Gram rummaged in the fridge. “I don’t see any mushrooms. We still have broccoli, though.”
“Sean only eats broccoli once in a while, like for special occasions,” Emma said in a rush. “He loves it, but it…it makes him gassy.”
Since Gram still had her head over the crisper drawer, Sean was free to give her a what the hell look and she gave him an apologetic smile. After three weeks of living a lie—or two different lies—she should have been better at thinking on her feet.
“We can’t have that,” Gram said. “We still have some leftover ham. How do ham-and-cheese omelets sound?”
“That sounds wonderful,” Sean said, still glaring at Emma.
She set the table while Gram cooked, and then refilled the coffee cups. At this rate, they’d need the caffeine.
“So, Sean,” Gram said, dropping diced ham into the pan, “how do you like this old house?”
He looked startled by the question. “It’s a nice house. Big and homey.”
“Lots of room for children.”
Emma barely managed to swallow her coffee before it went down the wrong pipe. “Gram. We’re not ready to have kids yet.”
“No, but you will soon, I’m sure. We’ll have to get the calendar out after breakfast and start looking at possible wedding dates.”
Sean shifted in his seat and Emma put her hand on his knee so he wouldn’t be tempted to go back to bed again. “We haven’t even figured out if we want summer or winter. There’s no rush.”
“Don’t you want to get married in the garden? You always did.”
Emma shot a desperately pleading look at Sean and he cleared his throat. “If we get married in the winter, we can honeymoon at my family’s lodge and…snowmobile and stuff.”
“You can do that any winter,” Gram insisted. “But it’s up to you two, of course.”
She used the spatula to cut the omelet and slid pieces onto their waiting plates. Emma wasn’t surprised when Sean wolfed his down and then excused himself before disappearing like a superhero blur.
Since the women were eating at a normal pace, Emma was left with her grandmother. “Did you have a nice time? At the dance, I mean?”
Gram smiled at her plate. “I had a lovely time at the dance. And after the dance, as well.”
“Oh. I’m happy for you. Really.”
“Don’t go making more of it than it is. We’re just enjoying each other’s company for a little while. I’ll be going home at the end of the week, so…like I said, we’re just enjoying each other’s company.”
That sounded familiar, Emma thought, moving egg and cheese and ham bits around on her plate. Just temporarily keeping each other’s feet warm, as the case may be.
They talked about inane things while they cleaned up and then Emma went in search of Sean. When she didn’t find him downstairs, she went up to their room, but he wasn’t there, either. There was, however, a sticky note on the mirror.
Gassy? Payback’s a bitch, honey.
She laughed and dropped the note into the bottom drawer with the others she’d collected. They amused her too much to throw away and sometimes she’d pull one out and reread it. But that made her feel like some kind of lovesick teenager, so she closed the drawer and continued the search.
When she looked out the living room window, she finally found him. He was sitting in one of the rockers, his head back and eyes closed. Probably looking for a short reprieve from the craziness she’d dragged him into, so she dropped the curtain and left him alone.
She had a wedding date to pick out, anyway.
And, a half hour later, with her head next to her grandmother’s looking at the calendar, she tried not to think about the phone call she’d eventually have to place to Florida, telling Gram she and Sean had gone their separate ways.
When Sean’s phone rang, he pulled it out and read the caller ID screen. Northern Star Lodge. It would be either Josh or Rosie, so he flipped it open and said hello.
“Hey.” It was Josh. “Did I win yet?”
He shook his head even though his dumbass youngest brother couldn’t see him and left the rocking chair to move farther away from the house. “Nobody’s won a damn thing.”
That technically wasn’t a lie since he hadn’t officially ceded yet and he wasn’t sure who’d put money on two weeks. Speaking of which, he had to remember to pick up another box or two or three of condoms. He didn’t think he should add them to Emma’s list on the refrigerator.
“You’re almost done with the whole thing, aren’t you?”
“A week,” Sean said, not that he was counting. “Cat’s flying out Sunday.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
He wasn’t going to go back to the lodge, if that’s what Josh was after. “Not sure yet. Thinking about taking the scenic route to New Mexico and visiting Liz.”