Page 50 of Love and Other Champagne Problems

“And why not?”

She began cutting up her eggs. “You can’t be friends with someone you kissed.”

Sometimes it slipped my mind I’d ever kissed Sumner, because in that moment, he hadn’t been my focus—my mother’s reaction had. I still sometimes found myself wishing I’d paid more attention when I’d pressed my lips to his, lingered against them just a bit longer. “You were the one to told me to be his friend first,” I reminded her. “Are you forgetting that in your old age?”

“That was before I saw how you act around him.”

“And how do I act?”

“Like you’re thawing on the inside.”

Thawing. Me? Because ofSumner? “Perhaps you need to get your eyes checked,” I grumbled, trying to shake off the thought.

“Sorry,” Sumner said as he approached, smoothing his hand down the front of his dark buttoned shirt. I jumped at his sudden appearance, but he didn’t look like he heard what Nancy had said.

“Anyone important on the phone?” Nancy asked, curbing no corners as he settled back into his seat.

“Just a friend from back home,” he replied, picking up his silverware to cut into his pot roast hash. He picked it up the correct way—knife in his right hand and his fork in his left. “I told him I’d call him back later.”

“Do you talk to your friends back home much?” Nancy pressed. The question might’ve seemed innocent enough to anyone else, but I saw through her and the shifty way she looked at him. “Do you miss them much?”

“I text them here and there,” Sumner replied good-naturedly. “I didn’t really have many friends back in Cali, honestly. I worked most of the time, and it kept me busy.”

“One must have a good balance of work and play,” Nancy said with a sage nod. “What did you do? Margot said you worked at a company after graduation—what did you do there?”

He raised up his teacup, holding it the refined way I’d see at tea parties. “I started from the bottom at a company as a secretary.”

Nancy had all but abandoned her food now to play inquisitor. “What company?”

“A small startup.”

“In what field?”

“Nancy,” I said calmly, though all but glaring at her from across the table. “Let the poor man eat.”

“A secretary,” Nancy mused. “Makes sense why Margot’s parents were so willing to hire you, then. At least, to some extent. Iamstill perplexed by that. Aren’t you, Margot?”

“They hired him because they needed someone to babysit me while they prepped for Annalise’s wedding.”

“Yes, but whyhim? A man, and a young one at that.”

That, honestly, made a bit less sense. If my parents were to hire a secretary for me, I would have expected it to be a woman. If not a woman, then a man in his fifties or older. Not near enough in age to me that someone could’ve thought we were dating. We both turned to Sumner, since only he knew the answer.

“I think your parents might’ve thought I’d be able to understand you better,” he said slowly, turning his attention to his plate. “Since we’re close in age.”

My parents wouldn’t have wanted anyone who might’ve understood me. The purpose of hiring Sumner wasn’t to find me a playmate, but to be their warden in the interim. They’d done a wonderful job at isolating me nearly my entire life. They wouldn’t have started being thoughtful now. “That’s what they told you?” I asked.

He blinked. “Yeah, I think it was something like that.”

Growing up in the social circles I had, I’d gotten very good at hearing a lie when spoken. Usually, there were other tells to aid in the deception hunting. Rapid blinking—check. No eye contact—check. Fiddling hands, forced smiles, fake laughs. It was more common? to hear a lie than it was to hear the truth, and perhaps that was whySumner had been so refreshing. When he spoke, I never had to worry about hearing a lie in his voice.

Until now.

Nancy caught my eye as she reached for her own cup of tea. It was clear; she heard it too.

When it came to my parents, the waters grew muddied with Sumner, for whatever reason. And perhaps it was time to get to the bottom of it.

“Margot.”

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