Page 88 of Forever By Morning

“Did your fight have anything to do with Helena?”

I ushered her down the hall toward the kitchen. “And why would you immediately think that?”

“Because that’s where I sent her.” She sighed and let me lead her to the tasting table in the kitchen. “You’re so pushy.”

“You’ve probably been on your feet all day. Jenny told me there was some wedding party here all week?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

There was only a few workers left in the kitchen, putting away the last of the clean dishes. I waved to the two I recognized. The weddings often were catered by outside companies.

I found a deli tray and some of our hard cider inside the fridge. And hot damn, a large pan of apple crisp. I made us two quick plates, zapped the apples to warm them up, and added a scoop of vanilla to two small cups. I added two bottles of The B3 hard cider to my tray to wash it all down.

When I went back to my aunt, I found her sitting with her arms crossed and her eyes shut. They instantly popped open just before I set the tray down.

“You must be exhausted,” I commented, although it was obvious.

She yawned. “Between Rachel’s wedding and the Washington party, I’m pooped.”

I set the food out for her and waited for her to pick up a fork. “Do we usually have a wedding party stay for a week?”

“No. I was trying something new. But then we had a scheduling conflict and everything went sideways.” She took half of a roast beef sandwich from the pile of food and a few apple wedges, which she ate like they were potato chips. She sighed as she bit into the sandwich. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

Following suit, I hummed in the affirmative and dug in. “Then you had a bunch checking out too. Bet you haven’t sat down all day.”

She murmured ammm-hmmaround bites of her sandwich. “I picked here and there, but every time I was supposed to put something in my mouth, someone needed something.”

Once she had her fill and pulled her ice cream in front of her, she aimed those shrewd blue eyes my way. “Now tell me what’s going on with Helena.”

I pushed away my empty plate and laced my fingers over my belly. “Let’s start with why she’s still here.”

“That sideways thing I mentioned? We overbooked.”

“How?”

She waved that away. “Cara made a mistake, but Helena came up with a solution and she was gracious enough to help out.”

“How long is she staying?”

Aunt Laverne narrowed her eyes. “Why do you care?”

I shrugged.

“Does it have something to do with you riding off with her on Storm perhaps? And her coming back looking like a college student in borrowed clothes?”

I felt my cheeks heat like a damn kid.

“And why you have a busted lip and a black eye?”

“Kain and I had a…misunderstanding.”

“Oh, is that what you’re calling it?” She started to push her chair back.

“Relax, Aunt Laverne. I got it.” I stood and gathered the dirty dishes. Laverne didn’t say anything, just gave me that steady stare.

“Helena didn’t want to come back to the wedding after what happened. I let her stay with me.”

“I’m aware of that part. What I want to know is what you’re going to do now.”

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