Page 60 of Chapel Bend

“You sound surprised every year,” Grandma says with a laugh. “I would think that you’d be used to this by now.”

“You outdo yourself every year.” I shake my head in wonderment at the cool draperies and all the fancy décor throughout the whole downstairs of her house. This year, because the weather is supposed to cooperate, she had the back patio cleaned up so people can sit out there to talk, eat, and socialize. “You gained some square footage out back.”

“If that weatherman is lying and it rains, I’ll be mighty pissed off.”

“He wouldn’t dare lie.” I turn and smile at her. “I love it. Lauren’s coming in tonight.”

“I’m well aware.”

“Did you get her room ready?”

“I’ve been busy, haven’t I?”

I simply stare at her in horror. “Annabelle Snow.I offered to do it myself days ago, and you said you’d handle it. I believed you.”

“I’ll do it.”

I shake my head and stomp up the stairs and into the room Lauren used to sleep in that’s across the hall from mine. It’s being used as a catchall for things that we mean to donate or just don’t have a home for yet, and it absolutely isnotready for my sister’s arrival.

“This is a mess,” I mutter, shaking my head. “What am I going to do with all this junk?”

“What are you callingjunk?” Grandma asks as she reaches the door. “None of this is junk.”

“Pretty much all of it is,” I disagree as I move boxes off the bed so I can strip it. “I can’t believe I didn’t ask you about this days ago. If I wasn’t distracted by a million other things, I would have. I wonder if Luna has any space at the inn. We could put Lauren there for the week.”

“Nonsense. There’s plenty of room here.”

I strip the bed and toss the linens into the hallway. “We would have if we’d taken the time tocleanit. Never mind, I’ll do it. She won’t be here for a couple of hours. I can do it.”

“I don’t know why you’re carrying on like you are,” she says as she grabs a pile of clothes and stuffs them into an empty tote. “It won’t take long. There’s hardly anything here.”

I glance at her, at the pile ofstuff, and then back to her. “Right. Nothing at all.”

With a roll of my eyes, I carry the linens to the laundry, pop the sheets into the washer first, and then hurry back to Lauren’s room, where I find Grandma paging through an old photo album.

“You were the cutest baby.”

“I don’t have time to walk down memory lane with you, Grandma. Not today.”

“Fine.” She snaps it shut and sets it on a shelf. Then, to my surprise, she digs in and helps me clear the stuff off the floor. “There’s space for all of this in the attic.”

“Great,” I mutter and set the first box in the hallway before I pull down the drop ladder that leads to the attic. “I’m going to climb up here. Can you pass me stuff so I’m not going up and down?”

“I can do that,” she confirms. “Unless it’s heavy.”

I sigh again and close my eyes, but Grandma can’t see me because I’m already upstairs.

Without giving it another thought, I call Cullen.

“Yo,” he says when he answers.

“Can you come to Grandma’s and help me with a few things, or are you working?”

“Just got off. I can come over there now. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just need your muscles.”

“It’s so tough on a guy, being stereotyped all the time.”

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