“I’m such a horrible person,” Caroline groaned. “Edward was your friend, Dean. I’ve been making this all about me. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Dean said to her softly. “You have a right to be horrified. He was your friend, too. I’ll have time to grieve him later, but right now you’re my priority.”
Hannah leaned back with a small smile as she watched them. They were, in her mind anyway, the perfect couple. She thought she might be on the way to something like that with Ben, but only time would tell.
“Can I get you two anything to eat or drink?” she asked, rising from the couch with the intent of letting them have some privacy. “I can throw something together for a late dinner, if you want.”
Caroline shook her head. “I don’t think I could stomach anything right now. I guess I might take some tea if you have some. The two of you should eat, though. A couple bites of soup won't be enough to tide you over.”
“I actually am hungry,” Dean admitted, looking embarrassed. “I can help you cook, Hannah, if you’d like.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she told him a smile. “I’ll go throw something together. I’ll make enough for you too, Caroline, in case you change your mind. If not, well, we can have the leftovers tomorrow.”
She left them in the living room, heading into the kitchen to see what she could put together. Soup was the first thought she had, but immediately decided it would be a bad idea. She had the feeling it would be a while before any of them could eat soup without thinking of what happened to Edward. Instead, she got out the ingredients for a simple stir-fry with chicken, onions, frozen peas in the pod, broccoli, garlic, and carrots. She put some rice in the rice cooker and began chopping up the ingredients, letting the familiar motions of cooking soothe her. She was still trying to wrap her head around what had happened earlier. She believed Caroline when she said she took every precaution to avoid introducing allergens into the meal. Other than the fact that she knew her friend wouldn’t lie to her, she also had a feeling that Caroline’s blaming herself for what happened would be much worse if she truly thought she had made a mistake.
She thought that the most likely scenario was that Edward had an allergy that either he and his wife weren’t aware of, or one that was a rare enough food that they didn’t think to mention it. It was a sad situation, but she didn’t think that any of them were at fault. Severe food allergies were an unfortunate part of life, and she’d worked in the restaurant business long enough to know that they could range from the common to being so rare that someone could go their entire life without even knowing they had it.
If Lacey was aware of any other allergies Edward had, she would certainly tell the hospital and the police about it during the investigation into his death. If not, maybe she and Caroline could figure it out when Caroline was feeling a bit better. She and Caroline could go over the list of ingredients she’d used for the soup and see which ones were the most likely to be allergens, and perhaps narrow it down from there. She didn’t know if doing so would help make Caroline feel any better, but at least they could be aware of it for the future. She knew that neither of them wanted anything like this to happen again, either in the restaurant or outside of it.
After eating, Hannah agreed to let Dean do the dishes, since he was insistent on helping somehow. Caroline had vanished back into the guest room, leaving Hannah free to finish up her daily chores. Since she was the only one who lived there and she didn’t have any pets, there wasn’t very much to do, and while she was tired from her long day, she needed something to keep her mind busy. She vacuumed the living room, dusted the few surfaces that needed it, then put on her shoes and went outside to walk down the long driveway to the mailbox. Back in the house, she kicked off her shoes and began looking through the mail, shuffling through a couple of bills and a few ads for things she knew she would never buy. Finally, she came to the letter she had been waiting for. Grinning, she set the rest of the mail on an end table and tore open the ornate envelope.
She had known that her brother and his fiancée had officially set the date, of course, but it was still wonderful to have the wedding invitation in her hand. The glow disappeared as she squinted at the address where the wedding was being held, sure she must be going crazy. But no, the address was clearly hers. And somehow, she didn’t think that she would have forgotten agreeing to host her brother’s wedding at her home.
Deciding that this required some immediate investigation, she took the letter and the phone into her home office and shut the door. She read through the invitation again, making sure she wasn’t imagining things, then dialed her mother’s number. Her mom answered on the third ring, sounding happy to hear from her.
“Mom,” she said, interrupting the woman’s story about her day. “Hold on. I know it’s late but I need to talk to you about something.”
“Sorry, sweetie,” her mother said, concern entering her voice. “What is it?”
“It’s about Sean’s wedding.”
“Oh, did you finally get the invite? They’re just lovely, aren’t they?”
“Yes, they are, but that’s not why I’m calling. Why does it say that the wedding is at my house?”
Her mother was silent for long enough that Hannah had to check the phone to make sure the call hadn’t been terminated. At last, she said, “Sean said he was going
