Page 63 of Love and Other Champagne Problems

Hello Aaron,

I have been well, and busy, which I believe is evident by my lack of response. I’ve been navigating rough waters on this side of the internet, so I will not be checking my email often. We’ll speak more in person at the wedding, as you initially wished.

Safe travels when you do,

M.M.

In the passenger’s seat of my car, I typed the email with no emotion, knowing it probably read abrupt and blunt, but not bringing myself to care. If Aaron Astor was wowed by just a glimpse of me, as Vivienne had claimed, I doubted a brusque email would change his mind.

The seat’s heater warmed up the leather, one ofthe only comforts. Sumner sat behind the wheel beside me, one hand gripping the leather. We didn’t speak; in fact, neither of us said a word since he pulled up at the curb of the hotel and I climbed in. The atmosphere had immediately turned tense when I shut the door and sealed myself in.

For me, it was because in the light of day, my feelings for him felt too obvious. Now that I realized them, I had no idea how to hide them. For him… I didn’t know why he was so quiet. It made me nervous.

“Take a right up here,” I told him. I sent the email off, and I hated how I waited to hear Sumner’s phone chime with a notification. It didn’t. “Her driveway is the gravel one between the trees.”

Sumner obeyed. The gravel popped over the tires as Sumner eased into Nancy’s driveway. He parked in front of her rusting car, shutting off the engine. The air was still and calm, and from here, I could see a small glimpse of the pond in her backyard.

When he didn’t open his door, I looked over at him. He, too, stared out the windshield, but almost like he wasn’t seeing. I thought about cracking a joke as I normally would, but my mind was blank of anything other than concern. “Are you okay?”

He made a soft affirmative sound, but still didn’t meet my gaze. “I’ll wait here while you go visit.”

When Sumner had picked me up from Pierre’s, instead of going back to the hotel, I asked him to take me to Nancy’s. It’d been a few days since I visited her, and after everything with my parents, I needed her biting banter to take my mind off it. “You can come in,”I said softly, squeezing my phone in my lap. “If you want.”

“Nancy’s was your one safe place. I don’t need to come in.”

“That was back when you were just my babysitter. Not my friend.”

He finally turned to look at me, and it was then that I noticed howtiredhe looked. The sparkle in his blue eyes seemed duller than normal, like an overcast sky instead of a sunny one.Gloomy. That was the perfect word for it. Somethingwaswrong.

“Nancy would be happy to see you,” I added, unable to stop picking at the case of my phone.

Sumner reached over and laid his hand on top of mine, ceasing my movements. His fingers were soft, stilling my own.I like your hands, I’d told him the night prior. My cheeks flamed at the confession now, as true as it was. “You’re fidgeting.”

I wanted to turn my hand over, to press our palms together. I didn’t need comforting… but I wanted to hold his hand anyway. “You’re on Nancy’s property this time, though. Instead of grabbing your bicep this time, she might grab yourtush.”

My lame attempt worked; Sumner’s lips tipped up at one corner ever so slightly. A small shot of victory lanced through me at the tiniest crack in his expression. “Yeah, she wasn’t too impressed with my bicep, was she?”

That’s enough for now, I told myself, and pulled my hand out from his to pop my door open. “But I’m sure she’ll have different feelings toward your back end.”

As I shut the car door behind me, I realizedsomething wasn’t quite right about the sight of Nancy’s driveway, though, and it took me a moment to place what it was.

I frowned. “That’s weird.”

“What is?”

“No one’s here. I thought they said someone was with her at all times.” There was no car parked beside Nancy’s rusting one. “I swear, if they took her to the country club again…”

Sumner rounded the front of the car. “Let’s check it out, hmm?”

The door was unlocked when we got to it, which increased my apprehension. It swung in easily, revealing a silent house. There was no sound of the TV, no sound of someone speaking, and not even the small clattering of Nancy’s wheelchair rolling over the hardwood floors.

I didn’t want to call out. It seemed wrong to raise my voice in such a silent house.

There was a slippery slope in my mind, and my thoughts began falling down it.What if something happened? What if whoever was here had to rush her to the hospital? What if no one came today, and she had an accident? What if I find her…?

Sumner’s hand wound around mine, wedging its way through my semi-closed fist and grabbing on. He didn’t say anything, but gave me a slow nod.I’m here, his expression said.Whatever we walk in on, I’m here.

I returned the grip, and despite my anxiety snowballing out of control, that was the tiniest bit of comfort.

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