He opened his book to the title page. “Rance thinks it is.” He showed her the page where Rance had written Wishing you and Jordan a happy life together.
“Oh, no. He ruined your book. You won’t want to keep it now.”
“Ah, but I do want to keep it. It doesn’t wish us a happy marriage. Maybe we’ll become besties.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Maybe I should skip getting my M.R. Morrison book signed.” Jordan descended the steps with Luis. Sure enough, Rio and Cole were still the last ones in Desiree’s line.
“I’d hate for you to do that.”
“I’d hate to do it, too, but I don’t want?—”
“Hey, guys!” Rio called out. “How’d you like Rance? He’s a funny guy.”
She sighed. “Yeah, he’s a riot.”
“What’s wrong?” Cole stepped out of line and started toward her.
She motioned them to move away from the people ahead of them and lowered her voice. “Granny got the idea in her head that Luis and I are getting married and she told Rance.”
“Oh, boy.” Cole sucked in a breath.
“Luis didn’t want to contradict Granny’s story, so now Rance believes it and might even have told his mom.”
“Or not,” Luis said. “They’ve both been busy autographing books all afternoon.”
“Or maybe Granny told Rance and his mom at the same time. I don’t want to take that chance. I’m thinking I just won’t get an autograph.”
“No, no, we’re not going that route, sis. You’ve loved those Morrison books ever since I can remember. You’ve collected every last one.”
“Yeah, and they’re all in your apartment! I didn’t think of that. If you move out?—”
“That’s not a done deal. Even if I do leave, your books aren’t a problem. I’ll move them along with my stuff.”
“The books aren’t the only thing. There’s the koala bear and the kangaroo. And my softball bat. And my glove?—”
“Let’s not worry about that now. We need to handle this little hiccup.”
“It’s not so little. Poor Luis has an autographed book but he’ll have to rip out that page.”
“No, I won’t. I?—”
“I guess you could put stickers over part of it. Show them what Rance wrote.”
Setting Rance’s book on top of his stack, he opened it to the title page. Both Cole and Rio came over to look.
“Fudge it all.” Cole shook his head. “How did Granny get that idea into her head?”
“Remember at lunch when I went over to ask Mila to meet us at the Raccoon this afternoon? Granny was lip-reading and jumped to the conclusion the four of us were making wedding plans.”
“How do you know?”
“She called me over and whispered it to me. I tried to tell her she was mistaken but she was convinced I was just trying to keep it a secret. I finally gave up.”
“I can see how she might think that,” Rio said.
“Me, too. Especially when I’m setting up a meeting with my brother and Luis’s oldest sister. Logically that’s the core of our wedding party.”
