Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [22]
Suddenly, Millie looked just as bewildered as the rest of us. “You won’t even acknowledge me?” she asked. Her voice cracked as she spoke. I thought she was going to cry. “Well, I knew you felt strongly about it all, but I didn’t think you’d take it this far!”
The couple continued to stare at her, mouths open, puzzled expressions across their faces. The woman spoke first. “Look, it was very nice of you to let us know we’d won, and we really are grateful, but I’m sure I don’t know what —”
“Hello?” a voice called from the front door. We’d left it open behind us and a second later, Aaron’s face appeared. He glanced around the room and grinned when he saw me. “Hey — I thought it was you. I was just passing,” he said. “What’re you doing here?”
Good question!
“Can I come in?” he asked, stepping into the small room before I had a chance to reply.
“This is my friend Aaron,” I said as he squeezed in next to me — not that anyone took any notice. They were all still too busy staring blankly at each other. I felt Aaron’s hand brush mine. Immediately my face got hot and my heart started hammering so loudly I was positive someone would hear it — especially while we were all standing there in this shocked silence.
And then something else happened. The feeling of his hand touching mine — well, I know it’s going to sound ridiculous and corny and stupid, but it sent shivers and tingles all the way up my arm. I glanced at him to see if he’d felt it too. He looked at me, but he didn’t move away. In fact, a moment later, he smiled shyly, then he opened up his fingers and took my hand in his.
Which was pretty much the same moment that the woman’s face turned as gray as her hair.
“Emily?” she whispered. She turned to her husband.
He clutched her arm and took a step toward me. “It’s really you? Our Emily?” he said.
I looked at Millie for some help.
“About time, too!” she exclaimed with a broad smile.
“It’s Mary Penelope’s friend Millie!” the man exclaimed. “Why, it must be, what — twelve years?”
“About that,” she said. “Give or take a lifetime or so,” she added under her breath with a meaningful look in my direction.
“Oh, my — Mary Penelope — is she here? Do you know where she is?” the woman burst out.
“Er, look, does someone want to explain what’s going on here?” I said. “Or who these people are?”
The woman reached out and put a hand up to my cheek. “Emily darling,” she said softly, “we’re your grandparents.”
I stared at both of them. “My —”
The man smiled at me. “It’s true,” he said. “We’re your grandparents.”
“But why — how come — I mean, who —?”
The woman laughed. “There was no competition at all, was there?” she said to Millie.
Millie proudly shook her head. “I didn’t think a simple invitation would cut it, so I called in a favor to rent the cottage for a few days and set this little ruse up.”
“But how did you find them?” I asked.
“Well, we already had the town. I just did a bit of digging around on the Interweb.”
“Internet,” I corrected gently.
“Yes, exactly,” she went on. “And actually it wasn’t hard at all. In reality, these things tend not to be. Very often, the only obstacles in our path are the ones we place there in our own minds,” she said airily, throwing her cape over her shoulder for good measure.
“So what did you do once you’d found out where they were?” I asked.
Millie lowered her voice. “With the help of some spiritual knowledge, a little bit of mystical insight, a few carefully placed markers along the ley lines of the way, anything is possible,” she said dramatically.
“She phoned us,” the woman said.
Millie picked an invisible speck of dirt off her gown. “Well, yes, you could put it like that too, I suppose.”
The woman went on. “She told us we’d won a weekend by the sea — for this weekend!”
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Millie said.
I stared at them a bit more. “So you really are my grandparents?” I asked. They nodded back at me with bright beaming smiles.
I turned to Millie. “Come on — we have to go and tell Mom!” I looked at my watch. “It’s past twelve. She should be