After Nancy Fredericks glanced at the couch—where May and Allie had tossed the pillow at the last possible second, creating a tableau that made it appear as though Ben had slept in the living room—she tilted her head and turned her attention on him.
Ben felt like a worm about to get eaten.
“So you’re Ben!” she said. “It’s good to meet you.” She reached out a hand, and Ben shook it, wishing he were wearing a shirt. “I didn’t think I would get to, which would have been a shame, because then I couldn’t thank you for taking such good care of May.”
Ben tried to look humble and deserving as she pumped his arm up and down.
“You have to come over for lunch. It’s the least we can do before you get back on the road.”
He attempted to catch May’s eyes, but she was looking at the carpet and chewing on her lip. He was on his own.
“That would be nice,” he said tentatively, “but—”
“That’s settled, then,” Nancy replied. “Do you have coffee on, May? I need caffeine to get through the rest of this day.” She started walking toward the kitchen, and May trailed behind her as if connected by an invisible rope. “I had no idea we’d left so many last-minute wedding things to do until I got my list out this morning and realized that most of the tasks involved about a hundred little subtasks, and when I wrote all of those out, oh my goodness. I’m so glad you’re home to help. And you need to tell me what you’ve been up to, because I know Allie said it wasn’t your fault that you couldn’t make it, and of course there’s no phone service at the cabin, but I’ve been going crazy not hearing from you!”
“I know,” May said sheepishly. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Nancy said. “Just tell me there’s coffee.”
“In the freezer,” she answered. Ben heard the freezer door open.
Allie grabbed his arm and tugged him toward the bedroom. “Where’s your shirt?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” he whispered back.
She rolled her eyes and ducked into the bedroom, then the bathroom. She emerged with a wrinkled blob that looked familiar. “Put it on.”
“I thought I’d take a shower.” Anything to absent himself from this family drama.
“I need you in the kitchen.”
He tugged the shirt over his head. “What is my role here, exactly?”
“I guess we’re about to find out.”
Then she led him to the kitchen table, pushed him down into a chair, and left him alone with Nancy while she “helped” May make the coffee. The sisters bent their heads over the machine, exchanging fierce whispers and behaving for all the world as though coffee-making were a complex activity that required the full attention of two grown women.
Nancy folded her arms on the table and leaned forward with an expectant smile on her face.
Her hair was impressively large. She wore a black headband to smooth it back from her forehead, but behind the band it kind of went crazy, a fluffy hair explosion that was almost as wide as her narrow shoulders and ended just beneath her chin.
Her eyes were nearly as startling—a bright, too vivid blue that would have looked Photoshopped if he’d seen it in a magazine—and they combined with the sharpness of her long, narrow nose and the tilting thing she did with her head to give him the impression of a heron.
A heron clothed in a Packers sweatshirt and black dress pants.
“Did you have a nice drive?”
“Not bad,” he said slowly. He tried to think of something else to say about it. Something normal and inoffensive. “We got through Chicago without hitting any traffic.”
“That’s good. Did you drive straight through?”
“We stopped overnight.” And shared a hotel room. And a bed.
Man, he really needed to escape this kitchen. He stood. “Hey, May, you need me to run out for cream, or—”
Allie lifted a container of powdered creamer from the counter. “We’ve got it covered, Ace.”
May made a helpless face.
He sat back down.
“That’s a long drive for you,” Nancy said. “And you must be missing work today.”
“It’s kind of a mobile job, actually,” Ben improvised. “I can take his calls anywhere, answer email, schedule appointments. These days, it’s all in the cloud.”
Nancy smiled uncertainly. “So were you and May friendly before, or …”
“Sure, we’ve been friends for a while.”
Six days was a while.
“But she’s only been in New York a few weeks.”
“A month and a half, Mom,” May said.