The Art of Falling in Love with Your Fake Fiancé: A small town closed door romantic comedy (Sweetkis

19. Levi

NINETEEN

Pulling up outside of the apartment building where Georgie’s staying, I navigate my car into a parking spot. I’d just finished my morning coffee and was still reveling in the fact that the swelling had gone down in my face when Georgie texted me. A pipe had burst this morning and the first floor was flooded.

As soon as I put the SUV in park, I hop out of the vehicle and race up the steps to the front door. I knock on it a few times and wait. I’m a little surprised, to be honest, that she’s not out here waiting for me. Her text made it sound like she was on the Titanic and it would go down if I didn’t get here in time.

I raise my hand and knock on the door a few more times, wondering where she could be. Backing down the steps, I decide to go around to the back entrance. I spin around only to run straight into Lorna.

“Whoa!” she cries out, putting her hands up to stop me from barreling into her. “Where are you headed so fast?”

What are the odds I would continue to run into this woman all over town? Sweetkiss Creek is small, but come on.

I incline my head toward the building. “Georgie’s using my apartment and she said a pipe burst.” I move past Lorna and start to walk away only to have her call out behind me.

“Well, I guess I’ll wait here for you?”

“Wait for me?” I stop in my tracks, then spin around to face her. “Why?”

She cocks her head to the side and looks at me like I just sprouted ten heads. “Because of that email you had Georgie send me?”

The plot thickens. “What email?”

“The one asking me to meet you here to talk,” she huffs.

I’m starting to get an idea here that one bookshop owner may have tried to do the ole switcheroo.

Something out of the corner of my eye catches my attention in the window of the first floor. I look over to find Georgie standing just beyond, peeking around the curtain. She jumps back, trying to disappear into the shadows, but it’s too late.

“Georgie,” I command with as much authority as I can muster. “Can you open the window for a moment please and clear something up?”

The window slides up and she sticks her head out. “Okay, I know I may have overstepped by lying to you both, but you two need to talk.”

“Indeed, young lady, you overstepped,” Lorna says, going to her usual stance of hands on hips. “I”ve got better things to do than be here trying to talk sense into Levi.”

“No one needs to talk sense into anyone,” I say, feeling slighted. “Anyway, if someone is going to talk sense into anyone, it will be me when I talk to you. I cannot seem to get it through your head that your son wanted me to be…”

“And this is why I tricked you two,” Georgie shouts as she claps her hands with each word. She’s like a mini Judge Judy. We’ll call her Judge Georgie. “Levi, you want the best for that sweet boy and you need to get that across to Lorna without insulting her or reminding her of what her son wanted.”

Putting aside the fact I feel like she’s just slapped me upside the head, she’s right. However, she’s not done. She turns to Lorna.

“And you’re so busy wanting to win some contest that involves your grandson as the prize, you need to see what is actually going to be good for him. And that’s Levi.” She then fans her hand in front of us, like a blackjack dealer showing her hand. “Now, I’ve got my own mess to clean up that doesn’t involve a burst pipe, Levi, so stand down. I’ll leave this with you two to discuss from here. Good luck, and may you each be able to see the other person’s side.”

With that, she disappears from our sight and shuts the widow, pulling the curtains tight. I need to hand it to her. She’s a low-key genius. Trickster, but genius.

Lorna turns her back to me. “I’ve got nothing to say that I can’t say tomorrow in court.”

“Come on, Lorna, let’s try talking to each other and see where we get to.” I walk around so I’m standing in front of her. “I’ll start. I’m sorry.”

She glares my way. “For what, exactly?”

“I’m sorry that Tom’s gone. I think about him every day and what he would do or want. I think about his marriage to Katie and how lucky I was that I got to be his best man for their nuptials. I think about my first pro game and looking up in the stands and seeing them there, cheering me on.” I laugh, the memories of years gone by starting to wind me down. “I’m also sorry for that time you had to get us out of jail because we were egging people’s mailboxes in high school.”

A tiny snicker escapes her lips. “You two were funny when you were together.”

“Your son made me a better man, you know. He was the one who, when we had to do community service for that egging, made me go. I was going to skip it and he would show up at my house to drive me to our check-in.” Tom was always the guy who everyone wanted to hang out with, including me. The cool guy who got the best grades, always dated the best girls, and seemed to excel at anything and everything he wanted to do. Like Midas but only he was in high school, and living in Sweetkiss Creek.

“You lived at our house that one summer, when you two did football camp.” Some of the anger that had been flashing on her features seems to fade as we chat. “I’ll never forget that. Your mom and I spent a lot of time together those days watching you boys play from the stands.”

I nod, the memory is fresh for me, too. “I hate that we’re here now.”

“Me, too.” She sighs. “I don’t recognize myself right now, Levi. Honestly.”

I can see tears welling in her eyes and I know she’s in the same place I’m in, where Duncan is but even more so. She’s a mother mourning the loss of her only son. Her shoulders shake mildly; I know she’s trying to hold back her tears and I feel like an intruder. Even though we’re here talking, I feel like this is a very private moment she needs to have and I’m not supposed to be here.

“I keep telling myself that if I have Duncan with me, I can make it all go away. This feeling inside, the one that is eating me up.” A tear drops onto her cheek, making its way down the side of her face slowly. “You know, I fought with him the day they died. For a long time, I couldn’t remember the last time I told him I loved him.”

Her words hit me in the stomach, but they also open my eyes to who she is and why. The pain she’s in—it’s a mother’s pain and filled with intense heat and sadness. All I’ve done is buck against her, not see her side. I’ve been fighting her since she laid down the first smack and not putting myself in her shoes. My mother always taught us to look at things from others’ perspectives so we can get a better view of the world. Now that I am, I can see she’s hurting with more intensity than I ever could have imagined.

“He knows you loved him,” I say, and she nods, wiping at her tears.

“I know that now, but it took a while for me to get there.” She crosses her arms in front of her chest, as if she’s giving herself a hug as she sizes me up. “Goodness, how he loved you. How much they both must have loved you to want you to care for their son. And what does that say about me? That they wouldn’t want me to be the one to take over?”

I want to hug this poor woman right now. Everything in me says not to, but instead I decide to just do it. The world needs more hugs anyway, right?

“It doesn’t say anything bad about you, Lorna,” I say, pulling her into my arms as she collapses against my chest and sobs. We stay like this, unmoving, and I let my own tears start to fall as well.

After a few minutes, she pulls away, wiping at her cheeks as she takes a big breath of air.

“I’m sorry for that, Levi,” she says as she smooths back her hair and straightens her shirt. “I don’t think I’ve taken the time to properly mourn them and say goodbye. I’ve spent too much time focusing on Duncan and keeping him going. I didn’t want to fall down on the job, you know?”

“I get it,” I say, acknowledging her feelings. “I’m the same. In fact, I’ve got Duncan in therapy now so he can work on his feelings around their death and I’m going to work on mine, too.”

“That’s smart.” Lorna looks off in the distance. “When you suggested he go to therapy last year, I should have listened. I thought I could make it all better.” She waits a beat before looking at me. “I’m starting to see why Tom wanted it to be you,” she says sheepishly.

“I want what is best for Duncan. That’s you, me, my mom, and Austin.” Movement at the front window catches my eye, and I look up to see Georgie has changed locations and is at this window now watching us. “Even that nutbar, Georgie, who I am falling in love with. She is really good for him.”

Lorna smiles. It’s faint, but it’s there. “Really?”

I shove my hands in my front pockets. “He talks to her, you know.”

Lorna raises one of her nineties-era thin eyebrows, arching it in surprise. “How did she get him to open up?”

“It’s what she does. He likes being around her. He’s talking to all of us more these days, and I have to give her the credit.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “I want us to be a family, all of us, together if we can. But it’s up to the courts now, I guess.”

She nods, her eyes rocking up to where Georgie stands before coming back to mine. She reaches up, pats my hand, and then moves it off her shoulder as she steps away.

“I should get going, Levi.” She starts to walk off, turning back and pausing for a moment to smile and wave at Georgie. She then looks back my way. “She is special, that one. That took some straight-up gumption to invite both of us here like she did today. This could have gone a lot worse.”

With a final bow of her head, she turns around and walks away.

Leaving me with a little more insight into a woman who is hurting way more deeply than I’d known she was before.