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“Like I said—cellar of truth,” Lia reminded her, gesturing to the room around them. She stood and grabbed a bottle of red in one hand, white in the other. “Anyway, back to the wine—red or white? I drink both.”
“Both sounds great,” Sarah said. Maybe the answers she was seeking weren’t at the bottom of an expensive vintage wine bottle, but she had to start looking somewhere, right?
Lia smiled as she rejoined her on the floor. “I think for the first time since second grade, we just agreed on something.”
…
An hour after arriving at the event, Sarah had disappeared. Wes had seen her briefly in the dining room when she’d been setting up the electronics for Lia’s surprise for Malcolm’s family, but then she’d vanished.
He needed to talk to her. They couldn’t just let everything end after one argument. He’d been angry and he’d said things he hadn’t meant. A few days to cool off had him realizing that Marissa was right. He couldn’t protect her from everything, all the time.
His daughter’s silent treatment the last few days had helped him come to that conclusion. It was torture, her being upset with him and not communicating with Sarah. Ignoring problems never solved anything. And this reunion might not be the ideal place to talk, but he suspected it might be his only chance if she still planned to head back to the city the next day.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t find her among all the mingling guests. Maybe once the event had started, she skipped out. Her conflicted expression before she’d escaped the dining room an hour before continued to haunt him.
“Hey, Dad!” Marissa came toward him with several other kids around her age. Blue frosting ringed around her mouth, and the way she was practically vibrating meant she’d consumed way too many sugary desserts.
“What’s up?” At least she was talking to him.
“We were playing on the cellar stairs and we heard noises from the wine cellar,” she said, eyes wide, looking sufficiently freaked out.
“It’s the ghost of the woman who used to live here,” one of the older kids, a teenage boy with a fauxhawk, said, holding his arms up in a ghostlike position to frighten the younger kids.
Marissa hid behind him. “Is it Dove, Dad?”
“Of course not,” he said. Someone must have gotten stuck in there. That old wooden door was a hazard, one he’d forgotten to fix. His hope rose a little. Could be a great excuse to come back the next day before Sarah left…talk to her then. “Come on. Let’s go check it out,” he told the kids.
They all made their way down the cellar stairs, and he motioned for two of the bigger kids to help him pull on the door. On three, they pulled, and the sound of giggles and voices made his pulse race.
Inside, Sarah and Lia sat against the stone wall, an open bottle of wine next to each of them. High heels off, completely unfazed to be trapped in the cellar, they were laughing hysterically at something. The laughter of two slightly tipsy women. He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. For years, the two of them had struggled to get along, always competing for top spot in everything at school. Seeing them this way warmed his heart.
“Hey…” he said, entering the cellar. “You two having your own party?”
Sarah’s eyes widened as she saw him, and she quickly ran a hand over her hair. Her cheeks flushed slightly, but then she lifted her chin defiantly and, ignoring him, she turned to Lia. “So I hired a contractor to renovate this place and he neglects to fix the cellar door.”
Seriously? Wes sighed. “I’ll fix it tomorrow.”
Lia shot him a look. “We could have died in here.”
“Well, you didn’t. Free to go,” he said.
“Hey, Sarah!” Marissa ran into the cellar and wrapped her arms around Sarah’s neck.
His chest tightened as Sarah hugged her back and looked just as happy and relieved to see her. His actions at the camp had been assholic. He knew that now.
“I’m sorry I missed parents’ day,” she said to Marissa with a quick glance his way.
The little girl gave him the side-eye. “Dad told me it was his fault.”
All three women glared at him. Okay, time to break this up before he was the one locked in the cellar all night. “Okay, everyone can head back upstairs.”
Marissa ran off with the other kids, and Wes extended a hand to Lia and Sarah to help them up off the floor.
Sarah ignored it and Lia swiped it away. “We are two grown-ass, independent… Whoa,” she said, reaching for the wall behind her as she swayed off-balance.
“Need some help with these two?” Malcolm’s voice in the cellar doorway was a relief.
Lia beamed at the sight of her husband. “Hi!” she said, as though she hadn’t seen him in weeks. Malcolm approached and wrapped one arm around her. She clung to him like a life preserver, but Wes suspected she was using her slightly inebriated state to get close to him.
