Page 37 of Crashing into Love

“She’s in the office. But Drew was out here, so I asked if she wanted to color. I asked first, Mom. She said yes.”

Selma looked up at Drew to confirm. Drew nodded.

“You went up?” Drew asked her.

“Yeah, Grandma made me.”

“Please… You loved it.”

“Yeah, you loved it, Mom,” Gia echoed.

“Did you not go up?” she asked Drew, ignoring their comments.

“I did. I went up super early, though, and used the course.”

“You ran through it?”

“I just got back about an hour ago. I came down for a hot chocolate and found this one here.” Drew knocked Gia’s shoulder playfully.

Gia giggled but continued to focus on the flower she was drawing.

“Mom, when I finish this, can we play a game?”

“A game? Sure, honey. Let me check on Grandma first, take a shower, and we can pull one out while we have dinner.”

Gia looked up then and said, “No, with Drew.”

“Gia… Drew is here as a guest. She doesn’t–”

“It’s okay,” Drew interjected. “I already agreed. She asked me if we could play something when you got back.”

“She did?”

“Yeah. She said she wanted to play Monopoly.”

“We have it. It’s the kids’ version.”

“Mom won’t let me play the grown-up one because I beat her at it once.”

Drew laughed and said, “She beat you at Monopoly?”

“Yeah. She’s going to be my financial planner when she gets older, for sure.”

“I am?” Gia asked.

“No, honey.” Selma chuckled. “Finish your flower. I’m going to go upstairs and change, at least. Can you watch her?”

“Sure,” Drew said.

“I’ll check on Grandma first, okay?”

“Okay,” Gia replied, not really paying attention to her anymore. “Drew, you have to add another petal. That’s why it’s wrong.”

“Oh, sorry,” Drew said and looked back down at her piece of paper. “Like this?” she teased and drew a squiggly line over the page in green.

“What? No.” Gia laughed.

Selma stood and watched them for a second before she turned around and forced herself to walk away because the site of Drew with Gia was confusing the hell out of her. In the office, she found her grandmother doing payroll and made sure she was okay.

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