Page 26 of The Dangers of Daydreaming (Love Connections #2)

Old People Games

Lucy

After returning to the inn from the trip to Cavendish and the incredibly immersive Anne experience I’d had, I’d been flooded with ideas for my tour.

It took a super late night and half of the morning, but I was now nearly done with the actual tour part; I had the itinerary on paper, including the bonus movie-based itinerary, and I had a rough outline for my actual presentation as well.

I’d skipped the tour that day. It wasn’t Anne-related, but I’d still been interested in going…

except for the need to work. In addition to the literary tour plans, I finalized a few clients’ itineraries and had a conference call with Ellie while walking down the lane.

It was the kind of day that had me exhausted but so satisfied with my work.

Better even than when I manage to get all my laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away all in one day back home.

So, I was taking a break.

I sat up on the bed and stretched my back. The one downside to this cute room was the lack of a desk or table to write on, so I’d been hunched over my computer most of the day.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I called.

It opened, revealing Finn.

That man was too attractive for his own good. And it was somehow worse when he showed up unannounced. Like my body didn’t get a chance to prep itself for seeing him.

“Hey, what are you up to?” he asked.

“Just finished my presentation outline and finalized some tour details.”

“So, you need a change of scenery?” He held the “so” out, his smile showing up.

“Yes.” I didn’t even think twice about my answer, though a small part of me said I should have.

“I’m headed to the hospital to bring Gram home for the night and to see my Pops.” He shifted his weight, pushing hands into his pockets. “Gram mentioned she’d like to see you again. Want to join me?”

I’d already met his grandma before. Yet somehow this moment felt more like a “meet the family” situation than the last did. I squirmed where I sat. But ultimately, I knew the answer I wanted to give. “Sounds fun. Are you leaving right now?”

He grinned. “If you’re ready.”

I looked around for my phone and purse and grabbed them. “Yep.”

“Perfect.” He held open the door for me from inside the room. Which meant I had to squeeze past him and his defined shoulders and chest.

By the look on his face, he knew exactly what he was doing.

Not against a little enticement, he’d said. The man was taking that pledge very seriously.

He followed me down the narrow staircase. On the second floor, we passed Lily heading into her room.

“Hey!” she said to me after a quick hello to Finn. “I’m so sorry for being a terrible roommate.”

“No, I’m sorry,” I said. “Are you feeling better?”

She nodded emphatically . “Yes. Thank goodness. It’s going to be a long time before I can eat seafood again, though. If ever. Yeah… Come to think of it, I think it’s officially off the menu.”

I grimaced. “I don’t blame you.”

She looked between the two of us and, for the first time, I realized that she had to be close in age to Finn and me, with sleek, chin-length hair that appeared to always be perfectly in place and light eyes that gave her an almost ethereal appearance.

If Finn was such a tease and a flirt like I’d always assumed, why wasn’t he flirting with her?

“Where are you headed?” she asked.

“Lucy is coming with me to pick up my grandma,” Finn offered. He didn’t seem uncomfortable, just standing there with his weight equally balanced on both legs and an easy smile on his face. But he wasn’t putting off any flirting vibes. Not even a little.

Men like him were always putting off flirting vibes…

weren’t they? It was like they got a handbook at birth.

You’re going to grow to be an attractive and socially capable man.

Therefore, it is your duty to flirt with every female you cross paths with.

It’s in the rules: you’ll find it on page thirty-seven.

Lily was looking at us with curiosity now. What did she see? What did I want her to see?

“Well, have fun,” she said brightly, opening the door to her room.

“Thanks,” Finn said, reaching a hand out to me.

I grabbed it without thinking. We both looked down, but when I didn’t let go, neither did he.

Instead, he tucked his hand tighter around mine, the warmth of his sending pinpricks of feeling through mine and up my arm.

He went first down the next staircase, but folded his arm behind his back so he could keep a hold on my hand; a secure hold like he was weaving through a crowd and didn’t want to lose me.

How had I gotten myself into this position?

And why did I seem incapable of wanting to get myself out?

Something about our hands together felt natural.

But also not, because at least eighty-three percent of all my attention was on that small bit of skin that touched Finn’s. It was currently creeping up to ninety.

As if realizing how much I was enjoying our point of contact, he squeezed my hand then let it go, opening the door for me.

I tried not to pout as I glanced down at my suddenly cold hand. The pout turned to a glare when I saw Finn tuck away a smile.

He was playing with me. And I couldn’t even be that mad.

As usual, he held the door while I buckled my seatbelt, then went to his side.

“Do you have your own car?” I asked. “Or do you take the van everywhere?”

“The van is mine,” he said, turning it on. “I bought it when Gram and Pops decided to start offering tours. I needed a new car anyway, and it saved them an extra expense.”

“How are you feeling about all of that? Are they still planning on selling, with your grandpa doing better?”

He tossed me a sheepish look. “I don’t know, I’ve been avoiding the conversation.”

“Oh yes,” I said gravely. “The old, ‘I can’t see you, you can’t see me’ trick. If you don’t talk about it, maybe it doesn’t exist.”

“Exactly,” he said with mock enthusiasm and a lifted fist.

I shook my head but let it drop. This was his problem to work through, it wasn’t my place to butt in.

“They want to hire a harvester for the orchard this year,” he said, as if that were an explanation of sorts.

He glanced over at me. “They’ve never done that.

Every once in a while, we use one to help us out, but never to do it all.

For the last decade, each summer they’ve held a big U-Pick event—where they invite people in for a fee to pick the fruit?

It feels wrong not to have one this year, but Gram asked for the harvester, so I know she’s not planning on the event.

I thought about trying to do it for her, but I don’t have those skills. ”

“I can help you plan one if you need,” I offered. “I’m really good at planning stuff.”

“I know you are… but I can’t ask you to do that. I’m just thinking out loud here, really. Financially, it would probably help them out to not have to pay the harvester… but I don’t really want to be bugging her with a ton of questions if I decide to do it. I don’t know—I’ll keep thinking.”

I nodded. “Your Gram is coming back to stay at the B&B?”

“She has been for the last few days. Usually, she drives to the hospital every morning—the bad beds finally got to her. But today I dropped her off on our way to the tour.”

“How’s she doing?”

His mouth turned down, and his answer was slow.

“I’ve been avoiding asking that, too.” His jaw worked.

“But before you judge me too harshly, I have been checking in. So much that I think it’s starting to get annoying.

I just worry that if I ask how she’s doing and the answer isn’t good…

then maybe I’ll have to… face the reality of that. ”

“That makes sense.” I squeezed his forearm, and he rewarded me with a small smile.

But he looked like he needed a distraction from the conversation more than he needed to work through it.

I gave it another thirty seconds, to be sure he didn’t have anything else he wanted to talk about, before saying, “It’s been at least twenty minutes, and you haven’t tried to get me to go out with you once. ”

His eyes flashed to mine, entertainment lurking behind the residual pain of our conversation. “Now that you mention it—”

I laughed, shaking my head. Of all the topics I could bring up, I’d chosen this one?

“There’s this super good Italian place a few miles from here. Probably some of the best pasta I’ve ever gotten.”

“So now you’re trying to sell me on the food?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “I wasn’t making much headway selling you on the company.”

If only he knew how wrong that was. “I don’t know, Italian isn’t my favorite.”

“Then allow me to provide a list of potential dinner locations. We have several.”

By about the third place I claimed not to be interested in, he started to figure out that I was exaggerating my picky eating.

Conversation about dinner turned to conversation about our favorite foods, which turned to even more general likes and dislikes.

I laughed a lot, didn’t think about work hardly at all, and by the time we got to the hospital, it was like the ride had been five minutes rather than over half an hour.

Finn’s Gram met us in the lobby like before, but this time she didn’t seem as tired, and there was a more genuine smile on her face. Rather than talking first to Finn, she turned to me. Her eyes were crinkled at the edges, reminding me a bit of Finn but with more lines from age.

“I’m so glad you came. I told Finn to bring you back after the surgery—James has wanted to meet you, and I never got to thank you properly.” She reached out and squeezed Finn’s hand before gesturing us to the elevators.

I fell into step beside them. “I had no clue he wanted me to come along until today,” I said, fully throwing Finn under the bus.