Stay a Little Longer by Dawn Lanuza

Author:Dawn Lanuza
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Published: 2019-05-15T19:47:40+00:00

Elan had never seen anything like it before. It was loud and hilarious and peculiar. And then there was Caty. She was fixated on the stage, her eyes lighting up, laughing at every punch line. Lux was onstage too now, lip synching a mash-up of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and then Britney Spears’s “Toxic.” She was easily one of the crowd’s favorites, and she obviously loved the attention, exaggerating her moves every time they cheered.

When the show ended, Caty ran backstage, and he was left alone at the bar, politely nodding to everyone. They knew he was a newbie because they all seemed to recognize each other here, Caty included. When she returned to him, she was bubbly and bouncy.

“You okay?” she finally asked.

He nodded. He was. He was just . . . worried. She was having the best time, and he was about to tell her something disappointing. He really should have told her earlier. If she knew, they probably would have done things differently. Not that he didn’t like what they had done. Walking around from place to place was fun, but he felt as if he needed to just have her in one place for a time so they could both settle.

“All right, next stop is on you. Where do you want to go next?”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“How about we just retire to my room?”

Caty leaned back. “Jeez, Grandpa.”

“I have to fly out in the morning.” Not the way he should have said that, but it was close to midnight, and he only had a couple of hours left. He knew that he should have said something to her when he decided to move his flight to an earlier one, but he screwed up. He couldn’t hold off any longer, no matter how much he wanted to.

Elan watched her mouth open and eyes widen, giving away her shock.

“Emergency,” he added. To explain why. To make his departure less rash. “I just found out this morning.”

She blinked a couple of times before she shook her head. “Okay.”

Elan winced, not sure what to do. Should he tell her more? But he couldn’t. It was just too all over the place. He had already told her about some of these things. How there was only him, his sister, and his mother. How his mother had been getting sick recently. How much that had been bothering him.

She stumbled over the words, “I guess we should call it a night.”

Elan thought she would say goodbye to her friends, but she started walking and went straight to the door and out to the street.

He caught up with her, nodding at people he’d been introduced to when they said goodbye, then tugged at her hand. “Wait, that’s not what I meant when I said we should retire to my room.”

“Say retire one more time—” Caty looked back at him, finally. She had recovered and no longer seemed surprised or disappointed. Instead, she looked annoyed. “It’s really not helping your case, Grandpa.”

Elan decided he’d better do something.

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