Both of us instantly relax.
“I can be there tomorrow morning after my shift, Lily,” I tell her.
“Oh.” Her face falls. “I was really needing some help today. Tomorrow we are having a spiritual meeting in our attic with the girls. Jenny wants to practice some new spells.” Lily claps her hands excitedly as Luke quietly mutters, “Lord help us all.”
“But it’s filled with memories,” Lily continues. “And I need them moved to the new shed on our backyard.”
“I don’t remember you having a shed up there,” Luke muses, and I don’t have any recollection of that either.
“Yeah, I need that as well.”
“You need what?” I ask, slightly afraid I may already know the answer.
“The shed.” Lily smiles sweetly, batting her eyelashes at us.
“Today?” Luke deadpans.
“Mm-hmm. I thought if I could ask anyone, it’d be my two loyal sons. Since the one I’ve birthed for thirty-two hours left me all alone.”
Damn you, Callum. I groan inwardly and see Luke do the same. She had to pull the sons card. Lily might be small and sweet and look like she won’t hurt a fly but do not underestimate the woman. She’ll have you on your back without as much as one punch. And if we don’t go with her willingly right now, she’ll resort to“I still remember the day you took your first steps.”
“But if you can’t. I guess that’s all right, don’t worry about it. Dean’s already started on it, so I’m sure there’s not much left to do.”
This time we both groan out loud.
“Lily, call him right now and tell him to stop immediately! And step away,” Luke stresses. “Actually, tell him to get off the property all together.”
If there’s one thing Dean Lovinski is good at, it’s to manage a concussion and break all his bones just by hanging up a picture frame.
We all learned that the hard way.
Lily doesn’t even attempt to hide her victorious smile. She knows she’s got us real good now because there’s no way we’ll let Julie’s dad do anything by himself.
“How about rescheduling the meeting to another day?” I ask tentatively.
Lily shakes her head. “Nope, Jupiter is in the first house tomorrow and we can’t miss that kind of chance.”In what house?
Luke gives me a look that saysdon’t you dare ask any more.
“Um, okay. Jupiter, okay…” I scratch the back of my head. There’s no way we can get that storage set up for her today. Not with both Luke and me on shift.
I know I’ll most likely regret this, but I still say, “We can store your extra stuff at my place in the meantime. Would that work? I can get some time off to come help you move it all.”
“Really?” She arches her eyebrows. “Oh, how wonderful.” Lily jumps up. “I knew I could count on my favorite son.” She smiles and kisses my cheek.
“Hey, since when ishethe favorite?” Luke pouts.
“Be jealous.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him, taunting him.
But when Lily responds, it’s Luke grinning wide. “Don’t worry, it’s a rotating schedule. But if you’d like to secure that spot, Griffin, all you have to do is finally ask my daughter to marry you.”
Nope, I’m not grinning at all. Instead, I’m standing there, my mouth gaping when Lily adds nonchalantly, “Come on, honey, there are just a few boxes.”
A few boxes…
I glance around at what used to be my living room, but I can no longer make out where my couch or TV are. Because it’s all covered withafew boxes.
I was too distracted by her small comment—yes, the one about asking her daughter to marry me—to realize how many trips I’ve made back and forth.