I’m going to see her.
Probably.
After I swing by Laney’s and see if she wants to go with me, and if Theo thinks this is a good idea.
I’m packing my car in case Laney’s up for crashing Emma’s temporary digs with me when Grey walks out of his door.
I freeze and eye him.
Dammit, he looks like a box of chocolates that you know only has the kinds you like in it, even though you know you’re allergic to one of them, but you can’t help wanting to roulette the whole box anyway.
After a prolonged moment of both of us deer-in-the-headlightsing, he breaks eye contact and glances at the back end of my SUV.
His eyebrows furrow.
No doubt silently questioning why I need a massive box containing two blow-up human-size hamster balls in addition to my snowshoes, dog supplies, and winter safety kit.
Yes, there’s a story behind the hamster balls.
No, he’s not getting it.
I have places to be that don’t involve the kind of trampoline jumping that my heart is doing right now.
Wait.
Seeing Emma probablywillinvolve my heart on a trampoline, but there won’t be any sexual tension mixed in with it.
And speaking of, I am all in for pretending Friday never happened. “Hey, Grey! How awesome to see you on my day off. Here you are. Here I am. Running into each other since you moved in next door… Jitter! Did you see who’s here?”
Grey’s eyes light up, and I feel like an asshole.
Jitter doesn’t come running, because he’s already hanging out with my mom for the day.
She loves taking him for walks around the lake on nice days, and thirty degrees with clear skies and no wind absolutely counts as a nice day. She meets a lot of new people that way.
And he loves her because she feeds him good food and lets him get up on her bed for Sunday afternoon naps. Mom’s approaching seventy in a couple years—she had me later—but she’s still strong and spry and can handle him.
I snap my fingers. “Dammit. Forgot. He’s not here. Habit. Have a nice day.”
“What’s with the perky attitude?”
“I’m not being perky.” I smile. Brightly. “I’m just being my normal, happy, cheerful self.”
Andclearlyannoying the ever-loving crap out of him.
Which is good.
He needs to not like me.
I need to not like him.
Get along? Fine.
Us having a repeat of Friday morning?
No.
And not just because I sneezed orange snot again this morning.
