Page 24 of Once Upon a Boyband
“Mostly from my mother who, despite my insistence that I have nowhere to wear any of these, still dreams of me being a girly girl anyway.” I grab a pair of strappy sandals from theback of my closet. I wipe the dust off the straps before sliding them on, then step back into the bedroom. “Okay. Be honest. Is it too much?”
Percy looks me over. “You should be a girly girl. You’re rocking this.”
I step around him and go to the full-length mirror in the corner of my bedroom. “I don’t mind the dresses. I like to get dressed up. If you ask me to put on eyelash extensions or fake nails, we have a problem. But…” I look down at the dress, which does a nice job of accentuating my waist. “This much dressing up I don’t mind.”
“I think you look gorgeous. And it won’t be too much. He’s taking you to Olive’s. It’s the nicest place in Lawson Cove.”
It’s been a full week since I gave Adam a ride out to Hope Acres and he blew up my phone with an adorable string of texts. We’ve texted every day since then, and we talked on the phone for over an hour when he called to ask me out. But tonight will be the first time I see him in person in a week.
Usually, when facing social situations, I have to really pump myself up, convince myself it will be worth the effort. My social battery tends to deplete pretty fast, so I’m very picky about where and how frequently I’ll hang out with friends. But I need no convincing to spend time with Adam. Weirdly, I don’t even feel nervous about tonight.
I apply a thin layer of lip gloss, then turn away from the mirror. “Okay. I’m done. I can’t look at myself anymore.”
“I promise you’re gorgeous,” Percy says. “Here. Look at these instead. Mimi just sent them over.”
He holds out his phone, and I take it, scrolling through the photos of what looks like his eighty-eight-year-oldgrandmother at some sort of party. In the last photo, Mimi is holding up a silky nightgown, showing it to her friend, Ethel, whose head is thrown back in laughter. “Wait. Is this…?” I look up at Percy. “Is she at a lingerie shower?”
Percy nods. “Ethel is getting married, and Mimi thought she needed to refresh her wardrobe.”
“Isn’t Ethel older than Mimi?”
“By two years, and she’s still younger than the groom.”
It took exactly one visit to the Shady Pines Assisted Living facility for me to decide that Percy’s grandmother has a far more interesting social life than I do. The drama is rich, and Mimi always seems to be right in the center of it all.
“Want to come to Bingo night next week? Mimi says she has a new boyfriend, and she asked for you specifically. Said she’s anxious to give you all the dirty details.” My eyes widen the slightest bit, and he holds up his hands. “Her words, not mine.”
I stifle a laugh. “You know I won’t miss bingo night. But tell Mimi if I win this time, I’m keeping my prizes. She doesn’t get to keep them just because she lives there. That’s not how prizes work.”
“Tell her yourself,” Percy says. “You know I can’t say no to Mimi for anything.”
Percy’s grandmother is the entire reason he’s still in Lawson Cove and not down in Atlanta. When she could no longer live on her own, he volunteered to move to Lawson Cove and stay with her. That worked for a few months, but eventually, her needs were more than what Percy could manage on his own, so she moved into Shady Pines. I guess technically Percy could move back to Atlanta now that she has round-the-clock care, but he’ll never leave her. He’s thereat least three times a week, and I know how much she means to him.
He likes to minimize the fact that he moved away from a bustling city and a thriving social life to be close to his grandmother, but I realize how big it is. Especially considering hownot willinghis mother—Mimi’s daughter—was to do the same thing.
“She’s lucky to have you,” I say, and Percy’s gaze catches mine, gratitude evident in his expression.
“And I’m lucky to have you,” he says.
I scoff. “What? You think I spend all this time at Shady Pines for you? I want to win myself a foot spa. Those bingo prizes are legit.”
Percy rolls his eyes. “Okay. I’m leaving you to your sexy dog-whispering lumberjack. Have fun tonight.”
“Lumberjack?”
Percy looks at me like my question makes zero sense. “The flannel? The beard?”
“Wearing flannel doesn’t make him a lumberjack,” I argue, though it doesn’t take much to imagine Adam wielding an ax. He’s definitely got the build for it.
A knock sounds on my front door, and Percy and I both freeze.
“He’s here!” I whisper-shout to Percy. Forget what I said about not being nervous. I’m suddenly terrified. “What do I do? He’s actually here!”
“You go answer your door, you dummy,” he whisper-shouts back. “Then you go have dinner, fall in love, and make dozens of lumberjack babies.”
I swat at Percy’s arm as I walk past him and into the living room, where I cross to the entryway. I take a steadyingbreath, pressing a hand to my belly, then I swing open the door.
Oh.
