Morgan frowns a little. “Misha, huh?”
“Yeah, he just asked me to go on another hike tomorrow,” I say, my excitement evident in my tone. “The last one was so much fun. I mean, before I ruined my muscles, but he said it would be easier this time.”
“Are Oliver and Grey going to join you?” she asks casually but still curious.
“No, they aren’t really into hiking, especially Grey.”
Morgan’s expression turns thoughtful. “Speaking of Grey, you know, I was with Grandpa Donovan yesterday, and… he hired me. It seems like I’m going to stay here, thanks to you.”
I look at her, confused. “Thanks to me?”
Morgan nods, her expression becoming gentle. “Yes, thanks to you because I would have never asked him. I missed being around all of them so much. I missed having people on my side outside of work. And I didn’t want to live that alone anymore. That’s why I didn’t really plan where to go after my last job. I should have thought about it earlier, but I hadn’t because I was so over it.”
“Why didn’t you ask Mr. Donovan if you could have the job?”
“Because I didn’t want to push myself on him so he would think he had to hire me. And he said he didn’t ask me initially because he didn’t want to make me stay for him. Without you, this would have never happened. Thanks to you, I can stay here where I want to be. I can have my family close. Thank you.”
I feel a lump in my throat, my emotions welling up. “It’s not thanks to me, Morgan. You guys figured it out all by yourselves. I just gave a nudge in the right direction.”
“Itisthanks to you,” she insists, her voice firm yet kind. “Let me be grateful.”
I smile, a warmth spreading through me. “Well, I’m glad I could help. And I’m glad you’re staying.”
“How do adults make friends?” Morgan asks out of nowhere.
I blink in surprise. “I… what?”
She leans in, her expression thoughtful. “I mean, in kindergarten, you just walk over to somebody you like and ask, ‘Wanna be friends?’”
A laugh bubbles up before I can stop it, the sound echoing softly in the quiet bookstore. “Is that so?”
“Well, that’s how I did it,” she says with a small, nostalgic smile. “But I don’t know how to do it when you’re in your thirties, so I just do it the same way. Wanna be friends?” she asks, her expression so earnest and a little hopeful as if she’s laying her heart on the table.
Wow. This is everything.
“I never had a girlfriend before,” I admit, feeling a warmth spread in my chest. “I would love to be friends.”
Morgan’s face lights up, her grin so genuine it’s contagious. “I haven’t had one in a long time either. Somehow, I’m always the old people’s friend. It’s always my clients I end up befriending, never people my age.”
“Iaman old person. I like books, staying in, and tea.”
“Isn’t tea a Brit thing anyway?”
“True,” I admit, grinning. “But I love coffee and blankets, too, and plants.”
Morgan grins. “Oh well, those are the things I like too. Sounds like fate.” She reaches out her coffee to clink it with mine. “To our grandma friendship.”
I clink my coffee cup against hers. “To us.”
We spend the rest of the morning in the bookstore, browsing and chatting, and by the time we leave, I feel like the happiest twenty-six-year-old grandma ever.
TWENTY-SEVEN
He hasto be fucking kidding me.
I stare at the signpost that taunts me with its declaration.
Three more hours to the top of the mountain.
