Page 21 of Say You Remember Me
“Nice to meet you, too,” I said, bobbing my head and smiling at each of them.
“Anything we can help with?” Freddy asked, glancing around the backyard.
Sloan shook her head as she looked over the setup. “I think we’re good. I just need to grab the wine from the fridge.”
“I can grab that for you,” I offered quickly. No need to make her run back inside when I was already halfway there.
“Thanks, Maddie,” Sloan said gratefully. “There should be three bottles on the bottom shelf.”
I headed back inside toward the kitchen, but just as I was about to walk in, the doorbell rang. Sloan probably couldn’t hear it from outside, so I went to get the door. When I pulled it open, I found myself looking up at a handsome man who was probably close to thirty with chestnut-brown hair and green eyes. He stood there, holding a bowl of what looked like cheese dip in one hand and a bag of pretzel crisps in the other.
He blinked at me, looking surprised, then glanced past me at the house as if double-checking he was at the right place.
“Are you one of Sloan’s friends?” I asked before he could say anything.
He nodded, his shoulders relaxing. “Yeah.”
“Great! I’m Sloan’s niece. She’s just out back,” I said, stepping aside so he could walk through.
“Thanks,” he said, still seeming a little thrown off but grateful.
As he headed outside, I made my way back to the fridge, grabbed the bottles of wine Sloan had mentioned, and carried them out to the backyard.
Sloan and her friends were all chatting around the fire pit, lounging in the patio chairs she had arranged. After placing the wine bottles in the ice bucket next to the wine glasses, I glanced over at Grant. He was sitting on the grass, ripping out handfuls of it to add to one of his grass piles.
Oh no. Not again.
I hurried over to him and crouched down, keeping my voice low. “Hey, buddy, don’t rip out Aunt Sloan’s grass, okay?”
He looked up at me, the brown eyes that he’d inherited from his dad full of innocence, like I hadn’t already asked him not to rip out Sloan’s grass three other times since moving in. But thankfully, he dropped the handful he’d just torn out and seemed to decide that he would stop…for tonight, at least.
“Is it time to read books now?” he asked, seeming to notice only then that we weren’t the only people in the backyard.
“Sure.” I nodded. “We can read a few books before the movie.” Since yeah, if my boy who had struggled with reading this past school year was asking to read books with me, I was for sure going to take him up on it. “Let’s go pick out some books.”
Grant took a moment, glancing at his stick and pocketknife on the grass nearby. Knowing how tempted he might be to start carving indoors if he brought the stick inside, I said, “How about we leave the stick outside for the night? You can finish your masterpiece tomorrow, all right?”
He picked up the stick that currently resembled what my brain really hoped wasn’t supposed to be a phallic object. After standing up, he carefully set it on the edge of one of Sloan’s planter boxes.
“Maddie, you should come hang out with us!” Sloan called out as we walked past her and her friends.
I bit my lip, unsure of what to do. Sloan’s friends all looked like they were a few years older than me, closer to her age. But even if I wasn’t sure how much I’d have in common with all of these thirty-somethings, itwouldbe nice to have some adult time. Aside from Ian, most of my co-workers lived in New Haven, and I hadn’t really talked to anyone from Eden Falls yet.
But then, I glanced down at Grant and knew I should probably spend some time with him before he called it a night.
“I’m going to read a few books with Grant first,” I told Sloan, feeling torn. “But I might be able to come out later while he watches a movie.”
“Perfect,” Sloan said with a warm smile.
I smiled back and led Grant inside.
“All right, buddy, go pick out a few books for us,” I said when we made it to Sloan’s cozy living room.
Not needing to be told twice, he darted over to the coffee table where Sloan kept a basket of books. Once he found a few favorites, we settled on the couch. I couldn’t keep the grin off my lips when he opened up Dr. Seuss’s bookFox in Socksfirst since it had always been one of my favorites, too.
I mean, who could resist the fun challenge of reading all those tongue twisters as fast as possible? Definitely not me.
And now that Grant was becoming a better reader, I could tell he was getting into it, too.
