The Bookworm's Guide to Faking (The Bookworm's Guide #2) - Emma Hart Page 0,6
register to take my seat on the stool.
The reaction I’d had to him was the most uncomfortable thing I’d felt in a while. I mean, I knew he was handsome, and I knew I’d feel something, but the way my heart had stopped when I’d heard his voice and my skin had pimpled at his touch…
Screw that.
I was not falling into that trap. No way, Jose.
I was going to avoid the man. In fact, I was going to go out of my way to avoid the man.
If my life were a romance novel, this would be the moment where I’d stop and go all authorial intrusion on the reader. But it wasn’t, so I’d just talk to the imaginary reader in my head, pretending like I was a long-suffering romance heroine who flicked her hair and swished her Jane Austen-era skirts as she stormed off down the stairs.
Mark my words, dear reader.
Nothing good would come of Sebastian being home.
Nothing.
CHAPTER THREE – SEBASTIAN
rule three: the louder the scream, the bigger the fake.
“Grandpa, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this place.” I put the food I’d brought for his lunch on the table in front of him in his room. “You have the best room in this place.”
He wiggled a finger crooked with arthritis in my direction. “I don’t want a room in this place, Sebastian. I want a room in my own place.”
“Yes, well, you can’t look after yourself anymore after your fall, and I’m not fit enough to look after you either.”
“Tell your mother she’s the worst child I’ve ever had!”
She was the only child he’d ever had, so I didn’t think that one would sting too much.
“Tell Mom yourself,” I replied, opening the Styrofoam container than held his sandwich. “If I tell her, she’ll only tell me to mind my mouth, and then we’ll both in trouble.”
“Why am I in trouble now?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure she’ll think of something. We’re always in trouble with her.”
He harumphed. “I’m eighty-five. I shouldn’t be in trouble with my daughter.”
“Yeah, and I’m twenty-seven and the best-paid pitcher in the league, but I still get in trouble with her.” I adjusted the thermostat in his room.
Another grumble came from his direction. “Just because you’re paying for this doesn’t mean you can mess with my heat!”
“Grandpa, I could fry an egg on that coffee table,” I said dryly. “Unless you want me to leave.”
“No. I don’t know anyone here.”
“Have you even bothered to leave your room yet?” I bit into my own sandwich, losing a bit of lettuce into the container.
“They make me leave it three times a day to get food. Another time to get exercise. Exercise! I don’t need to exercise. It ain’t gonna save me from the grim reaper now, boy.”
I stared at him. “You know what your doctor said. You need at least one gentle walk a day to make sure your hip doesn’t seize up until you can get the replacement. Preferably two.”
“I don’t want it replaced.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I do not. I like this hip. It’s mine.”
Good fucking Lord. If there was one thing I forgot every time I was away, it was how ornery my grandfather was.
“Well, you broke that one, so you can’t keep it,” I shot back. “You need a hip that works, not one that crunches like gravel every time you move.”
He snorted. “Are you getting a new shoulder?”
“I tore my rotator cuff, not shattered the bone to smithereens.” My tone was dry. “And it’s getting better. Thank you for asking.”
“I didn’t ask. I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Stop pretending like I’m a nice person,” he grumbled. “I’m trying to build a reputation here.”
I raised my eyebrows. “One of being a jerk?”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“You’re in a fine mood today, aren’t you? Do you need a nap?”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child.”
“Then stop acting like one.”
He wrinkled his face up and poked his tongue out at me.
Honestly, the man had acted his shoe size as long as I could remember. I doubted that was something that would change anytime soon.
God forbid you asked the man to behave.
“What did your doctor say?” he asked me, referring to my appointment this morning.
“They don’t know if I’ll be back next season.” My stomach had been in knots ever since I’d heard those words. I’d started this season on a high, coming off the best one ever after we’d finally won the World Series for the first time in thirty years.