Page 17 of The Grump I Loathe (The Lockhart Brothers #3)
CONNOR
“ Y ou know you can just download a crossword app?” Grace said, eyes trained on the TV as she played one of the games she’d trialed at GeekCon, amassing a collection of baby animals.
“I like my paper copy,” I said, perusing the Saturday paper from my spot on the couch.
“That’s what Grandma says too. I’m still trying to explain TikTok to her.”
I glanced at the arm of the couch as my phone started buzzing. Ali flashed across the screen. “Grace, it’s Mom.”
“Mom!” She ditched her controller as she sprang to her feet. It bounced off the ottoman and onto the floor as she sprinted for my phone. I handed it over.
“Hi, Mom!” Grace said breathlessly, walking off. “Guess what? You know that Bubble Blaster game I told you about?”
My eyes drifted across the room and past the kitchen island to the invitation pinned on the fridge—a save-the-date for Ali and Sawyer’s wedding in September.
Ali was supposed to be picking Grace up this afternoon to go dress shopping in some high-end boutique.
She’d missed their end-of-April phone call, claiming she’d gotten her dates mixed up, but as long as she managed to show up today, May would be off to a good start for Grace.
“What time are you coming?” Grace asked as she returned to the living room. “I still have to get dressed and do my—” She trailed off. “Oh.”
I didn’t like the sound of that oh .
“No, I get it,” Grace said. “That’s okay.” She hummed, looking at her feet. “Sure, next weekend.”
Jesus fucking Christ, Ali! How hard was it to keep a shopping date that she had scheduled? My hand clenched around the newspaper as Grace’s face fell even further.
“’Kay,” she said. “Love you, too. Bye.”
Grace hung up and slumped over to me with the phone.
“Did Mom need to reschedule?” I asked, knowing the answer and doing my best not to scowl.
Grace nodded silently, falling into my arms. I tossed the paper aside and hugged her, my chest aching. I wished I could hold her tight enough to block out every painful thing for the rest of her life.
“She has to see some cake guy,” Grace muttered. “We’re going next weekend instead.”
“That works,” I said, trying not to be annoyed that I yet again had to adjust our plans to accommodate Ali’s inability to stick to a plan. “Gives you more time to research what kind of dress you want.”
Grace sighed. “Yeah, Mom said I should look at some dresses in advance ’cause next week will have to be a quick outing. She’s gonna text you the website for the store.”
I ground my teeth together until my molars ached.
“Don’t be mad at Mom,” Grace said, pulling back to look at my face. “Please.”
I tried to shift my scowl. “I’m not.”
“You are.” Grace poked my cheek. “You’re full of lines.”
I snorted. “That’s because I’m old.”
“Just don’t be old and mad, okay?” She tilted her head until I smiled. “I’m still gonna see her before the summer visit. She said next weekend we can make plans for all the things we’ll do together.”
I really didn’t want Grace getting her hopes up about this summer visit, but I couldn’t say that to her right now, when she was trying so hard to put on a brave face, so I shifted the topic. “Sounds like you’ve got a free afternoon today. Guess that means you can hang out with some friends.”
Grace wrinkled her nose.
“Or…”
“Or what?”
“You can hitch a ride with Grandma to LA. She’s flying down to see Uncle Liam and Auntie Mia. They might even have ultrasound pictures of the baby to show you.”
Grace perked up. “You think so? Maybe I’ll be able to tell if it’s a girl or a boy!”
“I think it’s a little early for that. ”
“Dad,” Grace said, looking at me with all the seriousness a nine-year-old could muster. “I have a sense about these things.”
“Okay, then have at it,” I said, laughing.
“Uncle Liam and I can continue building our sheep farm!”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Between Liam building what he referred to as “a sheep army” with her and Finn threatening to buy Grace her own live sheep farm, my daughter’s fascination with sheep persisted.
Once Alterbot released, there’d be no end to it.
“Why don’t you get ready, and I’ll swing you out to the airport to meet Grandma before I head to the office?”
“Yay!” Grace cheered, rushing off to get dressed while I sent a message to the family group chat, explaining the situation. Mom and Liam both said that was no problem and Finn piped up, saying he and Sierra would take Grace out to Santa Monica Pier if she wanted.
I thanked them, then got up to pack Grace some snacks to take on the plane.
I paused at the counter, frowning at the pictures she’d drawn of the dresses she wanted to try on.
My heart broke for her all over again, and I cracked my knuckles, hating whatever thing Ali had that had taken precedence over Grace today.
Once Grace and Mom were on the jet, I made my way to the office, arriving in time to catch the end of the scheduled playtest Max was running.
If Ali had canceled any other day, I would have just brought Grace along to the office with me, but today was one of the most important playtests of the project—the secret “Juni Protocol. ”
When the last Hyperion game came out, Grace could only watch me play select scenes.
The gameplay for the sequel was still far above her abilities, and the violence wasn’t exactly age-appropriate, but I intended to build an adaptation that allowed an inexperienced player to collect in-game currency alongside an experienced player.
Today, we’d amassed the first group of kids, aged eight to twelve, to test the protocol, and bringing Grace along would have ruined the surprise.
“What’s the verdict?” I asked once Max had joined me in the conference room. “They looked like they were having fun.”
Max huffed a laugh. “Was that your takeaway?” He flipped a paper over on his clipboard. “The general consensus was…that the kids hated it.”
I frowned. “That can’t be right. Let me see the surveys.
” I held my hand out for the clipboard and flipped through them myself, reading the highlighted notes.
“Really boring…Too easy…It feels like I’m just standing around, killing time…
” I scanned more of the surveys, a scowl dragging the corners of my mouth down. “This one just says ‘Bruh?’.”
“Yeah, that kid got so annoyed he walked out early.”
I rubbed my jaw. “You’re sure you gave them the right levels to try?”
Max gave me a flat look. “Of course. There’s a whole slew of comments like that.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “But that’s what these playtests are for. To work out the issues. We can take all these critiques and go back to the drawing board.”
“We don’t have time to keep going back to the drawing board,” I said, calculating when we’d be able to conduct another playtest. “We need to get this right, and we need it to happen right now if the Juni Protocol is going to launch with the game. ”
Max lifted his shoulder. “The level designers don’t have the fix to your problem yet. And they won’t until the team reconvenes on Monday. I’d invite you out for a beer, but I can tell you’re in your ‘I don’t want comfort, I want solutions’ mode.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“Call me later if you want to chat,” he said. “If not, I’ll see you on Monday. Don’t stay here all weekend and brood.”
“I don’t brood.”
“You’re worse than a hen,” Max said, heading for the door. “I mean it, Lockhart. Go home.”
I waved him off, giving the team time to clear out before I headed up to my office with the clipboard of notes.
I plopped down in my chair, staring at the comments.
I wasn’t a design guy, and I had no immediate solutions that would make the protocol better, but I couldn’t just abandon the problem from now until Monday without even attempting to come up with an idea to fix it.
After all the disappointment Grace had faced this year, letting the Juni Protocol flop was another way I’d be failing her.
By late afternoon, I’d dragged Eddie’s favorite whiteboard into my office, listed out all the comments, and drawn a big fat question mark in the middle.
When something slapped against my office wall, I turned toward it with a scowl, thinking it might be Max coming to drag me off to another club scene from hell.
But when I looked up, Eddie stood there with a handwritten note.
Thought I was the only one who worked weekends?
My gaze shifted up and down, taking in her casual outfit.
It was a far cry from the little black dress she’d worn in the club, but for some reason the faded skinny jeans and hoodie sent my heart racing in exactly the same way.
I shouldn’t be this eager to see her outside of working hours.
I flicked my head, and she waltzed in like she owned the place, throwing herself down in the seat next to my desk.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Max told me how chill this place was on the weekends when no one’s in. I’ve got a lot of roommates, so it can get kind of crazy at home. Sometimes it’s nice to get away, you know? I’ve been taking advantage.”
Of-fucking-course he had. I was going to change his name to Meddling Max. Max, who’d practically thrown me at her at the club. Max, who hadn’t stopped talking about how I should rip up the new policy and get together with Eddie ever since. Then again, I was no better.
Despite how hard I’d tried to scrub the memory of Eddie’s body pressed against mine, I couldn’t. Something was shifting between us. I felt it when I caught her eye after a meeting or when we passed in the stairwell on the way to lunch, shoulders brushing.
“What are you doing here?” Eddie continued. “Don’t tell me coming in on the weekend is your idea of fun.”
I snorted. “No, actually, it’s interrupting my time with Grace. But this was the best time to schedule the playtest for the Juni Protocol, considering our ideal audience is usually in school during the work week.”