“You made all these?”
“It was a joint effort,” she said proudly. “We had a sewing class and made these dresses.”
“A sewing class? You needed to be taught? I don’t want to be rude, Mabel, but even I can sew.”
I turned at the sound of Josh’s voice and fought the smile that desperately wanted to break out on my face. “When did you get here?”
“I brought Grandma some things from the store,” he explained, grinning a little too enthusiastically at me. “She told me I had to come and see the ducks and Mabel’s outfits. She’ll be here in a minute.”
“I can sew, young man,” Mabel said before I could reply. “But we needed a printer for the patterns. Duck dresses aren’t in our books, believe it or not.”
I could believe it.
“And if you two keep grinning at each other like that, people are going to figure out you’re sleeping with each other.”
My stomach dropped.
Josh recovered faster than I did. “What on Earth are you talking about, Mabel? You’re insane.”
“I’m not insane.” She dutifully laid the dress on her lap and folded it carefully. “Your faces lit up when you saw each other in a way they haven’t before.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then why can’t Miss Talks-A-Lot over there say a word?” She raised one heavily penciled eyebrow at Josh, nodding in my direction. “She’s the first to tell me I’ve lost my mind if my granddaughter isn’t here to do it for me.”
“I have never told you that you’ve lost your mind,” I protested.
“Interesting that that’s the thing you choose to argue,” Josh said dryly.
I glared at him.
“I knew it!” Mabel fist-pumped and pointed at us. “You are doing the dance with no pants.”
“Mabel, you have to be quiet.” I held out my hands and took a step closer to her. “Please. Nobody knows.”
Her eyes widened. “I was right?”
Josh shot me a look as if to say, well done, idiot. “Yes, you were right. We’re figuring things out and nobody knows. You won’t say anything, will you? We don’t want Colton to know until we’re ready.”
“Oooh, this is scandalous.”
“What’s scandalous?” Grandpa Randy said from behind me.
I turned and saw him approach with Josh’s grandma with her arm looped through his.
“Your granddaughter is sleeping with Vicki’s grandson.” Mable’s eyes narrowed when she saw them together. “Why is she with you?”
“Mabel!” Josh and I both said at the same time.
“About time,” Vicki said, releasing Grandpa’s arm and taking Josh’s. Her light-gray hair was pulled up into an elegant chignon, and I admired her ability to do her hair even with her arthritis.
If I tried that now, I’d have birds nesting in it.
“Thank you for the visual,” Grandpa said, coming over and kissing my cheek. “I assume your brother doesn’t know.”
“No. And we’d prefer to stay it that way,” I replied. “Until we’re ready to tell him.”
“He’ll not hear it from me.” He paused and looked at the duck. “The duck looks ridiculous, Mabel. He shouldn’t be wearing a dress.”
“It’s a she!” Mabel argued.
“No, she’s a he,” Grandpa continued. “Trust me. He doesn’t quack as loud as the other girls, and I requested a brown drake.”
“Why would you have a male duck?” Josh asked. “They don’t lay eggs.”
“To get ducklings.” Grandpa grinned brightly.
“Why else would he have a male duck?” I turned to Josh.
“To eat him?”
All three pensioners gasped. “We are not eating our ducks!” Mabel shouted.
She really needed a nap.
“I’d eat them,” Grandpa said, but I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or just stirring the pot. “And take that godawful dress off Benjamin. He looks ridiculous.”
Vicki shook her head and settled onto a bench. “It’s like living in a preschool. Except the preschoolers are all geriatric and need a concoction of drugs three times a day.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that. Old people were an awful lot like toddlers—they required constant supervision, placating with bribes, and tried to run away.
And dress up ducks.
Yep.
Oversized toddlers for sure.
They settled into arguing about the gender of the duck and the functionality of the clothing they’d made for the ducks, and Josh and I took a few steps away from them so we could talk.
“Do you think we need to tell Colton?” he said in a low voice. “You know what Mabel’s like.”
“I don’t think so,” I replied just as quietly. “It’s pretty out there, and both our grandparents will say it’s not true. If she does, I think he’ll just brush it off as Mabel being, well, Mabel.”
Josh grunted. “I have to go back to work tomorrow and I have no idea how I’m supposed to be around him all day long.”
“How do you think I feel? He’s my brother. I can’t lie to him.”
“We don’t have to.”
“No, you don’t understand. I can’t lie to him. I’m terrible at it. If he asks me, I’m going to break.”