Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“Sure.”
“And things with Nate sort of fell apart,” I admitted, smoothing the napkin over my jeans.
“I wondered.” Mia pulled a bottle of wine from a fridge beneath the counter as Lucas came in through the back hall.
“Yeah.” I took a shaky breath, hoping I could talk about this without crying. “It happened kind of suddenly.”
“I’ll do that, babe.” Lucas took the corkscrew from Mia and opened the bottle.
She gave him a quick pat on the butt before going over to the stove to stir whatever was in the pot. “What exactly happened?” she asked me.
“It’s hard to say, exactly. We had what I thought was this awesome thing going for a couple weeks, and then boom—it just exploded.”
“It exploded?” she asked, rising on tiptoe to pull a big shallow bowl from an upper shelf. “Or he blew it up?”
Lucas set a glass of wine down in front of me. “You know, Mia, this could be kind of a private thing,” he said to his wife.
She turned around and gave him a disapproving look. “Girls like to talk about this stuff. Go away if you don’t want to hear about it.”
He held up two hands. “I’m fine if Emme is.”
“I’m fine.” I sighed. “I mean, I’m fine talking about it. I’m still sort of reeling over the split. To answer your question, yes—he blew it up. I think we got too close for his comfort.”
Lucas leaned back against the counter, wine glass in hand, and nodded. “Sounds like a guy move.”
Mia ladled whatever she’d warmed up into the bowl, and grabbed a spoon from a drawer, shutting the drawer with her hip. “Honey, will you slice that baguette on the counter, please?” she asked Lucas.
“Of course.”
“So you think he sabotaged the whole thing on purpose?” She set the bowl and spoon down in front of me. “Here. Beef bourguignon cures everything.”
I inhaled the fragrant, steaming stew and my mouth watered. “You might be right. This smells incredible.”
Mia smiled and lifted her glass. “Bon appétit.”
I picked up my spoon and dug in, confiding in them in more detail—how careful I thought I’d been, how wonderful it was to see Nate growing to love his baby daughter, how seeing the changes in him had affected me, how learning about his family history and the visit to his childhood home had revealed so much about his emotional makeup. They listened thoughtfully, commented sympathetically, poured more wine.
“But in the end, either he hadn’t changed at all and I saw only what I wanted to see, or he got freaked out and decided to end things before they went any further.” I mopped the bottom of my bowl with a piece of bread.
“Hmm.” Mia lifted her wine glass to her lips. By now, she was sitting on the stool next to me.
“My guess is he freaked out,” said Lucas. “Just like Mia did.”
I looked at my cousin in surprise.
“What?” Mia shrieked, sitting up taller. “I did not freak out. It was you who was all, Marriage is futile and I never want kids.” She imitated his deep voice and exaggerated his French accent.
He laughed. “But right after we met, when we were still in France at the end of your vacation, you wanted to call the whole thing off. I wanted to see where it might go.”
“Oh, yeah.” Mia’s spine curled a little. “I always forget that part.” She recovered a little spunk. “But I only did that because I thought ultimately there was no hope for us—I wanted a husband and family by age thirty and I was already twenty-eight—”
“Twenty-seven,” Lucas interrupted, a rakish grin on his face.
Mia glared at him. “Fine, I was twenty-seven,” she corrected, “but I knew what I wanted and it was exactly what you didn’t want. I didn’t see how we were going to make it work, and I didn’t want to get hurt. I was half in love with you.”
“Oh, you were totally in love with me.” He drank, his eyes dancing over the rim of his glass.
“How did you?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. “Make it work, I mean.”
“I taught her to live in the moment,” said Lucas. “To stop obsessing over her silly life deadlines.”
“And I taught him to be open to the idea of lifetime commitment,” said Mia, shooting him a venomous look. “I showed him how amazing it would be to be married to me.”
“And she was right. It is.” He came over and kissed his wife’s lips, leaving a smile there. “Bottom line—it was trust, patience, and compromise.” Lucas pulled another bottle from the wine fridge. “Should I open it?”
“What time is it?” asked Mia.
Lucas checked his watch. “A few minutes after ten.”
“Yes, open it.” They exchanged a look I didn’t quite understand.
I was totally into another glass of wine, but I didn’t want to keep them up. “If you guys need to go to bed, I’m fine doing that, too,” I said, wiping my mouth with my napkin. “I know it’s late, and the kids will be up early.”