Haunted Hope by Inés Saint (13)

Hope pushed herself off Matt’s chest and quickly slid out of the car. She came around, hands raised, yelling, “It’s me, Hope. Matt and I were just checking out his rear entertainment system.” Matt guffawed and Hope felt a flash of anger, at herself for sounding ridiculous, and at Alex and Josh for always popping up with their stupid guns. “Put your guns down, now, Starsky and Hutch. Aren’t there rules for how you two use those things outside work?”

Guns were lowered, but Alex gave her a quelling look. “There are rules, and we both follow them,” he said. “But you know all the trouble that’s happened around here this past year. I just got home, and Monchito told me he saw a minivan he’d never seen before driving into the garage. He said that a while later two people went into the garage and never came out.”

“I thought Sherry said Monchito didn’t speak English,” Hope said in a dry tone.

“Really?” Josh frowned. “He told us he’s a retired English teacher from Chicago.”

“Did he tell you what he’s doing here?” she asked next.

“He was vague.”

“And what are you doing here?” she asked Josh.

“I called for backup,” Alex explained.

“Seriously, Alex? You needed backup to check out a minivan?” She rolled her eyes.

Alex glowered. “If you’d seen even one-tenth of the things I’ve seen, you wouldn’t roll your eyes.”

“Whose is it anyway?” Josh asked.

“It’s mine,” Matt said, stepping out of the shadows and coming around to the front.

“Dude. Why?” Josh asked.

“Check it out. You’ll see.” Matt sounded as confident as if he were about to show the other two men a Ferrari. Alex and Josh put their guns away and headed to the minivan. Hope rolled her eyes yet again and left them to it.

Half an hour later, Matt came in carrying a grocery bag.

“You went out for groceries?”

“The guys wanted to take my new wheels out for a spin, and I remembered your fridge is nearly empty. I’d like to cook for you sometime this week, to thank you for letting me stay.”

“You cook?”

“I love to cook.”

“What will you be making?” she asked.

“My famous parmesan-crusted chicken.”

She smiled. “I’ll make my famous roasted pepper pesto pasta then.”

“You’re not going to turn this into a competition, are you?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.

She laughed. “No. I just want to help. It’s no fun to cook for myself or by myself.” She got up to help him put everything away. “Paige, the kids, Gracie, Grandma Sherry, and I cook together all the time. And now Alex and Josh join in, too, and it’s a lot of fun. Some Sundays, Ruby, Rosa, and Grandma invite all the families over, and it’s total chaos. The best kind.”

“How in the world do you assign kitchen duties?”

Hope explained, and added a few funny anecdotes that showed the chaotic part. Before long, they were talking about their favorite food-related memories, which led to favorite trips, with stories, because they both enjoyed a good story. Not once did they mention their explosive kiss in the car, and Hope wondered if it was as close to the surface of his mind as it was to hers.

Somehow, the conversation circled back to the kitchen, and when she caught herself picturing Matt smiling at her from across the room during a chaotic family Sunday dinner, she pretended to stifle a yawn and said goodnight.

An hour later, as she lay on her bed, still awake, still replaying their day in her head, and still trying to figure out how they kept managing to become even more tangled up in each other’s lives, she realized he’d never once spoken about memories from when he was very young. At least not while she’d been awake.

It sunk in then, that if the memory of Matt saying those words was real, and he was telling her things about himself while she was asleep, then he deserved to know she was having flashbacks. She owed it to him after he’d behaved so honorably and honestly with her. And she probably ought to tell him before she went to sleep and possibly sleepwalked. She closed her eyes to gather her courage. Not because she was afraid to tell him, but because it would lead to a new entanglement.

The moment she opened her door, she heard Zeus’s snores, and it went a long way toward preparing her to speak to him about a difficult, intimate subject. How serious could they get with Zeus snoring like a freight truck nearby? She peeked in, but Matt wasn’t in bed. Frowning, she made her way to the living room where she saw Matt lying on the sofa. She went to him and looked down, to see if he was asleep. He opened one eye. “Hope?”

“I’m sorry, were you asleep already?” she asked.

He hesitated. “Do you know who I am?”

She bit back a smile. He thought she was asleep. “The Wizard of Oz?” she asked, thinking back to the movie. “Because my grandmother says I lost my heart, and I’m trying to find it. Do you know where I can find it?”

“Uh, no. I’m Matt, Matt Williams. The man who’s fixing your house up for you. Remember?”

Hope’s face fell. He didn’t know she was awake! Which apparently meant she really did sound like a nut when she was sleepwalking. “I was kidding, Matt. I’m awake. I just needed to talk to you about something.”

Still, he seemed unsure. “Let me walk you back to bed.” He started to get up, but she sat beside him and gently pushed him back down.

“No. You don’t need to walk me back to bed.” She opened her eyes real wide and looked into his, not sure what she had to do or say to get him to believe her. “I’m wide awake. See?”

He studied her through narrowed eyes. “What did we do today?”

She straightened, ready to tell him. But the expectant look in his eyes was too cute to pass up. “Your house fell on top of the Wicked Witch of the East. You killed her. The monkey king is upset.”

“Okay,” he said, sitting up. “Let’s talk while we take a short walk back to—”

She put her hands against his chest and started to laugh. “I’m joking. We went to the car show, you bought a sexy Velvet Red Pearl minivan, we went to eat at Schmancy Burger, watched a movie in the minivan, almost got shot, and you’re probably on the sofa because Zeus is snoring like a hog with asthma.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Remind me to tell you the story of the little girl who cried wolf.”

“I know that one.”

“Do you?” he asked, moving a fraction of an inch closer. His lips were so near, and the look in his eyes…

She pushed him back down. “We need to talk.”

His blanket had pooled around his hips, and she focused on the moonbeam shining on his forehead so she wouldn’t have to look at his naked torso. “Shoot,” he said, sliding one arm behind his neck.

Hope met his gaze. Uncomfortable talks were best started by looking a person in the eye and quietly introducing the issue. “I’ve been having flashbacks, Matt, for the first time ever. It started when we were all outside in the lobby yesterday, right before I decided you could stay. In my mind’s eye, I saw you hugging me to you while we lay together on a brown sofa. You were whispering to me, and though I remembered the words were comforting, I couldn’t remember what you said.”

He looked away for a moment, before meeting her eyes again. “And that’s why you decided to let me stay, to see if you remembered anything else?”

She nodded. Now came the difficult part. The central issue. “This morning when I woke up, I thought I remembered bits and pieces of our conversation from last night, but I wasn’t sure. I thought it could all be part of a forgotten dream. Later, in the kitchen, you confirmed most of what I remembered, except for one detail. I didn’t mention it to you because my mind was processing too much for me to think it all through clearly—not because I wanted to withhold anything from you. But tonight, before I went to sleep, I remembered the detail again, and it hit me that if you’re telling me things about yourself while I’m sleepwalking because you think I won’t remember them, then I should tell you that I’ve been having flashbacks.” There. She had laid it all out.

“Then I know what detail you’re talking about, because there’s only one thing I didn’t mention this morning.”

Hope nodded.

His eyes were serious. “I’m telling you because I don’t want to lie to you and have you think that your mind is playing tricks on you, but not because I want to talk about what I said. I don’t. Not because I don’t trust you, but because it’s not just my story to tell. I do have something else I feel I should tell you, though, and I’m not sure you’re going to like it. Just please know that I’m telling you because I think it’s relevant, and because I want to help you.”

She looked at him expectantly, with her hands folded on her lap, not sure how she felt. He’d shut her out, again. And she respected his feelings on the matter, but it still made her feel even more uncertain about everything that was happening between them. They were friends. And sometimes, they were more than friends. Not just because of the kisses, but because of… everything. And now he wanted to tell her something she might not like. “Shoot,” she said, because, despite everything, she always preferred meeting unpleasantness head on.

“Hope… I know you were actually pregnant.”

Her heart stopped. Her eyes felt hot. She stood.

He sprang up and gently put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m telling you because I figured it out only through your actions while you were sleepwalking, not because you’ve ever talked about it. And that’s my one observation for you. That you never talk about it.”

Hope couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t move. All she knew was that she had to focus on something else. Anything else.

“I can’t talk about the man who hurt my mom, Hope. But I will tell you that I never knew my father.”

She looked up and searched his eyes. He hugged her to him and she let him, because she knew what he was doing. Giving her something else to focus on.

Her heart felt as if it was breaking, all over again, not because he was hurting her, but because he was making her believe in him. “Can we lie together on the sofa again, like the other night?” she asked against his chest, hoping he’d say yes, and that it would quiet the turmoil inside.

He led her to the sofa and they lay down, facing each other and looking into each other’s eyes for a long time. “Oxytocin?” she said with a smile, as the calm began to wash over her.

He scooched closer and pressed his lips to her forehead. His body felt good against hers. She laid her hand on his waist, where she felt his scars underneath her hand. Is this how the man had hurt him? She traced the scars lightly with her finger and his breath hitched. “Does it hurt?” she asked, thinking it didn’t make sense. The scar was old.

“No. It feels good…like it might finally heal,” he whispered against her skin as he smoothed her hair behind her ear. Tears clogged Hope’s throat at those words. She knew then Matt was hurting, too.

“Close your eyes,” she said, and when he complied, she slid down to drop a few soft kisses on his scars. But before she could slide back up next to him and seek his warmth, Matt had slid off the sofa too, and was on his knees in front of her, gently laying her on the floor. He splayed his hands on her belly before leaning down to kiss her there, too, as if he knew that was where her deepest wound was. Tears began falling down her cheeks and when he came up to kiss them, she lifted her hands to his face and brought his mouth down onto hers for a hungry, openmouthed kiss.

He rolled them onto their sides and hugged her close. It felt as if they kissed forever. Healing kisses, slow, deliberate and deep. His hands explored her body, grazing here and there, heightening the sensations of his kisses. The blood in her veins felt like liquid heat, and she dragged her mouth away from his, needing to feel his hot, minty breath mingle with hers for a few beats.

“Let’s go,” he whispered, his finger dipping below the hem of her nightgown. She shivered.

“Where?”

“To bed,” he said in her ear. He got up and held his hand out to her, helping her up before sweeping her off her feet and carrying her to her bedroom, whispering promises of being very, very good to her until her body was all nerves and anticipation. He laid her on the bed and climbed atop her, bracing his elbows on either side of her and nudging her knees apart with his so they were touching in all the right places. Their hearts thundered against each other and soon they were kissing again, hungrily, pausing only to help each other remove their nightclothes.

When finally they were skin to skin, they moved slowly and purposefully, never losing eye contact, their breaths hot and heavy, their bodies fevered, and her heart, at least, ready to explode.

Later, when the soft morning light began to slip through the curtains, urging her eyes to open, Hope wished she could stop the sun from rising, or at least slow it down. Matt was beside her, his breaths even against her cheek, his warmth and his scent surrounding her. She felt at peace and wasn’t ready for the world outside her bed.

She opened her eyes then and watched him sleep. Matt was good and kind. She felt it. It filled her. Outside her bed there were realities that needed to be faced. She and Matt were not in a relationship. They couldn’t be—not until she brought to light whatever was hiding in the shadows within her. Everything Matt kept to himself frightened her on a deeper level, a level she hadn’t fully been aware of. But that wasn’t Matt’s problem. It was hers. And recognizing it had given her focus. Hope took a deep breath and got up.

A woman had to do what a woman had to do.

Her first order of business was to send a text and a request to her sisters and grandmother. The fact that it would be the second time she needed them that week caused her momentary distress. They had their own lives. But she knew it was for the greater good. Her sleepwalking was holding too many people hostage. She had to solve it. For her family, who worried about her, for her employees who had built a life in the region and wanted to stay, for Justin who needed resolution so he could get started on an exciting new chapter in his life, and for Matt who was putting himself on the line because he believed in her.

Matt woke up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the sound of someone tinkering in the kitchen. He opened his eyes and stretched, and then shook his head and smiled when he saw Hope had already made her side of the bed. Message received. He got up, made his side of the bed, and debated whether he should brush his teeth before he had his coffee. The thought of setting Hope on the kitchen counter for a leisurely good morning kiss settled it. He went to brush his teeth. But by the time he came out, Hope was gone.

He frowned. No good morning kiss, no goodbye kiss, no goodbye. Did she regret last night? He jogged to the door, thinking there had to be time to catch her if she’d just left. When he opened it, he saw Hope being marched through the front door of the building by none other than his mom, his stepdad, and Sherry.

“Look who I found coming up the walkway,” she said, meeting his eyes. There was nothing he could read there. No guilt for leaving without saying a word, but no regrets or awkwardness, either. Without thinking, he went to the front door and looked toward the bridge again. The sun was still rising, and he couldn’t see anything but faraway headlights.

Matt pasted a smile on his face, turned, and said, “Hey…gang. Good morning. What brings you to town?” He went to hug his mom.

She hugged her to him hard. “Why didn’t you tell us your house had burned down?” she asked, and he felt like the worst son in the world when he heard her voice crack.

“I didn’t want you to worry,” he whispered. “But I’m fine. So is Zeus.”

“I know you’re both okay because that nice Sheriff Walker told me. But how could you keep this from me? I—I almost died when I stopped by for a surprise visit and saw the house burned to the ground.” She released him and took a step back, looking at him with wild, anxious eyes.

Matt wanted to erase her worries, but he was too aware of their audience. He knew she would never stop feeling guilty about the time he’d spilled the pot of boiling water on himself, even though it hadn’t been her fault, and that seeing his house burned down had to have brought back the memories of his severe burn wounds. But it wasn’t a good moment to revisit any of that. “They think it was the electric panel, Mom. There’s a recall on it. When a circuit breaker gets overloaded and overheats, the breaker is supposed to trip and shut off. It didn’t,” he explained, to help her disassociate any memories of his long-ago accident with this new one.

“I’m just happy you’re okay.” And then she began to cry.

Matt hugged her back again. He had questions for them, too, but it was clear his questions were inconsequential for the time being.

“Now how did you get out? What do you have left? Why are you staying here? I thought Hope was only a colleague?”

The next step would be to invite them in to talk it all out, but he wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. It was Hope’s apartment, not his, and the story involved Hope’s sleepwalking. He felt he should tell them about it, to further explain and ease his mom’s anxieties, but with Hope there, and after everything that had happened last night that they hadn’t yet talked about, the circumstances were… awkward. To say the least.

“Why don’t you all come in? It’s a long story, and I’m afraid it involves me,” Hope said, reading his dilemma and stepping up to the plate. He threw her a grateful look.

“What do you mean, it involves you?” his mom asked, uncrossing her arms as she walked into the apartment. She looked lost, as if she still wasn’t sure whether or not she could give in to relief.

“Grandma, do you mind making coffee for everyone?” Hope asked.

“I’ll be happy to,” Sherry said as she made her way to the kitchen.

Hope turned to his mom and Logan and invited them to sit down before taking a deep breath and letting it out. He’d never seen her hesitate until that moment. Ten minutes later, Hope looked about as uncomfortable as he’d ever seen her.

“So you and Matt have become close because of your sleepwalking, and your sleepwalking saved his life?” his mom asked. “I know you called it a curse, but I think it’s a blessing! You wouldn’t have met him otherwise, and you wouldn’t have saved his and Zeus’s lives. Is there a reason you keep coming back to that particular house?” she asked. Matt shook his head at her and she covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, normally I’m the last person to ask personal questions. People can be so invasive and intrusive, and I stay away from all that. But I’m just so relieved, and so thankful to you, that I’m not thinking straight.” For the umpteenth time, Matt stifled a groan. No, his mom wasn’t thinking straight. But it was his fault, for not calling to tell her about the fire.

At least now that she’d become quiet he could ask his questions. “Why did you stop by the house so early?” he asked Logan.

“We stopped by before work, to drop off Zeus’s favorite toy that he hid when he stayed with us,” Logan explained. “Remember we looked everywhere for it?” Matt nodded. “Well, it was under your bed in your old room, behind a baseball bat. I found it while vacuuming.”

“And how did you find Sherry?”

“We asked Sheriff Walker if he knew where you were staying, and he said that the girls at the Gypsy Fortune Café and Bakery would know,” his mom answered.

“He called us girls?” Sherry asked with a giggle and a rosy blush.

“He sure did.” His mom smiled as she got up. “Well. I’m still not happy that you didn’t tell me about your house, but what’s done is done. Unless there’s anything else you want to tell us?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I bought a new car.”

Two jaws dropped. “You bought a new car?” his mom and stepdad repeated in unison.

“Yeah.” He frowned. It wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t like he was stingy or cheap. He just loved his old car.

“What did you with the Vega?” his mom asked next.

“It’s in the garage out back.”

“What did you buy?” Logan wanted to know.

“A Chrysler Pacifica.”

It was Logan’s turn to frown. “You mean the red minivan parked out front?” Matt nodded. “So you have the Vega in the garage, and the brand-new car parked outside?” he asked next.

Matt shrugged again. “When it earns a place in my heart, it’ll earn a spot in the garage.”

“You bought a minivan,” his mom said, as if it had just sunk in.

“Yes.”

“Minivans are to carry kids around,” she continued, eyes wide and sparkling.

“And dogs.” He was quick to point out. “I’m getting Zeus a companion.”

“Metis,” Hope added, helping him out.

His mom went over to Hope, hugged her as hard as she’d hugged him, and said, “Thanks for inviting us in. And for saving Matt’s and Zeus’s lives. And thanks for everything,” she added, looking into Hope’s eyes with a big smile. It took a lot to embarrass him, but that did it. When Sherry and his mom hugged as if they were family, even Hope blushed. Then Sherry pinched his cheek and said, “We knew we liked you!”

Matt raised an eyebrow at that. “Really? Then why’d you put me through the whole séance-tarot-dessert reading?”

“You’re unreadable—not unlikeable. And no one’s unknowable when we’re on the case. You’re a good boy, Matt,” she said, patting his cheek and speaking to him as if he were Zeus.

“Séance-tarot-dessert reading?” his mom asked, squinting in interest. “That sounds like fun.”

“It’s not,” Matt warned her. “It’s really not.”

“Stop by to the café again after work. Ruby will be thrilled to give you a reading,” Sherry offered before turning to Matt. “You come, too. We didn’t use the cowrie shells on you.”

“Cowrie shells?” Logan repeated.

Sherry’s grin became so wide, it made her look like an angel-imp. That was Matt’s first clue that he wouldn’t like what was coming. His second clue was when Hope shot out the front door. “The shells will tell us how many kids he’ll be carting around in that minivan,” Sherry explained.

It was Logan’s turn to grin. “That does sound like fun.” He turned to slap Matt’s arm. “We’ll meet you at the café at six, son.”

“No one invited you,” Matt called after him. When the front door shut again, Matt turned to Sherry. “None of that flame and fire stuff tonight, Sherry, please. Not after what she went through this morning.”

Sherry nodded. “I’ll tell Ruby. And don’t you worry. We’ll make it fun for your mom. I promise.”

Matt studied her a moment. He believed her. But when he went inside the apartment, he thought he heard her say, “And don’t you worry, we’ll make it fun for you this time, too.”

* * *

The first thing Hope did when she walked into Friendly Clicks was ask Maya to meet her in her office. When Maya walked in, her expressive face and eyes revealed her misgivings about being called in for a private meeting first thing in the morning. “I did it for all of us, Hope. I did it for you, the employees, and my family,” she declared the moment she sat down, her tone and demeanor loving and confrontational at once.

Hope bit back a smile. No wonder she hadn’t been as effective in North Carolina as she’d been here. She hadn’t had Maya by her side. “I understand.” She had begun to suspect Maya because she had been acting strange lately. Anxious and too eager to please. And going to the DBDA first and not leaking anything to the media had been a good move—it pointed to someone who was both loyal and smart.

“Good.” Maya relaxed and settled in. “’Cause it’s been hard managing everyone’s anger about what’s really going on with Friendly Clicks when everyone down in North Carolina keeps dropping hints, and it’s been doubly hard keeping it all from you. Never have my loyalties been set up against each other like this. No one likes being kept in the dark about their future, Hope, so I get everyone here is mad. But then I know you’ve got your issues you’re dealing with and that you’re trying, too, but I know I can’t tell anyone, so I had to do something. Volunteering to be the employees’ voice with the DBDA seemed like my best bet to keep it all from blowing up. And don’t ask me how I know about your issues,” she preempted the moment Hope opened her mouth to ask. “I’ve fielded enough calls from your family, and I just have a sense about these things. Ask Ruby.”

“Fair enough.” Hope nodded once. “I just wanted to call you in here, figure out if it really was you, and if it was, thank you for managing everyone’s feelings during uncertain times, and really just clear the air, so you and I can work together on this, too. I feel like things haven’t been the same between us because you’ve been holding back, for understandable reasons, and I’ve been holding back that I suspected it was you who spoke to the DBDA because I didn’t want you to blame Matt Williams and not trust him. He never even hinted it was you. Like you, he’s been trying to do right by everyone.”

“Like you, too, Hope. Don’t forget that.”

Hope looked down a moment. The next part was personal, and she wasn’t used to mixing business with her personal life. When she looked up, she met Maya’s eyes. “That’s why it took me so long to call you in here, because I wasn’t sure you knew that. But I decided to take the risk this morning because I think I’m close to solving my personal issue, the one that’s kept me from committing to doing what I need to do to buy Friendly Clicks.”

“You mean your severe sleepwalking when you’re in town.”

Hope shook her head. She shouldn’t be surprised Maya knew. “Right. The thing is—I do think I’m close to solving it. But there’s a chance I won’t. There’s a chance it’s just too dangerous for me, and maybe even for others if I stay. Maya…” Hope blew out a breath. “There’s a chance I may have been responsible for burning Matt Williams’s house down.”

Maya’s eyes widened. “That’s why you called in sick yesterday?” She got up and began to pace. “I knew about his house, his admin told me, and I wondered if there wasn’t something going on between you two—the day you two met there was something there, I sensed it—and I wondered if that’s why you didn’t come in to work, because you were helping him get through it, but I never, never, would’ve guessed—” she stopped abruptly. “I’m sorry. That was insensitive. You said there was only a chance it was you. It might not have been you. Go on.” She sat back down.

It took a moment for Hope to get her mind back on track. “If I don’t find a solution to my problems, and Friendly Clicks needs to move, I’ve decided to be honest with everyone about everything, so that they don’t collectively trash the company’s reputation. If we lose our reputation and membership goes down, jobs will be lost. I don’t want that to happen. Can you help me manage the fallout? You’ve been here from the start, you know the truth, and everyone trusts you.”

“Get up,” Maya ordered her. Hope got up. “Of course I’ll help. I do know the truth. And you and I are going to hug this out.”

They hugged, tight, and Maya said, “I feel the love. I felt it the other two times we’ve hugged—when you left and when you got back.” They stepped back from each other. “I think I’ll take that VP of Human Resources position you keep offering me,” Maya continued. “I kept saying no because the future was too uncertain, but I’m getting the sense now that it’s all going to work out. Wait till you hear the idea that hit me last night, when I was thinking about you and Matt and Zeus and how cute you all looked outside that day—you’ll give me a raise on top of the raise.”

Hope hid a smile and didn’t remind Maya that the position she’d been offered had never had the letters “VP” in front of it. She suspected Maya knew. But if the letters “VP” were important to her, then Hope would add them. “So, what’s this idea?”

“A dog!”

Hope frowned, not understanding. “A dog?”

“Mhm.” Maya nodded. “I called this guy who trains both service and therapy dogs and he said you probably need one who does both. He can help you choose the right dog and then help you train it to sense your changing sleeping patterns. The dog can then soothe you when he senses you’re at the point where you sleepwalk. It’s worked before. But if you sleepwalk anyway, it can also be trained to guide you back to bed.” Maya got up and went to Hope’s computer. “Here’s his website.”

After looking through the website, she began to feel somewhat hopeful. “Maya, you may just be the most genius person I know.” She looked over at her fantastic employee with a smile, but her thoughts continued to race. “But let’s keep this between us for now. I don’t want to tell my family until I have more information, and until I feel confident it could work.”

* * *

That evening, when Hope stepped into the Gypsy Fortune Café and Bakery, she stepped into chaos. The kind she usually loved. Her entire tribe was there. The three owners of the café and all their local children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and friends. Over the chaos, she heard Matt’s voice exclaim, “One child and three dogs?”

“Are you sure it’s not three kids and one dog?” his mom asked. “Maybe you should throw the shells again, Matt. They told you to close your eyes and believe.”

Matt looked up and their eyes met across the crowd. He smiled. It felt like everyone else in the room disappeared, which was some kind of magic, considering. She offered him a small smile back before looking away. She had decided that morning that she was going to set herself free, but nothing was going as planned. Not since the moment she’d left her building only to be marched right back in by her grandmother and Matt’s mother and stepdad.

Paige came up to say hello and Hope whispered, “I thought you, Gracie, and Grandma were going to take a little trip with me. You said you’d gotten Helga, Hilda, and Alex to babysit the kids at your house.”

“We are. I did.”

“Then what is this?”

“Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow and Ruby decided to celebrate.”

“Today’s Groundhog Day?” Hope asked. Ruby always called for a party on Groundhog Day, whether Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow or not.

Paige nodded. “But don’t worry, Alex, Hilda, and the kids are already on their way out. I just said my goodbyes.”

“What about Helga?”

“She’s flirting with Monchito.” She pointed over to where Helga was leaning against the wall and staring into Monchito’s eyes. “I’ve gotta say, when Rosa said she thought those two would hit it off, I thought she’d lost her marbles. But look at them.”

Hope looked. “Maybe you should tell Helga to smile more. I’m not sure Monchito knows she’s flirting.”

“Monchito flirts and smiles enough for the both of them. Anyway, let’s go extract Grandma and Gracie. You said we needed to be on our way by six thirty.”

Hope nodded. “It’s time.”