Page 135 of The New Place

“And if you do end up needing to rent your house while you’re traveling, I’d be happy to help with that,” Sandy cuts in.

“They have trains in Australia,” Dan says. “I’m sure of it. Don’t they?”

“It would be a pleasure to show you around, if you came to Switzerland on your way,” Charles says. “Geneva, or the countryside both. And Florence is lovely. Henry and Liesl’s mother particularly enjoyed it there.”

Abbot feels his grip tighten on the bottle. No. Please, he can only take so much.

“That’s okay wine?” Pat asks. “I made a whole list, and it was on the tippy top, so why not crack it open for today?”

A list. Yes. Abbot had a list. He and Ned made a list this morning, he remembers dimly. The marriage certificate, the identification they needed, today hanging in a careful, tenuous balance that requires him not thinking about⁠—

“We took Henry on the train, when he was about Peggy’s age,” his father goes on.

“With or without the goggles?” Chris asks.

“Without,” Charles says. “Regrettably.”

“A train through Europe sounds lovely,” Cheryl says.

“The house?” Ned asks, voice rising on the question.

“We’re not selling the house,” Cheryl says. “But if you and Henry are moving, we can trade with another couple. There’s a whole website.”

“It’s an app too,” Dan says.

“And these nice people we met, their granddaughter found a program she wants to do in Boston, so they’d come here for a bit, and we’d go there,” Cheryl says.

“So they’ll be living in the house,” Ned says.

“Yes, exactly, rather than it sitting empty and everyone paying for a hotel.”

“Traveling on a train,” Dan says. “I didn’t know you liked trains, Henry. I love a train.”

“I don’t,” Abbot says. Color is rising in Ned’s face. His own too, he’s suddenly sure. Or that’s the warmth in here. It is hot, isn’t it? “And it’s not a direct train.”

“You very much enjoyed that trip,” Charles says. “We showed you where we got married, near Brig.”

Yes, it’s much too hot. He should go. Outside. Away from here.

“Thought they’d run away to get married,” Chris says. “But we made it to that too, didn’t we?”

Cheryl smooths her hand down Ned’s arm. “Ned, you’ll check on the house, won’t you? While we’re gone? And help with anything they’ll need?”

“It was Henry’s mother’s idea to get married there,” his father adds.

Abbot steps back. He wants to put the wine bottle down. Drop it. Shatter it on the floor, like his nerves.

“Must run in the family, right Henry?” Chris asks. “A good old elopement where you just bring everyone. Bev, do you remember⁠—”

“Cathy’s dress?” Beverly asks and then they’re both laughing. “I have a picture. I put it on my phone. Let me just find it.”

“Abbot?” Ned asks. His face looks a little red.

Abbot wants to touch his own cheek, find out if it’s as flushed as he also feels. He can get married. He can fit his mind around marrying Ned, and doing it very suddenly. And watching his father talk to Dan and Cheryl, parts of his life colliding, but this conversation? His mother? Talking about her?

Today?

“Abbot,” Ned says again, and his face is still coloring but his eyes are sharp on Abbot’s.