AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shivered and hurried toward Sutton. I hugged her after we both stepped inside her three-season porch. “How’re you doing, old married lady?”
She giggled, the sound musical against the faint lilt of a violin melody coming from somewhere inside her house. “I’m younger than you. Maybe, I should call youold spinster lady.”
“Nah…I have a few years before that. Maybe, you should wait until I get a few cats.”
She bumped my shoulder as we walked into her homey living room. A half-wall divided it from the dining room and the doorway to the kitchen lay behind it. Her new place was over a hundred years old, and while it was freshly painted and all the wood trim gleamed, most of it hadn’t been updated much since it had been built.
“Maybe, you’ll find a man before then,” she teased. “Trust me, they turn up in the most unexpected places.”
“Like on planes?” I said, trying not to think of the NASCAR driver I’d left on the sidewalk in town a few minutes ago. My heart sped up again, and I had to force back the reaction before Sutton noticed.Isn’t happening, heart.
“Then at the AirBnB,” she laughed since that was how she’d met her husband, who happened to be the brother of the exchange student who’d lived with her family while she’d been in high school. She hadn’t known who he was when they’d been seated beside each other on the plane. Hasya, who’d become a US citizen, had been headed home to visit. Their paths had crossed again in the airport, and the rest was history as they said—witnessed by the fact they’d gotten married less than two months later and making a home together here.
“I set up coffee in the sunroom in the back—and brought in an extra heater. I can’t wait until Ginger gets in here to start remodeling things. Her business with Trevor is really taking off, you know?”
“I’ve heard. Does she still miss her TV show, though?” Ginger was practically family via a long, convoluted connection of her being married to the cousin of the girl my own cousin loved but wouldn’t date—as I’d said…convoluted. Ginger used to have a syndicated house flipping show on one of those home and garden channels that devoted their airtime to people buying real estate and doing renovations.
“I don’t think so. Her local projects, blog and YouTube are filling the gap. That and Trevor.” Sutton smirked.
“Sutton Donovan Novak!” I exclaimed, pretending to be taken aback by her innuendo.
We fell into laughter again, my mood lightening even more with each minute with her.
“Is Hasya coming down?” I asked, glancing toward the ceiling and the faint music I heard. He’d have a soundproofed third-floor studio when Ginger was done, but not yet.
She shook her head. “He just got an invitation to be a guest musician for an orchestra in New York. I don’t really know which one, but it’s a big deal and last minute since the original person they’d scheduled had to cancel.” She leaned toward me. “If you ask me, they’re getting a better deal with my man.”
“And you’re not biased at all,” I teased. But I had seen him perform with his bandCzech Mate. The man was insanely talented, so I knew she was right.
We walked out into the sunroom which was more of a four-season porch with huge windows that could be opened to enjoy the lake in the warmer weather. Sutton had set up a small coffee bar beside the door from the kitchen.
“So,” she started after we’d settled into thickly cushioned rattan chairs with steaming mugs in our hands.
“So?”
“I heard a rumor…”
I grimaced, my brows drawn together. Of course, she knew.Everyoneseemed to know. This would be the longest week of my life. “If it’s the one that you and everyone else in town seems to know, it’s true.”
“Well, you know I work for Aunt Willow and Uncle Alder. Since she’s the fundraiser’s organizer, sheknows all things,” she finished in a mocking mystical tone, her hands waggling in the air. “Anyway…she told me Axel’s coming home. I wanted to warn you.”
“He’s not coming home. He’s attending the fundraiser, and that’s it.”
She raised a brow at me. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“And…he’s already here. He showed up at the library when I was leaving and wanted to talk.” I made air quotes around my last word. The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I got. Now? Six years later? He wanted totalk?
“And you’re mad.”
“Of course, I’m mad. He’s a selfish dick.” In some ways, I blamed him for what had happened after he’d left town. How sad I’d been. If he hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have been in the wrong place at the wrong time—of course, no one in my family knew much about that. Even Sutton. They knew of the accident, but nothing else.
Sutton rolled her lips together and shifted her head to the side, as if not wanting to say she disagreed with my not talking to Axel, but the gesture also silently told me she did.
“I don’t think you really feel that way.” She held up a hand to stop me when I started to protest. “I know he hurt you. But…maybe…you should talk to him. See what he has to say before you tell him to take a short drive right into the racetrack wall.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle, with a slight shake of my head. “I did mention him driving off a cliff today.”
She raised a brow. “We do have a nice tiny pier he can take a long drive on. But before that, maybe you guys can talk. From what I hear, he’ll be here most of the week. You can let him have his say.”
