Page 128 of Happiness for Beginners

I said the first nickname that came to mind: “Hey, Honey Badger.”

Just then, he seemed to notice that he was still clutching my shoulders. He let go with a start and stepped back. “You look amazing.”

I looked down at my pink party dress. No threadbare coat, after all. I shook my head and looked back up. “What are you doing here?”

“Grandma GiGi brought me. As her plus-one.”

“You came with GiGi?”

He nodded. “Nice dance moves, by the way.”

“You saw that?”

He shrugged. “My favorite is the Beverly Hilbilly.”

I shook my head. “Why are you here?”

“Well,” Jake said, “first of all, Duncan left a panicked message on my phone, filling me in on the whole Pickle debacle.”

“We’ve worked that out,” I said.

“He was actually afraid that he might not live to see the morning.”

I turned back toward the dance floor, which afforded a clear view of Duncan dancing like Animal from the Muppets. “As you can see, I’ve spared his life.”

“So then I stopped by the house to check on him, and I found Grandma GiGi all gussied up. She invited me to be her date because her original plus-one had to get emergency bypass surgery.”

In the hallway behind him, the elevator dinged and a whole load of grandparents filed out.

“Also,” he added, “I’m staying here. At the hotel. I snagged a room on the way in.”

“At this hotel?”

He nodded.

“You can’t afford a room here,” I said.

“Sure, I can.”

“Not if you don’t have any money.”

“What makes you think I don’t have any money?”

“Because you had to beg a ride to Wyoming.”

He thought about it. “Those were extenuating circumstances,” he said.

“You seemed broke. You’re not broke?”

He shook his head. “I’m not broke. My mom left me a nest egg.”

My brain was on overload. “But you said you were short on cash.”

“I probably was. At the moment.”

What were we talking about? Had he answered my question? “So,” I said, to sum up, “that’s why you’re here tonight? You came home to save my brother’s life, rented a room in this fancy hotel, and decided to go on a date with my grandmother?”

Jake met my eyes. “Not in that order, but yes.”

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