If It Makes You Happy(37)

“You’re gonna have nightmares,” I say.

“No, I’m not.”

“Don’t let your sister watch it either. So, how’s Josh?” I ask.

She darts her eyes to Michelle again. Almost nervously. Then she looks back at me. “He’s fine.”

“So, you were at the video store today.”

She groans. “God, you’re so insufferable about him.”

“Doing my dad-ly duty,” I call, but she’s already ripping open the screen door to our house and clunking through the threshold.

“‘Insufferable,’” I mimic with two finger quotations. “She’s gonna ace the SAT with words like that.”

Michelle’s gaze lingers on the closed door before swiveling to me. “You don’t like Josh?”

“I don’t have many opinions about the guy. But he’s a teenage boy. And he thinks teenage-boy things.” I laugh under my breath and lightly kick the porch, sending our bench rocking back. “Her mom and I got together at that age. And, well, sex education didn’t exactly exist for us. So, Emily was our surprise.”

“You don’t want her to get pregnant,” Michelle detects, but it’s not a question.

“I want her to do whatever she wants to do,” I answer. “But I want her to be smart about it. I wouldn’t trade Emily for the world, but parenting was hard. Teenagers trying to parent is hard. We were so young. I don’t want hormones to make the decision for her.”

The front door of my house squeaks open again, and Emily holds out our phone. One hand covers the receiver as she yells, “Brittany, it’s Mom!”

I swallow. The heart-jerking moment of my ex calling never ceases to darken my good day like a light switch.

Brittany scrambles up from the grass and across the yard, saying goodbye to only Rocket and not me or Michelle. I shake my head with a grin, but Michelle stares at the front door for a second or two after it closes.

Behind us, the inn’s door creaks open, and a guest pokes her head out.

“Hi,” she says, looking at Michelle but lingering on me when I smile back at her politely. “Do you have any flyers for the Harvest Festival?”

“It ended last week,” Michelle answers quickly. It’s short. To the point. Not exactly irritated. Factual. No hint of a smile.

The woman’s eyebrows pinch together, and she nods. “Oh. Right. Well, thank you.”

Michelle nods, then turns back to me as the guest ducks back into the inn. The door snaps shut behind her.

I blink at Michelle, choking out a laugh.

“What?” she asks defensively.

I chuckle. “I’ll drop by for lunch tomorrow.”

“What? Why?”

“Trust me.”

“You’re inviting yourself over?”

“Pretty much.” I rise from the bench to stretch.

“Why?”

“Because we’ve got to kick-start those People Lessons.” I pocket my hands. “I didn’t realize it was that bad.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“That”—I point to the door—“was sad.”

Her face falls. “Really?”

“Oh. It was terrible, Michelle.”

“What did I do? I gave her the information she’d asked for.”

I tilt my head to the side and mutter a teasing “And you don’t even know what you did wrong.”

Michelle purses her lips and twists the corner of her mouth. “Fine,” she spits out. “Lunch tomorrow.”

“Attagirl.”

I head toward the stairs, but she stops me with, “And, Cliff?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re insufferable.”

I give a full-blown grin. I can’t help myself. “So I’ve heard.”





CHAPTER 11





Michelle




“Okay, them. Right there,” Cliff whispers.

“Why them?”

“Look at them,” he murmurs into my ear, his voice low.

Cliff and I are crouched at the top of the stairs, peering through the spindles of the banister that overlook Bird & Breakfast’s main parlor. A couple sits on the floral chaise below, rotating a floppy map of Copper Run and the surrounding Vermont area.

Cliff leans closer, resting his forearm on his knee and pointing. “They need help.”

“They have a map. They’re fine. They don’t need me bothering them.”

At work, I let my employees figure things out on their own unless they ask for help. Anything more makes it seem like I don’t trust them. How is hospitality any different?

He raises both eyebrows at me. “Are you serious?” He holds out a palm. “They clearly need advice.”

“No, they’re figuring it out,” I say. Of course, that’s the moment when the couple flips the map sideways. I cringe. “Maybe.”

“So, as their host, wouldn’t you love to offer some assistance?”

“I don’t know this town either.”

He chuckles. “Then you would figure it out together. How fun.”

Walking around this town is on my very long list of research to do. I love finding exactly what makes something so appealing that you can’t ignore it. It’s why I’m good at what I do. But I don’t mention that.