Page 51 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

“Hello, sunshine! How did the interview go?”

“It didn’t. I blew it.”

“Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

“It was,” I assured him. “It didn’t even happen. Is Stella around?”

“She’s in the sunroom.” He tipped his hat to me.

“Thanks.” I nodded and headed down the hallway.

On my way, I noticed Dorothy upstairs cleaning the banister. I waved and said hi, but she didn’t see me and couldn’t hear me because she was wearing earbuds. Looking around, I wondered how long it took her to clean this house. It had to be at least ten thousand square feet, if not more. I had a difficult enough time keeping my fifteen-hundred-square-foot farmhouse semi-clean. This place was white glove spotless.

“Hi!” I smiled as I walked in and found Stella seated in her armchair. She was wearing a light gray tunic, white slacks, and black ballet flats. A colorful scarf was tied in a bandana-stylewrap around her head, giving her a chic and pulled-together look.

Everything she wore looked effortlessly glamorous, like a movie star from the Golden Age.

“Hello, darling.” She held out her arms.

I crossed the room, bent down, and kissed her on the cheek.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you until tomorrow. How did it go? Tell me everything. Did you see my grandson?”

“Your grandson? No.” I shook my head as I lowered into the chair beside her. “Was I supposed to?”

“I asked him to check in on you last night.”

“Oh.” I felt my cheeks flush. I had been a little busy and spent the night in someone else’s room. I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit that to her. Not that I was ashamed of my behavior. I wasn’t. Whatever happened last night was not anything that I would take back, but also, I didn’t exactly want to advertise it. “No, I didn’t… um, no.”

“He wasn’t able to stop by last night, but he was going to try this morning. Although there were some personal issues he had to deal with. I’m sure that’s why he wasn’t able to see you.”

“Oh, okay.”

“But, tell me.” She shook her head. “How was it? How was the interview? Are you going to need some time off?” Her crystal blue eyes sparkled with excitement.

It was sweet that she was so invested in this entire process. I felt bad that I’d let her down.

“No.” If I had been selected, then I would have needed to take two weeks off to film the wedding and honeymoon, which would be in some tropical location. After that, the participants lived with their new spouses for ten weeks, and then they would decide whether to remain married or go their separate ways. During the ten weeks I could have still worked. “I willnotbe needing any time off.”

She reached her hand out and patted my knee. “You don’t know that, dear.”

“Yes. I do. I left the interview before it even started because I was crying. Right before I went in, I found out that my ex-boyfriend, who I was with for twelve years and broke up with me because he didn’t think that he ever wanted to get married or have kids, is engaged to my childhood best friend, and they are having a baby.”

“Oh. Well. It seems there is a lot of bad behavior going around.”

“Really?”

“Yes. My grandson just walked in on his fiancée in bed with another man.”

“Oh, no. I’m so sorry.”

That was much worse than what I was dealing with. Garrett had cheated on me, but finding out a year and a half after we were broken up wasn’t the same as it would have been if I’d walked in on him when we were engaged.

“He says he’s fine, but that may be why he didn’t stop by to see you last night.”

“Your grandson…” I knew that she had two grandsons. One, I thought she said, was married and his name was Derek, and the one who had the stick up his ass was the one who I assumed was engaged, was named Declan.

Even though I wasn’t a fan, I still didn’t think he deserved to get cheated on. I wondered if that was also one of the personal issues he had to deal with this morning.

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