Page 19 of Love and Other Champagne Problems

With a shocked sort of reluctance, he admitted, “It’s actually not bad.”

“Liar.”

“No, truly. It’s weird—the texture is… interesting—but it’s not bad.” Sumner cut into another forkful, this time offering the bread and beans to me. “Try it.”

I leaned as far back into my seat as I could. The booth wheezed pitifully. “I’d rather die.”

He popped the forkful into his mouth, lips quirking. “My friend,” he said after he swallowed, covering his mouth with his hand. “His mom would make him beans on toast all the time. I never believed him when he said they were good.”

I felt a little miffed; I didn’t realize he’d heard of it before. “Why do you want to be my friend so badly if you already have one?”

“People can have more than one friend,” he replied patiently. “Besides, he’s on the other side of the country right now. He’s not exactly competing for my time.”

“The other side of the country?”

“I lived in California before coming here.” He scooped up another bite of toast, and before he ate it, he added, “He’s there now.”

“California,” I echoed. It made sense that I knew nothing about Sumner, given we’d only met last night, but the easy way he’d just jumped into being friendly with me had made me forget it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours yet. “How’d you end up on the east coast, then?”

“Short, condensed version? I went to college, double majored in business communications and business finance, worked in that field for a few years, then wanted to try something new.”

“I thought you said you were someone’s secretary before this.”

I hadn’t said it with tact, conditioned to never using it,but Sumner nodded good-naturedly. “I was. I graduated college about… two years ago? Three? I worked as a secretary for a company until I moved here. But it’s funny. Choosing a path just because everyone tells you—it’s never as fulfilling as one you choose for yourself, is it?” He gave his head a little shake, taking another bite. “Not funny ha-ha.”

“Someone chose your path as a secretary for you?”

“In a way.”

I studied him, silent. Unsettled. Attending college, following that path because people had told him to, disliking it in the end. Was he just regurgitating my own life back to me, trying to get on my good side to show that we were so similar? Was he telling the truth? “Being a secretary in California wasn’t fulfilling, so you decided to be a secretary here?”

“It wasn’t the job itself that I didn’t like, I just…” He shrugged. “I just wanted something different.”

“Why here? Why Addison?”

“My friend—the one whose mom makes beans on toast—suggested it,” he answered without missing a beat. “When I talked about wanting a change of pace, he said he knew some people in this area, and directed me here.”

Even as I listened, I couldn’t find a trace of a lie in his words. It didn’t cause me to lower my guard, though. “And that’s how you ended up in Addison.”

Sumner nodded, chewing through his bite. “Working here isn’t a bad gig to help get my feet under me. Gives me time to… find myself, I guess.”

Sumner’s backstory had more meat to it than I’d given him credit for. Going to college, double majoring, getting ajob only to abandon it because he wanted somethingnew. Some might’ve said it was reckless, idiotic—my mother would’ve. But I understood him almost as plain as day. If I could’ve abandoned my major, I would’ve. In a heartbeat. Knowing Sumner did… it made me look at him differently.

Sumner spoke of his similar experience with all the self-assurance I’d wanted. I wanted to tell him I was envious that he was trying to find his dream, since I’d let mine be taken from me.

“My fiancé,” I began slowly. “You don’t want to upset him by talking about our kiss, but you think he’d be fine with us being friends?”

“I’m sure he’d be okay with it.”

“How are you so sure?”

“No one would want their fiancé to feel like they’re the last person on earth.” His blue gaze was serious as he watched me, dark lashes sweeping down against his cheekbones in a slow blink. “I wouldn’t want you to feel that way, if I were him.”

Again, it was as if he knew exactly what to say to drain all the thoughts from my mind. He didn’t speak as if he were flirting, but warmth skated over my skin, as if I’d stepped outside into the summer air. To hear him say that he didn’t want me to be alone—to hearsomeonesay that—left me off-kilter. I almost questioned if they were the words he’d truly spoken, or the words I just longed for someone to say. And here he was, not even hesitating before speaking them to me.

No one in the world lowered my guard, not even Nancy. And yet the person across the table from me, withhis beans and toast and boyish grin, had me wondering if maybe there was one person in the world I could relax around. One person I could let my guard down for.

Interesting, I decided then. My initial gut feeling had been right. Sumner Penningtonwasinteresting.

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