Page 34 of Faking I Do
“What’s going on?” I asked. It wasn’t like my dad to get worked up over something so weird. Wasn’t like my dad to get worked up over something, period.
“I said we’ll talk about it later,” Pops ground out. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, okay. Tomorrow.” I parted the curtain and moved down the hall. Whatever my dad and pops were up to appeared to be getting out of hand. Before I had much time to think about it, my phone rang.
The sight of Lacey’s number surprised me. I figured she needed longer than a couple of hours to cool off after I’d shut down the Phillips House.
“Did you call to apologize?” I asked.
“Absolutely not. I called to let you know that I’m going to be shopping for wedding dresses in Dallas this weekend so you’ll have to hold down the fort here in town.”
“Who’s the lucky guy? Do I know him?” I assumed she was joking, but my heart pinched the tiniest bit at the thought of Lacey getting married. Whomever she chose as her groom would be one lucky bastard.
“Very funny. I caught up to Adeline and convinced her not to cancel.”
“Good job. How did you do that?” For a moment my heart swelled. Lacey could do just about anything she set her mind to.Hopefully I’d figure out my dad’s secret before she got a whiff of something rotten going on there.
“I told her the armadillo used to be the caretaker’s pet.”
“Armadillo? From what I heard you’ve got armadillos, a total infestation. They wouldn’t close you down for a single armadillo.”
“I know. But she bought it and that’s all that matters.” A low groan came through the phone. “Now somehow she’s convinced that I need to go to Dallas with her to shop for the perfect dress.”
I couldn’t stop the deep chuckle from escaping. “So a girls’ weekend with one of your favorite home gals, huh?”
“It’s not funny. I need to be here, planning for the opening, taking care of our rogue pet issue, and making sure everyone stays on task.”
“One weekend in Dallas isn’t going to derail you.”
“That’s what you think. You’re not spending two days with Adeline.”
“True. What’s that saying about something not killing you makes you better?”
“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
“That’s right. Just think of Adeline as your personal strength coach.”
Lacey sighed. “This had better work.”
“The weekend in Dallas?”
“Not just that. Restoring the house, my proposal to rename the town, all of it. If it doesn’t, I don’t know?—”
“It will.” The uncertainty in her voice pulled at me. I’d say anything in that moment to ease her worry, even though I had no idea whether she was right about her plans for the town or not.
“Thanks, Bodie.” The waver in her voice did funny things to my stomach. Made it flip over on itself, kind of like how I felt the first time I caught a snake—a little uncomfortable but pretty proud of myself all at once.
“So when do you leave?” I asked, trying to shake off the weird sensation.
“Sometime on Friday. Any words of advice?”
“You’re on your own with this one.”
“Gee, thanks. And here I thought we were in this together.”
Together. Another wave of flip-flopping hit my gut. She didn’t mean anything by it. But I still couldn’t shake the sliver of unease sliding around in my belly. “I’ve got your back. If anything goes wrong, just give me a call, okay?”
“And you’ll race up to Dallas and save me?”
