Page 122 of Overtime
Liv’s eyes light up. “Oh, yes. A grand gesture.”
“A what?”
“You know, flowers, chocolates—promposals are an example of a grand gesture.”
I scrunch my face up and glare. “I’m not going to do a promposal.”
“No, but like—” Liv gesticulates with her hands. “Just do something extraordinary, is what I mean.”
I turn to our older sister. “Did Cassiano ever do some crap like this for you?”
“I guess when he proposed last year, though he didn’t really need a grand gesture.”
“Are you implying I’m lesser than Cassiano?”
Luz bursts out laughing. “No, you knucklehead. You’re just different.”
“Plus, you, yourself, said you needed ideas, so there.” Liv folds her arms and lifts a shoulder like a queen who hath spoken or whatever. Maddie would know how to say that right.
I lean back, tucking my tongue against my cheek as I mull over this half-baked idea. It’s already more than I could come up with on my own.
“Okay, grand gesture. What are some examples that won’t shatter my self-respect?”
“You mean you wouldn’t writeI love U Maddieacross your moobs and flash her in public?” Liv cackles like a hyena, and I have to ask the heavens for a heavy dose of patience.
“Of course not. I’m not a stalker fangirl. And I don’t have moobs. I have pecs of steel.”
“Every grand gesture needs an event. You shape the actual gesture around that theme.” Luz speaks over us as if she’s the wise one here. Which couldn’t be farther from the truth. Except she’s making some sense now.
“Oh, good one,” Liv confirms.
I rub my head and back down my neck, racking my brain for an event. I mean, the biggest one is graduation, but that’s too far away. I can’t wait that long. Whatever time I have left with her, I’ll take. Then there would be the national championship, when the Bolts make it there, but she’s not even going to our games now. And her sister’s wedding already happened.
Then it hits me.
“I got it. Her debut book is launching next week.”
Liv gasps, excited, as if she’s reading one of her books.
Meanwhile, Luz makes us huddle again. “Okay, how about this…”
I start sobering up as we hatch a plan.
CHAPTER 36
MADDIE
“You guys are being ridiculous.”
Ryan hovers over my shoulder as she says, “We are so not. We’re protecting our talent.”
She’s wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt that doesn’t match the chilly early spring weather. But earlier, at the apartment, she said she wanted people to see her muscles and know they shouldn’t mess with her, and therefore me. Because today, she’s here as my bodyguard.
What she didn’t know was that Justin, my brother-in-law, was coming over, thinking the same thing. Except he’s in a plaid flannel that doesn’t hide his massive CrossFit guns, and he’s got a beard so thick anyone would think he’s going to pull an axe from under the table and throw it like a lumberjack warrior. No one would guess he’s the softest teddy bear and hasn’t chopped a log in his life. He’s a corporate lawyer who works on customer contracts at a desk every day.
Mom is also acting like I’m someone famous, asking the occasional reader who approaches me to sign my book to stay at a respectable distance. And Meg apparently really likes photography now, because all she’s done is take pictures of me from every imaginable angle, both when I did a first chapterreading and while a whopping ten people lined up for a signature.
It’s so embarrassing. My face has been a jalapeño all day. But I’m so touched I’ve cried twice in the bathroom already.
