Page 87 of A Summer Mismatch
He boiled water for ramen, the only good food he had left in his house, and sat at the table to read her book. It was different, reading a picture book without pictures. Julia had written the text out, and with each new paragraph marked as a new page, she would put a description of what she wanted the picture to look like.
Still, he fell into the story easily, laughing at Lulu’s adventures of learning what kind of elephant she wanted to be: a serious elephant, a playful elephant, the smartest one in the herd, one who followed the crowd or one who led. It was whimsical and delightful, and she depicted so many of his very favorite elephant characteristics through Lulu’s antics. In the end, Lulu decided that just being herself was the best kind of elephant she could be.
He reread it a second time and then a third, his smile growing bigger with each read as he noticed new things he hadn’t noticed the first time. Like her illustration description of an elephant keeper wearing rainbow-colored zebra-striped scrubs. Or when Lulu let her sister put mud on her face to help her look pretty, only to realize her sister had no idea what she was doing—after mud was spread everywhere.
Julia had encapsulated not only what it was like to be an elephant, but what it meant to be a human, too, in so few words.
Her talent was staggering. And even more, he knew how busy she was this summer, and he was impressed she’d managed to write this in such a short amount of time. He thought about texting her how much he loved it, but he wanted to talk to her, let her hear the admiration in his voice that might not come through in a text.
But he needed to text something.
Logan:Julia, I’m so sorry. My phone has been off. This has been quite a week, but that’s no excuse for me going off-grid. I’d like to talk. Call me?
He called the conservation center and spoke with Allison, who assured him that Adia was pretty much back to normal. Adia’s trunk called playfully in the background, and the sound warmed him. It assured him that he could run to the grocery store first, then head into the wildlife center, and after that, have dinner with his grandparents, who may, apparently, be texting the entire time he was there.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Winnie
Rosa:Polly and I have been talking.
Polly:It’s really very simple.
Rosa:It works in all the romance novels.
Polly:It’s the only way.
Walt:What?
Rosa:We need to get the two of them stranded together somehow.
Walt:Yes.
Nancy:I love it.
Don:Where, though?
Polly:In the ocean, perhaps?
Rosa:Perfect! In a boat without a paddle.
Winnie:Please don’t kill off my granddaughter.
Polly:Okay, no, you’re right. Lost at sea is a little intense.
Harry:What about the lake?
Polly:Stranded in the middle of Paradise Lake without oars?
Rosa:Allegra Winters had a scene like that in her last book.
Polly:That’s where I got the idea from!
Rosa:It ended in a steamy kiss.
Polly:Exactly.
Don:But one question.
