As soon as I’d put her down, I heard a raspy bark as a little ball of fur zoomed past me before I could stop him. Thankfully, the little dog was too small to jump onto the sofa.
“Hello, Frisco,” Alice cooed. “Were you worried about me?”
“He’s been a royal pain in the ass all day,” Eugene said.
“That’s because he loves his momma. Isn’t that right, sweet boy?”
Frisco barked in agreement.
“All right, Mom, let’s get you situated. What do you need from upstairs?”
“If I’m going to run my empire from the couch, I’ll need my cell phone and my laptop,” she said.
Presley sighed in exasperation. “Your empire can survive without you for a few days.”
“That may be, but I can’t survive without it,” Alice retorted. “I’ll be bored out of my mind by this time tomorrow.”
“Ariel, can you get whatever Nana needs from upstairs while Ink and I pick up her prescriptions?”
“Sure,” Ariel grinned. “I’ll get what she needsandwhat she wants.”
“That’s why you’re my favorite grandchild.”
“I’m your only grandchild.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I like you.”
“We’ll be right back,” Presley said. “Do you need anything else from the store?”
“We should be fine for tonight and tomorrow. Miles will be back Monday.”
Ariel stayed with her grandparents while I drove Presley to the pharmacy to pick up her mother’s prescriptions. “So, what’s this empire your mother referred to?”
Presley laughed. “She’s a social media influencer.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep,” Presley said. “It was kind of an accident. She couldn’t find a lot of content relevant to people her age, so she posted some videos thinking that would help the algorithm show her what she was looking for. It turned out that there just wasn’t an abundance of content for her age group. She saw that as an opportunity and ran with it.”
“That’s pretty awesome.”
“It is,” she agreed. “She enjoys it, and she makes a lot of money. They were already living comfortably, so they used some of her new income to buy Ariel a car and start a college fund for her.”
I snorted. “I’m not sure comfortable is the right word. It looks like your parents are loaded. Judging by the size of their house, the cars in the driveway, the RV, the boat, and I’m assuming Miles is their butler.”
“I don’t know if Miles has an official title. He helps with the household tasks, and he helps my mom with her business. He’s kind of a jack of all trades.”
“So, she’ll be okay with her leg?” Eugene and Alice seemed capable of handling her injury, but I felt the need to ask.
“Oh, yeah. She’ll be fine. Between my dad and Miles, she’ll have more than enough help.”
When we got back to her parents’ house, Presley made sure her mom had everything she needed. Several times. Finally, Alice told her she was going to remove her hearing aids if Presley didn’t leave.
“Okay, okay,” Presley said. “I’ll check on you tomorrow. Promise you’ll call me if you need anything before then.”
“I will,” Alice promised.
After we said our goodbyes, we headed back to Croftridge. It wasn’t a long drive, but Ariel fell asleep shortly after we got on the road. I thought Presley might fall asleep too, but she didn’t. We were about halfway home when she exhaled audibly.“I feel like I need a vacation. I’ve had more than my fair share of excitement over the last few weeks.”
