Page 66 of Her Favorite Fumble
“Is everything okay?”
“Of course,” Lucy said brightly, dropping the phone into her bag. “I was telling Nick you came early to surprise me, but, of course, he’d already heard you were back in town.”
“It’s not easy keeping a secret in this town, that’s for sure,” Gran said as they gathered their things to leave. She must have caught Lucy’s wry look, because she gave her a sheepish smile. “Well, small ones, anyway.”
Because they were in separate cars, Lucy had the drive home to wrap her head around the fact her life was about to look very different again. With Nick giving the primary bedroom back to Gran, he wasn’t going to have any place to stay.
And Lucy couldn’t very well invite him to shareherbed because, one, she had no idea how Gran would feel about that. But secondly, they’d agreed not to share that part of their lives with anybody.
Nick had actually beat them to the cottage because his truck was next to Helen’s car in the driveway. Lucy pulled up behind her grandmother’s car and walked slowly up the stairs to the porch.
She’d known this day was coming, but she thought she had more time.
The first thing she saw when she walked through the door were Nick’s duffel bags, sitting on the floor by the kitchen table. Miscellaneous other things, like his sneakers and extra sweatshirts, were set next to them. She stared at them for too long, willing herself to put a smile on her face, but she couldn’t quite manage it.
“Lucy?” It was Nick, and she turned to find him standing in the bedroom doorway. “You want to help me remake this bed?”
“You don’t have to do that,” Helen protested. She’d had her back to Lucy, sifting through a large tote bag, so she’d missed her granddaughter’s reaction to seeing Nick’s bags packed.
“You know I’m going to make that bed,” Nick said, his voice warm with affection. “The bedding that was on it is already in the wash. It’ll just need to go in the dryer when it’s done.”
“I think I left my other glasses in the car. I’ll be right back.”
Left alone, Lucy watched Nick go back into the bedroom. She followed him and took the corner of the sheet he handed her. “You don’t have to go.”
“Of course I do. We talked about this. Helen’s back and it’s her bedroom, so it’s time for me to leave.”
But she didn’t want him to go. “Of course Gran should sleep in her own bed, especially after two months of traveling. But you can sleep in the second bedroom and I’ll crash on the couch again. It’ll be like old times.”
“No, Lucy. We’re not doing that.”
“What are you going to do?”
Was that guilt that flashed across his face? “I’ll head home and sleep in my own bed, I guess.”
“What about your brother and the kids?”
“They’re back in their own place, actually.”
Well, that was certainly news to her. “When did that happen?”
Nick scrubbed his hand over the back of his neck, not meeting her eyes. “A couple of weeks ago now, I guess.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what to do with that information.
“Didn’t make sense to drive back and forth to work on the deck,” he said, and she could see that. But he was rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, which was a sure sign there was something else he didn’t want to admit.
“That doesn’t really explain why you didn’t tell me. You could have said Beck and the kids went home, but you were going to stay until the deck was done.”
“And I know the quiet gets to you at night, so I thought maybe you wouldn’t want to be alone.”
That was very sweet, but it still didn’t explain why he hadn’t shared the good news. But she could see the reserve creeping in—the grumpy mask sliding into place—and decided to let it go.
“Well, I’m belatedly happy for them. The kids must love being back in their own home.”
He shrugged, smoothing his hand over the top sheet. “I think so. They like hanging out with their uncles, but having all of their toys back and their own rooms probably makes up for it.”
“Found them,” Lucy heard Gran say, and she blinked away a tear. “It’s going to take me days to sort that mess of a car.”
