“That would actually be amazing. Thanks, Isaac.” I hadn’t thought of asking him for help with the shop, but it was a relief to know he would be here if a snag came up.
“Good. Done deal. But in that case, if you’re arriving on the island at the same time as Dean, it makes sense for you to go to the airport together, be on the same flight, and share a rental car. Which would naturally put you at the same hotel. Look, he’s not trying to seduce you. He’s just being a problem solver. You know how he is.”
Ah, so that was where Isaac was going with this. “Was this the message he sent you to give?” I was proud of the fact that I only sounded a little bit snippy.
“Dean didn’t send me. In fact, he told me not to say a word to you. But I knew you’d sniff out his involvement in my offer of help, so I figured we could skip the part where you got suspicious and I could confirm all your worst fears.”
I sighed. “I’m that predictable, aren’t I?”
“Yes. But I’m your brother, so everything you do is predictable to me. I know Dean’s smarmy about trying to pay for stuff, but just make him split the cost with you.”
“You and I both know how that will go. He’ll claim he found coupons for a free upgrade to first class.”
Isaac laughed. “Yes, he will. Good luck with that. Are you planning to take Piper along? Carmen could try to get off work.”
“No, I’ll take her with us. Then there really will be no chance of anything romantic happening.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” He hung up, giving himself the last word. Brothers.
I stared down at my phone for a while before texting Dean. If we were doing this, it would be better to figure out the details now. And better over text.
Jessica had a whole itinerary she’d sent for her wedding week. She and her fiancé had rented out a bed-and-breakfast for all of us to stay in, not far from The Lake of Shining Waters. So, the sharing a hotel bit was a given anyway.
Grace: Isaac called me. Are you really thinking of just going half-week to Jessica’s wedding?
He didn’t answer right away, so I put my phone down and started sketching gummy bear warriors again. I was in love with Jessica’s new book. Sometimes with middle grade fiction, each book in the series became progressively more of a money grab, but not Jessica’s. The overarching plot for the series was just picking up steam, and I loved getting to know more and more about the characters and the little things we found out about them from each book.
My phone chimed, and I congratulated myself on waiting a whole five seconds before looking at it to see if Dean had responded.
Dean: I’m flexible. Not really sure I need to be there for fruit picking and afternoon tea with my bosom friends.
Grace: You don’t like bosom friends?
Dean: I feel like this is a trap.
More like he was setting a trap for me. I was dying to quiz him on the difference between bosom and buxom friends, but Iwould refrain. No vocabulary lessons this time. No teasing. No flirting.
Grace: So, no to Monday’s itinerary?
I picked up the card Jessica had sent with the RSVP request and tried to see it through Dean’s eyes.
MONDAY
Relax and recover from jet lag. Monday afternoon activity: cherry picking in an orchard followed by afternoon tea with bosom friends. Anne of Green Gables movie marathon with a casual dinner of finger sandwiches inside blanket forts.
The ultimate girls’ night in perfect Jessica fashion. More like girls’ week, as I read down the rest of the list. Picturing Dean there for every girly detail almost tempted me to talk him into all of it.
Dean: I was thinking I’d fly out Wednesday morning and be there in the afternoon for… hang on, let me double check this.
Dean: A spooky poetry reading in the haunted wood.
There was no way he’d make it in time for spooky poetry if he flew out Wednesday morning. Not only was PEI three hours ahead of us, most of the flights were red-eyes with long layovers. He’d be dead on his feet at whatever time he arrived. I was picturing lugging a conked-out Piper along with our bags through busy airport terminals. The things we did for friends.
Grace: What flight did you find?
Dean: I plan to charter a private jet.
Of course that was his plan. I started Googling immediately, laughing to myself at the stupidity of trying to split costs with Dean Kinney. The cost PER HOUR in the air was more than I planned to spend on the whole trip.
