Chapter 31 Miles
THIRTY-ONE
Miles
I watch as Grandma leads Lucy all the way into her trailer, and I finally turn back to my FJ Cruiser.
Lucy can handle Grandma. And the way Lucy smiled at her, I know she genuinely likes her.
Funny how when you get to know someone, you begin recognizing their different smiles.
The polite one, the forced one, the genuine one.
Opening the back hatch to get the tent out, I get sidetracked when I hear the crunch of gravel. I turn to see Mom walking toward me. She stops right next to me, a peculiar look plastered on her face. I expect her to start grilling me about Lucy, but she has something else on her mind.
“Hey, honey. I’m really sorry, but Kelly and Ben are here this weekend.”
Ben is my cousin on my mom’s side, who’s slowly integrated with the Granger side. Grandma and Grandpa have claimed him and his family but still want one of the Grangers to get married and give them a grandbaby. It’s greedy if you ask me.
“That’s great. I haven’t seen them in a long time. Why are you sorry?”
Mom grimaces. “Because they have the baby with them and they forgot that their tent was so small.”
“Oh, I forgot they had the baby. She’s pretty young still, isn’t she?”
I haven’t seen Kelly and Ben since Christmas, and she was extremely pregnant by that point.
“Ten months already,” Mom says. “They want to put her in her pack-and-play to sleep at night, but I don’t think it will fit in their tent.”
She points over to a small tent, where I see Kelly and Ben trying to shove a pack-and-play inside. The tent isn’t remotely tall enough to fit the crib.
That’s when I realize what my mom is suggesting. “Mom, do you want my big tent?”
“You don’t have to, but I was just kind of wondering if you would mind swapping with them. That way, they could fit the crib in there.”
I glance back at their tiny, two-person tent and then at my giant one.
I mean, Lucy and I would fit in theirs, but that would be awkward.
On the other hand, everyone thinks we’re happily married, so it would be even more awkward to make a fuss about it.
Especially when my cousin is just trying to hang out with the family for the weekend and it’s their first camping trip with the baby. It’s always a learning curve.
“No problem. That would make the most sense, wouldn’t it?”
Mom reaches out and squeezes my hand. “Thank you so much, sweetie. I was going to offer them our tent, but Dad’s back is still bothering him and needs to be on that cot.”
Right. My stubborn dad, who’s had back issues for a couple years and refuses to get it checked out.
I glance at Ben and Kelly’s little tent. If Mom and Dad put the cot in it, he would have his face pressed up to the top of the fabric.
Switching my tent with theirs is the only logical thing to do.
“Okay, I’ll take care of it,” I tell Mom before I walk over to where Kelly and Ben are staring at the tent in dismay. The baby is sitting in the pack-and-play, chewing on a stuffed animal.
“Hey, guys!” I grin down at the baby. “Hi, Penny.” She smiles back, two bottom teeth sticking out. “Why don’t you guys just use my tent instead of this one? Mine’s plenty big for the crib. We could just trade for the weekend.”
Kelly looks at me with wide eyes. “Oh, we couldn’t do that. We couldn’t take that from you.”
Ben looks at me with relief on his face and says, “Of course we could. Sounds fantastic.”
Kelly looks like she might start crying.
“I didn’t even think about the tent. I brought his sound machine, all of his bottles…
I think I brought two hundred diapers. I brought some sleep sacks to keep him warm.
But I didn’t remember that the crib wouldn’t fit in the tent.
I can’t believe this. I’m a horrible mother. ”
My eyes go wide. “That doesn’t make you a horrible mother,” I tell her. “You were so focused on the baby. That’s a good thing.” I pat her shoulder awkwardly. “Besides, you’re camping with the Granger side of the family. You know we always bring way more camping gear than we need.”
Kelly relaxes at that. “Are you sure?”
“Don’t even give it a second thought.” Because I’ll be doing enough of that for both of us. “Lucy and I will use your tent, and you use mine.”
Ben looks like he’s about to weep with happiness, so I shoot them both a quick grin and walk away.
I grab the tent out of the back of the FJ and go to set it up at the site next to Kelly and Ben.
I hope Lucy is surviving my grandparents, but judging by the laughter coming from the trailer, they’re probably in there having a nice hot cup of coffee together, while I deal with the mess Mom got us into.
I don’t know how I’m going to explain to Lucy that my big tent just shrank.
I unzip the bag, pulling out the tent poles and laying them along the ground.
Maybe I can convince her that tents shrink with age.
I’m sure I could make up something that maybe she’d believe.
She said she didn’t have that much experience camping.
But she’s not that much of a sucker. She’d never buy it.
Ben walks over. “Hey, let me set it up at least. I’m going to feel extra guilty if you set up your tent for us too.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”
Ben nods quickly. “Let me keep a little bit of my pride. I forgot that we had such a tiny tent. You’re doing me a huge favor.”
“Well, thank you. I’ll say hi to Grandma. I haven’t seen her yet. She stole Lucy, and they’re somewhere around here, probably getting into trouble together.”
Ben grins. “I still can’t believe you got married, man. I can’t wait to meet her. Bring her over when I’m done setting this monstrosity up.”
Mom cuts me off as I head toward Grandma’s trailer, and she wraps me in a hug.
“Thank you, sweetie. I hope this doesn’t put you out too much.”
“I hope not too. This is Lucy’s first time camping.”
Mom leans back and looks at me with wide eyes. “Oh no. I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have asked you. She’s going to think you always camp like this. Oh well. Don’t worry. I have a very soft sleeping pad I’ll bring over and put in the tent for you. At least that will be comfortable.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I lean over and kiss her on the top of her head. “That would be great. I’m gonna need every little bit I can to butter her up.”
Mom gives me a quizzical look.
“I convinced Lucy to take precious time off for this trip. I want her to have fun.”
“Of course. That makes sense. Sure sounds like she’s having fun right now.”
I glance at the trailer that seems to be rocking. Maybe I’m imagining it. Maybe not.
“You don’t suppose you just married a young version of your grandmother, do you?” Mom asks with a twinkle in her eye.
I can’t help but chuckle. “They’re pretty different.”
Mom waggles her eyebrows. “But they both seem to enjoy having fun.”
I agree with that.
“I always have fun with Lucy,” I admit to her.
“Son, you seem lighter around her, and I like that for you. It makes me happy to see you happy.” She pats my arm and walks away.
Mom has noted a shift in my moods based on whether I’m around Lucy or not. Which is dangerous territory. Because Mom’s right.
If I seem happier around Lucy, it’s probably because I am.
I open the door to Grandma’s trailer and walk inside. Grandma and Lucy are sitting on the couch together, looking at a photo album.
“I really hope that isn’t what I think it is,” I say, narrowing my eyes as I stare at the book. It looks like she brought the old family albums. “Grandma, are you trying to sabotage me?”
“Of course not, dear. I just felt like Lucy should know more about you,” she says with a mischievous grin.
Lucy’s shoulders are shaking as she picks up the book and flips it around so I can see the picture she was looking at. It’s one of me when I was five—and I’m wearing a bra like a hat.
“Not my finest moment, okay? I was trying to become an airline pilot,” I say with a chuckle.
Lucy grins back at me. “There’s some great stuff in here. I’m so glad I came over here. Do you need help setting up the tent?”
The tent. Right. That was why I came in here—to explain the situation. But now I can’t say anything to her in front of Grandma because, well, that would spoil the whole thing, wouldn’t it?
“Don’t worry about it,” I say with a weak smile.
She doesn’t have to worry about anything except sleeping right next to me for the next three nights. Oh gosh. I hope I don’t snore. That would be embarrassing.
I don’t know about past bed-sharing mishaps, but we can survive three nights in a tent. It will be fine. Just a matter of getting her to be okay with it.
“I was going to grab your stuff and put it in the tent. Do you want me to leave anything in the car so it’s easier to get to?” I ask her.
“No, that’s okay. I think it can go in the tent. Why don’t I come help you?”
“That sounds great. Grandma, I’m stealing her before you can tell her any other embarrassing things about me.”
“You’re ruining all the fun,” Grandma says, handing the family album to Lucy and following us out the door of the trailer.
“Sorry for leaving you to set up the tent,” Lucy says as she follows me to the grassy area where the tents are set up. “But I doubt I would’ve been much help anyway.”
“Oh, no worries. Someone else set it up for us.”
I glance around to make sure no one is close by. Everyone seems to be out of earshot, so I lean in close to Lucy and whisper, “We have a little bit of a problem.”
Her eyes go wide. “What kind of problem are we talking about?”
“The kind of problem that involves a very small tent.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but her eyes go even wider.
“I thought you said you had a huge tent. That we were going to be ‘camping in a palace’—your exact words on the ride over here, I should remind you.”
“About that…That was an unfortunate promise that I gave you. My mom gave my tent away.”
Lucy looks frantic. I grasp her arms and gently turn her so she can see Kelly and Ben moving the porta-crib into the tent.
“My cousin forgot he had to fit a crib in their tent. I couldn’t say no.”
“Oh, sure. Bring a baby into the fight, would you?” Lucy grumbles. “It’s not like I can say no now, right?”
“Well we could…but it might not be the best first impression on the family.”
She smacks my chest. “Oh, well. I can make do with a small tent. It’ll just be a very…normal experience, right? People don’t need giant tents to sleep in. Reasonable-sized tents are perfectly fine.”
Her eyes finally settle down into less shock—until I grab her shoulders and point her in the direction of the tiny tent.
“That’s our tent.”
She looks at it and blinks slowly. “Is that for your pet mouse? Because I don’t think one person could fit in that tent, much less two.”
“It will be snug, for sure. But the good news is, you won’t have to worry about getting cold.”
“Oh goody,” she says. “I don’t think we can even sit up in that thing.”
“We might be able to—” I stop myself. “Actually, it’d look strange if we both slept in the car.”
“I guess there’s only one thing we can do,” she says seriously.
“And what’s that?”
“Snuggle.”
I bite back a groan at the thought of having Lucy pressed up against me all night. I like to think I’m a good guy, but I’m not a saint.
“You wait here.” My voice sounds gravelly, even to me. “I’ll go get our things.”
And maybe walk ten miles to cool off.