Page 77 of How to Be a Rockstar's Girlfriend

“Have your young man come in the house since he’s now your boyfriend,” Mercury orders.

I freeze with my hand on the door handle. “What do you mean now? Gibson’s been my boyfriend for a while.”

He snorts. “You don’t seriously think you can fool me, do you?” Actually, I did.

I sigh before I spin around to face him. “What gave it away?”

He chuckles. “I’m not giving up my secrets.”

I narrow my eyes on him. “Who told you? Does the whole town know?”

He shrugs. I recognize the tactic. It’s easier to maintain a lie if you don’t actually speak.

I perch on the coffee table in front of him. “Does this mean you’re not moving into a nursing home?”

He scowls. “Ain’t no reason for me to move into a nursing home. You’re here now, aren’t you?”

I frown. “Did you loan me the money to buy Basil’s business so I wouldn’t leave?”

“Not a loan.”

I wave away his words. It is a loan. He just doesn’t realize it yet. “Answer the question.”

“I don’t have anyone else to give the money to anyway.”

“Uncle Mercury,” I begin. “I’m not running away. I’m staying in Winter Falls. But I can’t care for you all the time. I have a business to run now.” And Gibson.

“There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“The doctor said—”

“I’m not talking about the quack.” He pulls a sheet of paper from behind his back and hands it to me.

“What’s this?”

“A schedule.”

I study the paper. It is a schedule. A schedule for the next two weeks of who is looking after Mercury at what time. My mouth gapes open.

“You’re letting the people of Winter Falls help you?”

“You’re staying in Winter Falls?”

“I kind of like it here.” I narrow my eyes on him. “Grumpy old men not withstanding.”

He snatches the paper back from me. “Do we have an agreement?”

“What are your terms?”

“You agree not to put me in a nursing home and you continue to live here in this house with me.”

“And you’ll agree to have someone to sit with you whenever I can’t be home?” He nods. “And you won’t growl and grumble at them until they leave?”

He scowls. “That happened one time.”

“Clove’s still mad at you for saying her coffee wasn’t as good as yours.”

He grunts. “She’s married to Sirius. She should be used to grumpy men by now.”

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