Chapter 8 - Benny #2
“Whatever. My dad’s so excited! He showed me the sketches and told me they are going to the meeting together tonight.” She held up her leash-free hand for a high-five. “WTG, soon-to-be stepbrother.”
He groaned. “Olivia, you have to stop.”
“What? Why? Don’t you want them to fall in love and get married?”
“Not as much as you do,” he said, kicking at a patch of snow. “Anyway, it’s not about…all that stuff. They’re doing it for marketing reasons, so no more dumb…romance.” The word tasted like dirt in his mouth.
Olivia frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. My dad’s excited. He was humming while chopping carrots last night. Humming, Benny. He likes her. I can tell.”
“That’s not proof.”
“It’s data,” she insisted.
“Olivia,” he said patiently, “we can’t interfere anymore.”
“But—”
“My mom told me to stay out of adult stuff. So we’re staying out. End of story.”
Kat barked as if she agreed, but Olivia planted her boots and lifted her chin. “No. We’re not giving up.”
“Olivia!”
“Come on, Benny. They’re already working together. They have chemistry. They’re single—”
“Stop saying that word!”
“—and they like Christmas!”
“Everyone likes Christmas.”
“Exactly! Common interests!” Her eyes gleamed with determination. “We just have to…increase the probability of romance.”
He groaned. “You can’t make people fall in love. It’s not like science.”
“Says who? There’s chemical attraction, emotional resonance, shared responses—”
“They’re not your personal lab experiment, Olivia.”
She just grinned, which made him so mad, he could scream.
“If I can prove they like each other, will you help me, Benny?”
Benny could probably already prove it with one picture of his mother blushing every time Marshall’s name came up. “How?” he asked.
“The usual—observation, testing, controlled conditions. Maybe a little…” She fluttered her fingers like the Wicked Witch about to throw apples. “Assistance.”
“Olivia.”
“Come on,” she said, laughing like this was a game. “We’re the smartest kids in sixth grade. We can solve this.”
“There’s nothing to solve,” he said. “Just leave them alone and maybe…”
“Maybe nature will take its course?”
He wasn’t at all sure what she meant by that, but he wouldn’t admit that.
“And if you won’t help, fine.” She shrugged and flicked her fingers. “I’ll do it myself.”
“Do what?” Although he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know.
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “But I’m going to do some research. I’m going to put together all the elements necessary for the human brain to think it’s in love. Then I’m going to make it happen. Yes, I am. If you don’t help, I don’t care.”
He stared at her, thinking about the hurricane category scale they’d learned in science this afternoon. Olivia Hampton was a Cat 5. A human tornado. An avalanche. Name a disaster, and she was it.
Kat barked again, then promptly dove into a snowbank, emerging covered in white. Olivia brushed her fur. “See? Even Kat believes.”
“Kat’s trying to hide from your insane ideas.”
She let out a laugh that sounded like the bells around Copper’s neck when he was pulling the sleigh.
“Do you want to be kept apprised of my plans or are you one hundred percent out?” she asked.
Apprised? Who said apprised? Besides Benny, no one. Except…Hurricane Olivia. “Keep me apprised,” he muttered, turning away. “I better get back to the bakery.”
A minute later, he slumped into a seat across from Grandpa.
“How’d the debrief with your partner in crime go?”
Benny shook his head. “She’s still scheming. No matter what I said, she was, like…determined.”
“Women. Can’t live with ’em, can’t bear life without ’em.”
Oh, Benny could bear it all right.
Grandpa leaned back, eyes twinkling under bushy brows. “So, what’s the latest plot?”
“She wants to prove my mom and her dad are secretly in…” He couldn’t say the word love. “Into each other,” he finished. “Or do some kind of wacky experiment that will help them get there. What am I going to do?”
“When you’re in a swamp called ‘lady logic’? There’s no easy way out.”
Benny huffed out a breath. “But she wants to do this and I should help, just to make sure she doesn’t do something that really upsets Mom, but if I help, that will upset Mom.” He grunted, hating circular logic.
Grandpa leaned forward, with that same look he’d given Benny on the ice. “You got a good heart, Benny-bean. That’s why you keep getting yourself into trouble. You want everyone to be happy.”
“Is trying to make everyone happy bad?” he asked.
“Nah. It’s what makes you a Starling man.” He reached across the table and tousled Benny’s hair. “Which we’ve been missing for a few generations. All those girls!” He rolled his eyes. “You just learn to pick your battles. Like, say, don’t pick one with your mama.”
His mama. The one who would kill him, ground him, remove all computer privileges, and probably take away any hope of getting that phone if he did exactly what Olivia was thinking about doing.
Benny looked out the window, just in time to see Olivia walk inside Craving Clean with her dog, making his whole chest feel…weird.
Was that because maybe Olivia was right? Or because he just couldn’t say no to that girl?