Rot & Romance (Rewriting)

Chapter 84

He lightly knocked on the bedroom door.

No answer.

He knocked again. After another moment of silence, Joseph opened the door and walked in.

Natalie was laying in Lainey's bed, her eyes closed.

"I didn't say you could come in," she whispered, eyes still closed.

"You didn't say anything," Joseph said, stepping into the bedroom. He looked around. "Can this room be any more purple?"

Natalie finally opened her eyes and sat up.

"Purple is obviously her favorite color."

"You've been in here for over an hour," Joseph said, noticing the many opened notebooks and laptop on the bed. "What have you been doing all this time?"

Natalie stretched, displaying her figure in all its glory. Joseph started to turn away but decided against it.

"I was learning about my favorite great-great granddaughter," she said, grinning at him.

Joseph scoffed.

"Your favorite--Natalie, you never even met the girl."

"I've spent that last hour indulging in everything I could find about Lainey. I may not have met her but I think she's amazing."

Joseph crossed his arms as he approached the bed.

"Okay, then. Humor me." He sat down next to Natalie. "Tell me about this amazing great-great-granddaughter of yours that you've yet to meet."

Natalie forced a fake smile.

"I learned that her full name's Elaine Marie Sullivan. Her birthday's July twenty-fourth. She's a Leo and even though she's not heavy into astrology, according to her web browser history, she still checks her horoscope every morning.

"Her biggest dream growing up was to be a news anchor, but when she became self-conscious at age fourteen, she decided she wanted to be a journalist instead. She was a daddy's girl, although she hated her "muffin" nickname. Her favorite class in school is literature, no surprises there, and her favorite genre is romance--my favorite genre as well.

"She thinks she could be in love with her boyfriend, Eric Isaac--don't fancy the two first names--and her best friend, Fawn, is like a sister to her. Her biggest fear, next to snakes and heights, is not being remembered for anything notable after she's gone."

Natalie took a deep breath and smiled at Joseph.

"And that's just scratching the surface of what I've learned about my favorite great-great granddaughter."

Joseph smiled but found himself at a loss for words. Which was rare. Seeing Natalie look so happy actually made him happy.

Bloody hells.

"Joseph?"

"Ah, yes?"

"That look in your eyes . . . I've never seen it before. It's quite nice on you."

She looked away and began scooping up Lainey's notebooks and journals.

"Hey, Natalie . . ."

"Yes?" she said, her attention still on the notebooks.

"What I said earlier . . . about Benjamin . . ."

She immediately stopped what she was doing and turned to face him.

"Yes?" she said again, eagerly this time.

"Well . . . what are you going to do about it? I mean . . . he's in love with your descendant. There's already at least ninety-seven things wrong with that. What are you going to do . . . when you see him?"