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“Nah.” Ray waved his hand dismissively. “Everything else can wait. Grace always puts her work first anyway, so she’ll be happy to get together with you. Right, Grace?”
“Uh, sure.”
“Great.” Lincoln gave her a quick smile. Her stomach flipped.
“So what’s a good time for you, Lincoln?” Ray asked.
“Six or seven?”
“That’ll work. Right, Grace?”
Her father was trying to get rid of her. There was no other explanation. He was tired of Monopoly and he knew she’d make fish or salad for dinner, so he was dumping her off on Lincoln.
She supposed there were worse fates in the world.
“How about six?” she asked.
“Sure.” Lincoln pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled. “What’s your address?”
He’d have to come over. She did not love the idea of him seeing her shabby little cottage, but all her lesson plans were on her old desktop computer and she didn’t have a laptop.
“She’s at 243 Sycamore, over by the harbor,” Ray said helpfully.
“Got it.” Lincoln put the address into his phone and slipped it back in his pocket. He put his earbuds in. “See you at six. I’ll bring pizza.”
He jogged off, his stride long and certain, his body moving with effortless facility, like a machine. Grace couldn’t have torn her attention from his retreating figure if the ghost of Hamlet’s father had shown up on the beach.
“Nice fellow.” Ray started ambling in the opposite direction.
Grace hurried to catch up. “What was that about?”
“What?”
“Did you just set me up with him?”
“Withhim?” Ray widened his eyes and jerked his thumb in Lincoln’s direction. “Why would I do that?”
“Well, you were a bit pushy,” Grace said. “For you, I mean. It kind of felt like a set-up.”
“I wouldn’t do that.” Ray shoved his hands into his sweatshirt pockets and kept walking. “He’s not good enough for you.”
Grace stopped in her tracks and stared after him.
“You coming or what?” he called.
She quickened her pace again. It wasn’t until they were back at her car that she realized she had exactly four hours to come up with an entirely new curriculum that somehow included Lincoln’s books…which she knew nothing about.
