Page 112 of Love and Other Champagne Problems

“Are you okay?” Sumner asked as the door swung shut. He looked at me with that same stormy look in hiseye. “By the time I heard about what happened last night, you were already escorted off the property. I figured you went to Nancy’s, but I couldn’t remember the way there. I used Aaron’s car and drove all night, but I?—”

“I’m not going anywhere now,” I told him, moving to slip my hands into my pants pockets before I remembered I was wearing jeans. “You don’t have to talk so fast.”

An awkward smile lifted the corners of his mouth, just a tiny bit as he sat down in the velvet chair, turning it to face me fully. “Sorry… sorry.”

I thought about Sumner driving around in the dark, searching the hilly roads for Nancy’s driveway, a twinge aching in my chest. “You were trying to come to Nancy’s when I told you I needed time?”

“I was afraid of you being alone.”

It was a good response. It was aSumnerresponse.

I rubbed my palms across the knees of my jeans, trying to think of how to jump into such a serious conversation. the weight of it loomed over us, and if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t want to have it. I wanted to push past it, to pretend Aaron Astor never even existed, pretend that Sumner wasn’t a part of any scheme Aaron dreamed up.

I was going into this meeting with a mental list, things I needed to check off. I didn’t want to get my hopes high, but I couldn’t help myself.

“This is the long conversation you said we needed to have,” I said as I levelled my stare with his. “I’ve, coincidentally, cleared my schedule for it today. Start where you think is the best place.”

“The beginning?”

“That’s always a good spot, yes.”

Sumner drew in a steadying breath, knotting his fingers together. I took in his curved posture, his nervous fidgeting, and filed it away. “Aaron sent me to Addison to get to know you,” he said. “He doesn’t have the best social skills—I’m sure you could tell—and he wanted to know as much about you as he could so he could impress you when he came. I didn’t… see the harm in that, at first. It was strange, yeah, but in the world of the rich, people do worse things. So, at first, I didn’t think much of it.”

That matched with what Aaron had said, more or less. “Aaron sent you because you worked for him?”

“Yes. And because I knew him best. He trusted me.”

“So, Aaron was the man you were a secretary for. ‘A small startup’ you said.”

Sumner winced. “I shouldn’t have lied; I just didn’t know what else to say?—”

“Did you know why he was interested in me in the first place?” I asked, because that was another major factor. “Did you know, going into everything, that he was only interested in my parents’ company?”

“Of course not.” His response came swiftly, not even skipping a beat. “I swear, I didn’t know. At the Christmas gala, he said you were the most beautiful woman he’d seen. He has a habit of falling in love at first sight, so I did know it was on the shallower side, but Ineverthought he didn’t mean it at all. If I’d known, I would’ve refused to come out here.”

I listened in silence, trying to remember all the instances between Sumner and me. It made sense he didn’t know, given his reaction when he caught whatAaron said to me in the hotel lounge. He’d genuinely been angry.Say one more word, and I’ll throw you out on your ass,he’d said to Aaron.How could you say any of that to someone you care about?

“Honestly,” Sumner went on in a quieter tone, “I wasn’t mad when he asked me to come out here.”

“Because you were the one who fell in love at first sight at the Christmas gala?”

To my surprise, Sumner shook his head. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t look at you and think I was in love with you. I thought you were beautiful, sure, standing out on the balcony while it snowed, but I meant it when I said that I knew what it felt like to be alone. Seeing you that night reminded me of myself.”

When I first saw you, I couldn’t help but think how lonely you looked, he’d said at the diner. Except for him in that moment, he wasn’t talking about the fundraiser in Addison as the first time he’d seen me. He’d been talking about the Christmas gala.

“I figured if I was being sent here to learn more about you, I could be someone that made you less alone,” he went on, squeezing his fingers. He let out a little breath as he looked at them. “And then… then you smiled at me for the first time—I made you smile for the first time—and it was ridiculous. I knew I needed to do it again… and again. And then suddenly, when I was with you, I wasn’t thinking about Aaron or what I’d been sent here to do. I was only thinking about you.”

“My smile’s that pretty?”

Sumner let out another little breath, a ghost of a laugh. “I can’t explain it. Knowing I wasone of the few people that could make you smile, make you laugh… Every time, I thought about the same crazy thing—what it would be like to kiss you.”

I could remember the times his eyes would drop to my lips as I smiled, the way he’d seemed to revel in it each time. It hadn’t only just been one-sided, though. “What else did you lie about?”

A newfound urgency sprung into his pleading blue gaze. “Iswear.” The word was low with his sincerity. “I swear, I meant everything I said to you, Margot. I didn’t fake wanting to be your friend, I didn’t fake my feelings for you, and I?—"

“I know.”

They were clearly the last two words he expected me to say. He blinked twice, an echo, taken aback. “Y-You know.”

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