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After the show ended, there were congratulations, and condolences, questions about what was happening next, explanations aboutLiving Boldthat got progressively more pretentious as Levi got slightly tipsy, and a lot of food to be eaten.
“So,” Mrs. Matthews said, sidling up next to Hannah. “Now that you two have reconciled, are you going to stop avoiding me?”
Oof.Hannah grimaced. “I wasn’t—”
“Don’t lie to me, Hannah Rosenstein. You’ve barely spoken to me since Levi came home. I miss you. You’re as much my kid as he is. More, some days.” Mrs. Matthews poked her gently in the ribs.
Hannah nodded. “I’m sorry. I felt so ashamed, every time I saw Ben’s face light up or saw you hug Levi, that I kept you apart for so long.”
Mrs. Matthews snorted. “We saw him all the time. You didn’t keep us from anything, and you weren’t the only party involved. I don’t know where all you kids got your black-and-white thinking. I’m not mad at you, and I never was. I’m mad at Cass, now that I know the whole story, but I’ll work that out. And if you try to give me the silent treatment again, I’mgoingto be mad at you.”
“No more,” Hannah agreed. “I promise.”
“Also maybe, since you’re my daughter-in-law, you can start calling me Felicia? Or even Mom?”
Hannah teared up. “Please don’t make me ruin the rest of my mascara.”
Mrs. Matthews stretched up on tiptoes to kiss her on the forehead. “All right, go find that son of mine.”
Hannah was, in fact, impatient to find Levi and drag him away from the party. She wanted to get her husband alone, and naked, and his delicious food and adorable self-satisfied smirk were not helping. They were officially, without question, one thousand percent back together, and she was very done waiting for marital relations to resume.
“Hey, Levi,” she said, coming up behind him and setting her chin on his shoulder. He was standing on the edge of a group of Advent residents, listening to a lively debate about the final challenge.
“Hey, Hannah?” he asked, leaning over to kiss her hair.
“Do you remember how we were taking a couple of rain checks on various nude activities?”
He purred like a satisfied cat. “I do remember. Do you want to do that thing you like with your office desk and the spanking?”
She choked. “I do want to do that, very much, but I was thinking right at this moment, maybe we could just go back to your cabin and lock ourselves in. Bed. Fireplace. Jacuzzi tub.”
He smirked down at her. “Is it gauche to sneak out of your own party to have sex with your wife?”
She bit the side of his neck, lightly, although it would look to anyone watching like she’d just nuzzled him. “I don’t care.”
“Meet me there in ten,” he ordered. “You leave first. Don’t be wearing clothes when I get there.”
Oh. She shivered. She’d forgotten how much she loved it when he got bossy.
When they emerged, eventually, the next day, Miriam and Noelle had called an emergency shareholders meeting, which just meant Noelle sending Hannah a text:
Noelle:please put on pants and meet us in the library
Hannah sat on the window seat, and Levi sat on the same chair where they’d hooked up the first night of Passover. She studiously avoided his eyes so she wouldn’t get distracted by the memory.
“Okay!” Miriam clapped her hands, bouncing a little in the chair she was folded into like a pretzel. “We’re very excited you’re back together and that Blue is not going away again forever.”
Noelle was leaning against a bookshelf, her booted feet crossed. “I’m ambivalent about both these things.”
Miriam rolled her eyes. “She’s excited. But! We need to have a serious conversation about what to do with Levi’s shares, with the Matthewses obviously, and we need to talk about inn operations with Hannah off-site.”
“Now, I know you’re not going to love this,” Noelle began, “because I remember very clearly that you freaked out so much about ceding control to Miriam that you screamed at her about napkins—”
“Hey, I eventually did replace those broken napkin holders,” Hannah protested. “And I apologized.”
Noelle glared at her, and she stopped interrupting, although she was very nervous about where this was going. “You’ve been the guest and the events manager, but as we ramp up Carrigan’s All Year, you’ve spent more and more time running point on events, and you don’t get to do guest experience. Miriam does some of it, but we run an inn that is regularly fully booked, and it’s a big job. Basically, at this point, you have two full-time jobs.”
“And you can’t do two full-time jobs anymore if you’re not going to live on-site,” Miriam finished. “We both feel, for your emotional and physical well-being, and for the business, we probably need to hire someone for either guest management or events. We don’t care which! You choose!”
