What about yesterday

 

It had been a nice Valentine's Day with Rafe. But Lily couldn't say who got spoiled the most. Probably Gram.

When Rafe brought her home that night, Mercer and Cade were pampering Gram with a manicure and pedicure. They brought snack cakes and other goodies. Really, she was sure Gram had had too much sugar, but it was easy to see Cade was quite the artist when it came to fingers and toes. 

They'd watched the Olympics and of course, Lily felt as if she was spoiling the party. But she was happy that Gram was happy and she didn't know Cade and Mercer could be so sweet. Were they even real boys?

"Who's idea was that, anyway?" She asked Rafe a few days later.

"Oh, they wanted to meet her and Cade likes to paint fingernails," he shrugged. Rafe said that Cade felt he was being left out. He wanted to know her Gram too. "We never get to our grandmother, and my mom and dad both work..so..."

Lily nodded. She wasn't the only one who missed her family.

"I know what you mean," she said. "I'm glad you guys could make Valentine's Day special for her." That's when Lily told him stories about her mom's adventures on Valentine's Day. "One time at a dance her best friend hit her boyfriend when he broke up with her."

"That must have been the worst Valentine's Day ever," Rafe said as they were at their lockers getting ready to go home.

"I dunno. I don't think it kept her from having a good time with her friends. She said friends were the most important," Lily said. "She still has friends." She smiled then, wondering if it had been Brick's grandmother that had hit that guy at the dance. Oh, why did she have to think about Brick now?

She hadn't thought about him in the longest time. Really. She felt as if she had her own friends. She didn't think she and Rafe were really dating, just hanging out and having lunch together at school for the most part. They didn't even hold hands.

 He didn't work like Brick did. Although, Rafe planned on getting a job by summer. 

Just as she was ready to walk home alone, he took her hand. She almost pulled it away.

"You better let Cade do your nails." He said while inspecting her dry cuticles and hangnails.

"Oh." She looked at him blankly.

"He said he'd be over at your Gram's," Rafe told her.

Lily wasn't sure if she was giddy. Possibly. Mercer and Cade loved hanging out with Gram.