finn. Crap. I kind of wanted to avoid him after yesterday.

B etween him asking me out and me turning into a puddle about my mom’s marriage, I was feeling a little exposed and hoping some distance would create much-needed amnesia.

But I couldn’t stay in this room. The sounds from the bathroom agreed with me.

So, pulling the door back, I slipped out.

Finn’s eyes were wide when I essentially jumped into his arms. But I was just trying to get around him, and he was in the way. I shuffled awkwardly to the side, meeting his laughing gaze.

“I came to check on you guys,” he said. “I’m just going around making sure everyone is good and knows the plan for tomorrow.”

“Yes,” I breathed. “Green Gables. Eight a.m. I couldn’t forget.” My eyes slipped back to the door, grateful the sounds hadn’t followed me out here. Poor Lily.

Poor me getting to spend the night with her. Or…

“How are Gemma and Hank?”

“Gemma was already asleep when I went by. Hank was getting in bed, too.”

Dangit. I couldn’t wake them up.

“You look disappointed by that. Are you judging the old people for getting to bed so early?”

“No… I…” I heaved a sigh. I knew what I had to do. “Lily is sick.”

His brows lifted. “She okay?”

“She thinks it's just a resurgence of the food poisoning. And she says she doesn’t need anything…”

“You can’t stay with her.” He said it decisively, almost like an order. Little did he know, I needed no convincing.

“It’s probably not contagious,” I said, in a halfhearted attempt to not look desperate.

He shook his head. “I don’t care. You can’t stay with her. Get your stuff and come with me.”

I gave hi m a little salute and didn’t even pretend to fight it. I just walked mutely back into my room, closing the door behind me for Lily and Finn’s sake, gathered up my stuff, wrote a little note on the back of a takeout menu, and escaped into the hall.

Finn was waiting, hands in pockets, leaning against the far wall. The second I appeared, he pushed off and reached for my bag.

It would be easier to ignore this man’s charms and pretend he was still the junior high tease I’d known if he stopped acting like a fairytale prince with all this chivalry.

Michael had never opened my car door—sure, he’d open the door we were walking through, but he didn’t cross around the entire vehicle just to open my door.

He never offered to carry my stuff. He also didn’t watch me like Finn was right now.

And it made me feel all warm in my midsection, which was a serious problem, since I was about to stay the night with the guy.

In different beds, of course.

This was not a romance novel’s only-one-bed situation. I think I needed to repeat that in my mind about seventeen more times.

“Hey, I’ve got something for you,” Finn said as he pressed the button for the elevator. It dinged immediately, and he held the doors back while I stepped in.

“Should I be nervous?”

“I hope not.” He chuckled as he reached into his back pocket. He drew out a little strip of laminated paper.

It was an Anne of Green Gables bookmark. My eyes flicked up to his, and he seemed a little abashed. I swear his cheeks had a tinge of pink, which was usually my territory, being a redhead and all.

He gave it a little shake until I grabbed it. It was so… cute. The bookmark itself was a miniature Anne, with clear lamination around it. “It’s to make up for the dog-eared pages that one time. Plus, I just thought you’d like it.”

I think m y mouth was hanging open in surprise. I shut it with a click of my teeth. “Thank you,” I said.

“You don’t need to sound so shocked. I’m a nice guy, Lucy,” he teased. But his eyes were on me in a very serious way, crinkles around them not from smiling but something more solemn.

“I know you are. I just didn’t expect a gift. I didn’t get you a gift.”

He laughed, and the elevator doors opened, letting us out. “What would we be celebrating if you had? Our six-day anniversary?”

“I just meant that… oh never mind. You ruin your nice-ness with stuff like that, you know.” I used the bookmark as a pointer to indicate his face.

“Balance,” he said decisively.

My eyes traced the cute bookmark so I didn’t have to look at him. “Why did you dog-ear all my pages anyway? You couldn’t have thought I would like that.”

“Oh, it was stupid.”

He left it at that, but I wasn’t letting it go so easily. I stayed quiet till he sighed.

“You’d been carrying around that book for weeks, so I looked it up online and got the summary of it so I could talk to you about it.

” He stopped in front of a door and crossed his arms. “I found a bunch of popular quotes—page numbers too—and wrote them down… so when I chickened out on talking to you about the stuff in the book, I decided to mark them instead. I thought you’d notice and think I was so smart and we had so much in common.

It was a long shot, and, like I said, stupid.

” He unlocked his door and pushed it inwards.

I couldn’t move; I was too busy staring at him. “And instead, you got me marching up to the teacher and demanding you get detention for defacing my book.”

Finn crossed his arms, grinning at the memory. “Yeah, she held me back after class, and when I told her everything, let me off with some advice: to n ot include destruction of personal property in my attempts at getting your attention anymore.”

I laughed and shook my head. Mind-blowing. All this stuff about our past not being what I thought was blowing my mind.

He walked into the room and flicked the lights on, holding the door open with one hand until I was through.

It was an exact mirror of mine and Lily’s: the bathroom just to the side when we walked in, two queen beds with a nightstand between them on the left and a dresser with a TV on the right.

A large window filled most of the back wall, though the curtains were pulled over it right now.

There were differences, too, between this room and the one I’d occupied for the hour and a half since we’d gotten back from our afternoon exploring Avonlea village and relaxing on the beach.

Sneakers were tossed off to the side of the dresser, a green jacket draped over the edge of the bed furthest from the door, and men’s deodorant on the bathroom counter.

I felt like I was intruding.

Studiously ignoring his eyes, I grabbed my bag from him and tossed it on the bed closest to the door.

“You mind if we switch, actually?” Finn asked.

“Oh, sure, of course. I just thought you were staying in that one.” I pointed at the jacket on the other bed.

“Yeah, I thought I’d sleep with the shades open and watch the stars, but if you’re here, I’d rather be in the other bed.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Why?”

He scratched the back of his neck. “Ah, in case there’s an intruder or something. I can’t help you if I’m behind you.”

I pressed my lips together. “You think there’s going to be an intruder?”

“Well, no, but I don’t think that’s really something you schedule into your planner… it’s more of a surprise situation. And it’s better to be prepared.”

“But yo u never prepare.”

“What do you mean?” There was a crease between his dark brows.

I picked up my duffle and put it on the other bed, sitting down with a plop.

“You know. You couldn’t even tell me which locations you were going to this week.

You said you don’t like to plan ahead.” I didn’t mention everything about selling the Barn and Breakfast, since it was likely still a sensitive subject.

He shoved his hands into his pockets. He did that a lot. Nervous tick? His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “If you’re going to go all Dr. Phil on me, then you can go ahead and have the other bed. I’ll climb out the window while you fight off the bad guys.”

My lips twitched. “So much for chivalry.”

“You can only press so many buttons before I break.”

I grabbed my toiletry bag and a folded set of pajamas from the top of the duffle, using the conversation to hide that I didn’t know what to do with myself here.

I was aware of what happened in books when the main characters had to stay in the same room.

Of course, usually there was only one bed, so I was at least doing better than those heroines.

“I’m going to get ready for bed. Knock if there are any bad guys?” I asked.