Page 118 of A Lesson for Laurel

He put his stuff down and pulled her into his arms. “Come here. Let it out.”

She started to laugh. Again, not what he expected. “It’s funny.”

“Not really,” he said. “You were crying earlier.”

“I’ve got a mixed bag of emotions,” she said. “I really do. I’m not sure what I feel. I’m laughing because it is so ridiculous. It’s not like any of those bills were in my name. I didn’t want the things she was paying for. She planned this wedding and I was just going along for the ride.”

“And we’ll make sure that we lead with that.”

“We?” she asked, leaning back. “This is something you can do? I just figured that you might refer me to someone.”

“No,” he said. “I’m going to take care of it.”

There was no reason he couldn’t. At least at this stage.

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate it. Even you packing up and coming here. Are you staying the whole week?”

“That was the plan,” he said. “Unless I need to go room with Abe.”

“No,” she said. “You can stay with me. I’m glad you’re here. Are you hungry? I just got home about ten minutes ago and haven’t made dinner yet.”

“It’s after six,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said. “Long day.”

“Tell me,” he said.

“Come to the kitchen and let me see what I’ve got. We can talk then.”

“I’m going to put my clothes upstairs if you don’t mind.”

“Sure,” she said.

He walked into the downstairs bedroom that she’d set a desk up in and put his laptop case there. It was nice of her to do this for him.

Then he went to her bedroom on the second floor and unpacked his clothing into a drawer she left empty for him. He held his smile in place when she’d done that weeks ago.

She had a lot of clothes so he wasn’t positive she’d be able to make the room, but she had as a little surprise for him.

“You don’t have to do anything special,” he said. “We can order something if you want.”

“I’ve got ground beef,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. Might as well make burgers. They won’t take long. I’ve got French fries I can pop in the air fryer.”

“That works,” he said. “I’ll light the grill. I know you are trying to weigh your words.”

“Thanks for that,” she said. “I’m not hiding anything. Just don’t know how to process this.”

He knew that about her. The fact she showed the emotions she had most likely embarrassed her. He wanted her to know that he was glad she called him and let her guard down. Maybe he should start with that.

“First off, don’t thank me for coming. I’m glad you called me right away.”

“It was the first thing I thought to do,” she said. “I did call my father too. He’d want to know. But then I worried he was going to go give Philip a piece of his mind. My Aunt Helen is keeping an eye on him and calming him down.”

“That was hard for you to tell him, wasn’t it?”

“Very,” she said. “But I don’t like secrets either.”

He wouldn’t flush over the fact that he didn’t tell her about Rachelle and she found out by mistake.

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