“I don't care how poor they are. And what do you mean, trouble?”
She mumbled something and buried her head in the fridge. Macy and I exchanged puzzled looks. Mom always had loved to exaggerate, but this was just too much.
Come to think of it, dad said something similar earlier. Why the hell wouldn't either of them tell me what the problem was?
“I refuse to talk about such scandalous things. Perhaps I can't stop you from marrying Sarah, but know she will never be part of the Carrington family.”
I was truly mystified. Mom had been a drama queen since my childhood, but this was beyond that.
The ringing phone in the living room called her away from the stove. Macy took over for her, stirring the charred food with a pensive look on her face.
“You have any idea what that was about?”
“Not a clue – but she's definitely keeping secrets from us. What could be so bad she refuses to talk about it?”
Clearly, something had happened between our families long ago, probably way before I was even born.
Sarah's grandma owned a shop on dad's land. That was the only connection I knew of that linked us. Whatever this “scandal” was, it must have something to do with that fact.
“You're good at solving puzzles, Asher,” Macy said with an impish grin. “I bet you can dig up all sorts of juicy secrets if you looked hard enough.”
“I'm not so sure I want to dig them up.”
Whatever problems my parents had with Sarah's side were not my concern. I had a wedding to plan and a business to run.
With mom wailing to herself in the other room and Macy singing to some dumb song, I headed out to the porch for some quiet.
Night had fallen hours ago, but all the freshly fallen snow made the world glow. It was a scene I had surveyed a million times in my life. Tonight, however, something about it stirred weird feelings in me.
Just as I tried to shove those feelings aside, the phone rang. Sarah? Now, there was a surprise. First time she'd ever actually bothered to call me.
It made me feel warm inside. Made me want to see her again. Now, and not a minute later.
“About time you picked up,” she grumbled before I could say hello. “You always let the phone ring twenty times before answering?”
“Well, somebody's in a pleasant mood this evening.”
“Look, you know I hate having to ask you for anything.” Loud Christmas music in the background nearly eclipsed her voice. “But I'm about to be up a creek here.”
“Told you earlier there's no shame asking me for help.”
And I meant it, too. Just as Macy said, I was damn good at solving puzzles and finding solutions to obscure problems. Lazy I might very well be, but at least I was far from stupid.
“Okay, well, you asked for it.” She let out a long, almost pained sigh. “I can't do it.”
“Do what, exactly?”
“I have to tell my family we're getting married, but I just... can't.”
“Are you that ashamed of me? I actually think I'm quite a catch.”
She scolded me for a whole minute while I darted inside to grab my coat. Looked like she had a lot on her mind, and something told me I'd be standing out here a while playing armchair therapist.
“We're all pretty close, and they know I've not been dating anybody for a long time now. I tell them about our impromptu plan, my mom will flip a lid.”
“So make up an excuse. We don't have any other choice, Sarah, and you know that.” I kicked a thick layer of snow off the porch step. “Unless you want to do this ninja style. What do you say, hmm? Two tickets to Vegas and it'll be a done deal.”
“I'm not getting married in a sleazy roadside chapel with a fake Elvis as our only witness!”
I covered the receiver so she wouldn't hear me laughing. Emotional women usually had me running for the hills – so why, then, did I find her flipping out so utterly cute?
Macy heaved open the window with a grunt and gasped for air as smoke billowed out. She stared at me suspiciously, her red eyes watering.
“At least one of us is having fun,” she managed to say between coughs.
“If you call getting yelled at by a hysterical woman fun. What happened to you?”
“Mom's devastated and required consoling, no thanks to you. So I left the pan on low heat and went to bring her the tissues.”
She vanished back into the smoky house, not explaining how “low heat” nearly caused a five-alarm bonfire. By the time she was gone, Sarah had managed to calm down.
“Are you even listening? Typical man, pretending to care. I bet you have another woman on your lap right this minute.”
“The only lady I want in my lap is you.”
“Bullshit.”
“Hey, no need to be so hostile. Is this how you should treat your husband-to-be?”
Amusingly, she started to chuckle. “This whole thing is starting to feel like the plot of some bad rom-com movie, and we haven't even hit the altar yet.”
“Just imagine how much more exciting it'll be in the coming weeks. I, for one, am absolutely giddy at the thought of ripping up that contract and rubbing it in my father's face.”
“I need you to help me tell them.”
She said it real fast, so quick I thought surely I heard her wrong. Did she just admit that she needed me for something?
First time in five years. What an achievement.
“My grandma's coming over for dinner tomorrow night. You know, the one
