I reach past her, planting my hand on the wall between the mirrors that hang above the sinks. “Of course I will.”
My lips are so close to hers I can feel when her breath hitches and she stops breathing. Then she clears her throat and starts to say something, and that’s when her girls start their chorus of “Momma! Up! Momma! Up!” from the other room.
Without a second of hesitation, she slips under my arm to go get them up. Meanwhile, I pull my phone out of my pants pocket and text Derek.
Jameson
Clear my schedule this morning, and all weekend.
Derek
You’re supposed to be in Toronto this weekend.
Jameson
Change of plans. I have to go to a wedding in Maine.
Derek
Who in the world is getting married in Maine?
Jameson
Hell if I know.
* * *
“This place is adorable,” Lauren says as we walk into the house we’re staying at for the wedding. The mudroom is all slate floors and wooden benches with hooks above them for coats, along with ski racks and boot trays on the opposite wall. Beyond that, we can see into the wide-open living room, dining room, and kitchen. I set our suitcases down and shut the door behind me. “Paige is going to be bummed to have missed out on staying here.”
“Why’d she decide to stay at your parents’ house?”
“Since you were going to drive me up today, she ended up coming up last night so she could go to the rehearsal, and she didn’t want to stay here alone.”
Given the text conversation with Petra the other night, I suspect Paige wanted to give us the whole place to ourselves. But I’ll let her believe this story if she wants to. She’s still getting used to the idea of me in her life.
We leave our stuff in the mudroom and wander into the living room, which is light and bright, with lofted wood-planked ceilings and white walls—it looks like something straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog. The dining area has a simple farmhouse table and eight chairs, and opens to the brand new kitchen. My sisters would love this place; it’s exactly the kind of ski house getaway they’d love to work on.
“How’d you find this place?” I ask Lauren.
“It’s my little brother Dale’s best friend’s house. Lucas lives in Boston but has been remodeling this place for a while, I guess. His work schedule is really intense, so he doesn’t get up here that often. He said Paige and I could stay here since it would be empty.” It’s sparsely furnished, and I’m not sure if that’s an intentional decision, or if it’s because the place has clearly been remodeled recently.
“That was nice of him.”
“He and Dale have been best friends since they were in elementary school. He was practically like a fourth little brother to me.”
“Do you see him at all in Boston?”
“No, I haven’t seen him in years, actually. I think Paige talks to him occasionally, which is how we ended up staying here.”
We double back to a small hallway off the living room, and she pushes open a bedroom door, but the room is empty. We move on to the next door, which opens to a completely new bathroom. There’s only one door left off the small hallway, and when she pushes that one open, we walk into a large bedroom with a king-size bed in it. It sits atop an enormous rug that covers most of the floor. Off to the side, there’s a dresser, and on the opposite wall is a big mirror leaning up against the wall.
Lauren looks around, walks to a doorway across the room, and opens it. On the other side of the door is the bathroom we saw from the hallway.
“Did we ... miss a bedroom somewhere?” she asks.
“I don’t think so.”
“I ...” She doesn’t complete the sentence, just stands there looking dumbstruck. Then she pulls her phone from her back pocket and shoots off a text.
