“Son, you seem lighter around her, and I like that for you. It makes me happy to see you happy.” She pats my arm and walks away.
Mom has noted a shift in my moods based on whether I’m around Lucy or not. Which is dangerous territory. Because Mom’s right.
If I seem happier around Lucy, it’s probably because I am.
I open the door to Grandma’s trailer and walk inside. Grandma and Lucy are sitting on the couch together, looking at a photo album.
“I really hope that isn’t what I think it is,” I say, narrowing my eyes as I stare at the book. It looks like she brought theoldfamily albums. “Grandma, are you trying to sabotage me?”
“Of course not, dear. I just felt like Lucy should know more about you,” she says with a mischievous grin.
Lucy’s shoulders are shaking as she picks up the book and flips it around so I can see the picture she was looking at. It’s one of me when I was five—and I’m wearing a bra like a hat.
“Not my finest moment, okay? I was trying to become an airline pilot,” I say with a chuckle.
Lucy grins back at me. “There’s some great stuff in here. I’m so glad I came over here. Do you need help setting up the tent?”
The tent. Right. That was why I came in here—to explain the situation. But now I can’t say anything to her in front of Grandma because, well, that would spoil the whole thing, wouldn’t it?
“Don’t worry about it,” I say with a weak smile.
She doesn’t have to worry about anything except sleeping right next to me for the next three nights. Oh gosh. I hope I don’t snore. That would be embarrassing.
I don’t know about past bed-sharing mishaps, but we can survive three nights in a tent. It will be fine. Just a matter of getting her to be okay with it.
“I was going to grab your stuff and put it in the tent. Do you want me to leave anything in the car so it’s easier to get to?” I ask her.
“No, that’s okay. I think it can go in the tent. Why don’t I come help you?”
“That sounds great. Grandma, I’m stealing her before you can tell her any other embarrassing things about me.”
“You’re ruining all the fun,” Grandma says, handing the family album to Lucy and following us out the door of the trailer.
“Sorry for leaving you to set up the tent,” Lucy says as she follows me to the grassy area where the tents are set up. “But I doubt I would’ve been much help anyway.”
“Oh, no worries. Someone else set it up for us.”
I glance around to make sure no one is close by. Everyone seems to be out of earshot, so I lean in close to Lucy and whisper, “We have a little bit of a problem.”
Her eyes go wide. “What kind of problem are we talking about?”
“The kind of problem that involves a very small tent.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but her eyes go even wider.
“I thought you said you had a huge tent. That we were going to be ‘camping in a palace’—your exact words on the ride over here, I should remind you.”
“About that…That was an unfortunate promise that I gave you. My mom gave my tent away.”
Lucy looks frantic. I grasp her arms and gently turn her so she can see Kelly and Ben moving the porta-crib into the tent.
“My cousin forgot he had to fit a crib in their tent. I couldn’t say no.”
“Oh, sure. Bring a baby into the fight, would you?” Lucy grumbles. “It’s not like I can say no now, right?”
“Well we could…but it might not be the best first impression on the family.”
She smacks my chest. “Oh, well. I can make do with a small tent. It’ll just be a very…normal experience, right? People don’t need giant tents to sleep in. Reasonable-sized tents are perfectly fine.”
