She let his words soak in. Modern and hip. A girl. As much as she wanted to tell him he was off his rocker, she didn’t. Legally, it was still his business. Grateful he’d begun to feel more like himself, but stunned at his sudden decision, Lauren could play his game. It wouldn’t take long before he reached the same conclusion. She’d added enough funding to cover the place until February; anything beyond that—she couldn’t think that far ahead now. Let her parents figure things out on their own. She’d had no clue that either believed Razzle Dazzle’s failing sales were due to her lack of managerial skills. Let them learn the hard way. Seems like she’d heard this a few times from them when she was a kid.

Taking a deep breath, she plastered a smile on her face. “You’re probably right, Dad. I don’t have any experience managing this place. I do have that book contract, and now I won’t have to worry about the store.” She’d play along. “I’ll be going to Seattle in a few days, and now I won’t have to worry about asking Maggie to step in. And I’ll see to it that the cats are looked after. It’ll be too much for both of you, on top of all this.” She held her hands out to indicate the expanse of the storefront.

“Don’t be upset, dear,” her mother said. “This happened at the perfect time, don’t you think? You can write your little story, and we’ll all be as we were before.”

Another deep breath. Lauren felt like screaming, and she hadn’t felt this way since Larry Oxford tied her shoelaces to the legs of her desk in fifth grade. When she stood—or rather, as she’d tried to stand up—she’d fallen, landing on the floor beside her desk, the entire classroom laughing at her. She was an adult now, even though her parents didn’t seem to realize it, so she would not scream. Lauren stood up, closed her laptop, stuffed it in the oversized bag she carried, then took the router and the ethernet cable she’d connected, and stuffed those in one of the cloth bags reserved for customers.

“What is that contraption?” he asked.

“It’s nothing, Dad,” she answered. Poor guy. She would have felt sorry for him had she not been so aggravated with him.

“Lauren, you seem upset,” her mother said.

“No, just getting my writing toys ready to take home, that’s all.” She wished this ice storm would move on because she needed to get away for a few days, and the trip to Seattle would be a perfect reason for doing so, given what she’d just been told.