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“So exciting,” Pippa sighed. “You finally got laid,” she said after a long pregnant pause.
“Says who?”
“Um, the over the top cheerfulness you’re displaying for one,” she said around a laugh. “Those little swoony sighs of yours, which I’m sure have to do with a certain ruggedly hot newspaper man.”
“Fine,” I admitted. “But it wasn’t the first time.”
“What? You’ve been holding out on me? What a bad sister-in-law you are!”
I laughed and unlocked the glass door before I made my way upstairs. “It’s a secret sort of thing for now, you know how gossip can be.” Levi was just for me, at least for now anyway. I didn’t have to share him or our activities with anyone else.
“How long do you plan to keep it from the world?”
I shrugged even though Pippa couldn’t see me. “I don’t know. Right now we work together, which doesn’t look good. And we don’t know what this is, or if it’s going to be anything. It’s too new for Carson Creek scrutiny.”
“If you’re sure,” she shot back in a sing-song voice that made me wonder if I was really sure.
“I’m not, but I will be. I’m at the office now Pip, gotta go. Talk later.” I had a few hours left to go over the stories that would appear in tomorrow’s paper, adjust the layout if necessary and get it off to the printers, but there was more than enough time to get the Sunday edition delivered by the crack of dawn.
“This conversation isn’t over Lacey, just paused. For now.” Pippa ended the call and I couldn’t help but smile at her bossy tone.
The front page story would, of course, be the Arts and Crafts Festival because it was what was considered front page news for Daddy. I even included a photo of Mickey making a mess of the hand churned ice cream that was always a big hit at every festival in town. Instead of following up the feel-good front page story with more fluff though, I added the small piece I’d written about the recall election of one of the judges from Levi’s story on Adrienne. It was a good balance, and even though I knew GG would yell down the house tomorrow, I did it anyway.
“So, you do still work here.” GG’s disgruntled voice came from right behind me and I let out a startled gasp.
“Did you think a ghost was putting the paper together each day?” A man who loved to complain would always find a reason to do so, even if no legitimate reason existed.
“How would I know when you haven’t been to the office in days?” He was in a mood to fight, and I wasn’t.
But Pippa’s warning from earlier rang in my head. I jinxed myself by proclaiming that nothing could ruin the day. “I have been in, that’s how come the paper still goes out each day. Unless you thought it magically put itself together and off to the printer’s each night?”
“Don’t be a smart ass.”
“Don’t say things just to make me mad. You sound like a grumpy old man.” I arranged and re-arranged the inside pages to make sure the necessary ads fit around the stories with the promised size margins. “What are you doing here?”
“Came to put the paper to bed.”
I rolled my eyes and kept my comments to myself. I am not going to argue with him. Not tonight. GG hadn’t put the paper to bed in well over a decade, because I was here every single night to do it. There were no vacations for me, no weekends away, just a few hours here and there to myself.
“That’s not right,” he pointed to the ad. “They always get the long banner style ad.” He tapped his finger on my screen.
“No, they usually get the banner ad. For this edition they got the postcard style.”
“That can’t be right.” GG shook his head and leaned over my shoulder until his face was mere inches from the screen. “You sure?”
I bit my tongue so hard I thought it might start to bleed. “Feel free to pull up the ad buys for the Sunday edition and check for yourself.”
He shuffled off to do just that, because suddenly I didn’t know how to do the same job I’ve been doing since I was a girl. My anger grew and I worked faster, determined to get this done before GG returned with more complaints. “I guess you were right,” he conceded reluctantly.
I kept my eyes on the layout until it was complete. I sat back and scrolled through everything one final time just as I felt the heat of my father against my back.
His finger slid over my shoulder and he pressed it right against the screen. Again. It was a small thing, just one more piece of evidence that he didn’t value me, my hard work or my opinion. “We’re not putting this on the front page, Lacey. How many damn times do I have to tell you?” He shook his head. “Stupid, stubborn girl.”
