AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She has the comedic sensibility of a nine-year-old. “Avery.”
She sighs. “I need to find a dress for that fundraiser your grandmother is doing. Some of the money is for the shelter, and she thinks I should be there.”
“Ah. She got me too.”
“You have to go. I don’t.”
“What do you mean I have to, but you don’t?”
“I meant that you’re related to her. She’s your grandma. Me, I’m just a stray who rents her house.”
Immediately, the description angers me. “You are not a stray, Avery. Estella really likes you.”
She glances up, surprise lighting her dark brown eyes. “Excuse me?”
“My grandmother really likes you.”
“Oh.”
“So, she invited you because she likes you. She spent most of the morning chatting about all you do.”
She snorts. “I don’t do much.”
“You are very involved with the shelter.”
“Well, yeah. I like animals. But it’s not like I’m a volunteer fireman or the sheriff. Both of those jobs freak me out. I mean…running into a building on fire?” She shudders. “And I’m not allowed to have a gun again.”
“Wait, what happened with a gun that you can’t have one again?”
“It’s not like…a rule or a law. It’s just that Fritz made me promise not to do it again.”
“Do what again?”
She frowns at me. “Handle a gun. Fritz said that I couldn’t pay attention well enough. He was teaching all of us about guns—”
“All of us?”
“Cora, Liv, Gerry, and me. Are you alright?”
“What?”
“I mean, you seem like maybe your blood sugar is low. Maybe take a hit of that milkshake. Although, why someone would want to drink vanilla is beyond me.”
I have somehow lost control of the conversation. I’m not sure why I do it, but I take a sip of my milkshake. Another memory almost overwhelms me as the sugary sweetness hits my taste buds. God, that was good. I take another large sip.
“Good, right?”
I look at her, this little woman, and she is kind of small since she barely comes up to my shoulder, and I wonder what she’s doing to me.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Not nothing. You’re looking at me like, well, I’m not sure what you’re looking at me like, but I’m not sure it’s something I like.”
My lips twitch. “There’s a lot of likes in that sentence.”
She opens her mouth to respond, but her phone vibrates on the table. “Ah, his name is Norman Adams.” She looks at me. “Does he look like a Norman to you?”
