A Lot Like Love

by Jennifer Snow

  “Seriously, dear, I’ll be honest—when Whitney told me that Lia was holding the reunion here, I didn’t have high expectations. But you truly did something incredible. Dove is smiling down; I just know it,” the older woman said, patting Sarah on the shoulder before moving on to rejoin her family.

  Sarah swallowed the lump in her throat. Mayor Rodale’s praise of the B&B gave her an unexpected, overwhelming sense of accomplishment. She’d brought the B&B back to life.

  With Wes’s help.

  Catching his eye now as he and Marissa entered the crowded event room had her hands fumbling with the cables of the virtual conferencing equipment. He looked amazing, dressed in charcoal pants and a pale-blue dress shirt, opened at the collar. It was the first time she’d seen him in anything formal. The shirt sleeves were rolled, displaying his tanned, muscular forearms, and it took everything she had not to rush into those arms.

  She’d missed him so much the last few days.

  Unfortunately, his simple head nod in greeting was completely unreadable. Was he as nervous about being there as she was having him? Or had he completely just disregarded everything they had together? One mistake and it was over? Albeit it was a big mistake. One she was still anguished over.

  Next to him, Marissa scanned the room but didn’t see her, so instead she headed toward several other kids sneaking treats from the dessert table. Sarah sighed. She’d missed Marissa, too. She was dying to ask her about camp and talk to her about her plans to design her own apps…

  Would she get a chance to talk to her? Would she talk to Wes? This event wasn’t exactly conducive to a great conversation.

  She connected the cables to the projection screen and motioned for Lia to join her at the front of the room.

  “Is it ready?” Lia asked. She was clutching a champagne flute, and the glass looked ready to shatter under her tight grip.

  Everyone else was having a good time, but Lia had been tense and on edge all evening.

  “Yes,” she said, handing her the remote. “Your aunt texted and said Grandmama is all set. Just hit Connect whenever you’re ready.”

  Lia took a deep breath and actually looked nervous as she clinked her glass and the crowd turned their attention toward her. “Hi, everyone. Thank you all for coming. I love that we were able to be together like this.” She paused. “Unfortunately, there is one very important member of our family who wasn’t well enough to travel.”

  She turned to glance at Malcolm, and Sarah couldn’t quite decipher the look that passed between them, but Lia seemed even more uneasy than Sarah felt, trying to avoid looking at Wes.

  Lia continued, as though a lot was riding on this surprise for her husband. “So, we brought her here the best way we could.” She hit Connect on the remote, and a second later, Grandmama’s smiling face appeared on the large projector screen in the front of the room.

  Malcolm’s look of surprise gave way to one of affection as he glanced at Lia, and Sarah’s sigh of relief seemed to be in sync with the other woman’s.

  Lia’s grateful smile in her direction had some of the tension melting away. She’d done it. She’d pulled off the event. She’d impressed the great Lia Jameson. And more importantly, she’d impressed herself. She hadn’t given up on the inn or its legacy. Her grandmother’s legacy.

  “Thank God for technology, am I right?” someone in the crowd said, and Sarah shifted her gaze to Wes. He was looking at her, his expression torn. Conflicted and strained. Should she go talk to him? Should she avoid him? Her heart raced and the air around her felt stale, thick…

  It was impossible being near him and not wanting to rush into his arms. Knowing she may never have a chance to be with him…and Marissa ever again had her chest tightening and tears threatening to appear.

  She hurried out of the dining room and into the foyer, looking for an escape. Several guests lingered at the base of the stairs. She’d have to interrupt them to head up to her room, so instead, she took the stairs down to the wine cellar; yanked the big, heavy door open; and slipped inside.

  Tears welled in her eyes, and she pressed her fingers to her lids. She would not cry. Not right now, anyway. She had to make it through the next few hours.

  She forced several deep breaths. She’d just focus on making sure everything ran smoothly and after dinner escape to her room. Lia would be gone the next day, and she could focus on the next steps.

  The cellar door opened behind her and she turned quickly. Wes?

  Lia. “There you are,” the other woman said.

  She wiped her eyes quickly and cleared her throat. “Did you need me for something?”

  “Yeah, I, uh…” She moved into the cellar, letting go of the door.

  “Maybe don’t let the…door shut,” Sarah said with a sigh as it closed. She hurried toward it and gave a quick tug on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. “Damn.”

  Lia’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “This door has been sticking lately, so it’s safer to leave it ajar.”

  Lia immediately reached for the handle and pushed with all her strength. It wouldn’t budge.

  Sarah pushed with her.

  Nothing.

  “Please don’t tell me we are trapped in here.” Lia’s breathing immediately shallowed.

  Sarah glanced at her. “Stay calm.”

  “I’m claustrophobic.”

  “It’s not exactly a small space.” Sarah continued to push on the door as Lia started to pace.

  “Still, it’s a creepy-ass cellar. And I’m trapped inside.” She clutched her chest above the white silk blouse tucked into a thin, knee-length black pencil skirt. “Air. I need air.”

  “Don’t panic,” Sarah said. “You have your phone on you—call someone to come down and yank the door open from the outside.” Her own phone was in her bedroom charging.

  “Right. My phone.” Retrieving it from the pocket of her skirt, she scrolled through the contact list.

  “Come on, Lia—just pick someone. Almost everyone you know is upstairs.”

  “I’ll try Wes,” she said, hitting Dial.

  Sarah’s cheeks flushed again at the mention.

  Lia eyed her with amusement, her panic momentarily forgotten. “So, Marissa said you two have been joined at the hip lately.”

  Not anymore. But her heartache wasn’t something she wanted to discuss with Lia. She still hadn’t even talked to Whitney or Jessica about everything yet. She desperately needed some girl time with her besties. They’d help her figure out what to do next.

  “Is he answering?” she asked, nodding toward the phone.

  “Why won’t the call connect?” Lia asked as the call refused to go through.

  “Try again.”

  She did, but once again the call wouldn’t work.

  Lia glanced at the display screen. “No bars. There’s no service down here.” Her staggered breathing returned. “Do you have your phone?”

  “No.”

  “Oh my God…”

  Sarah grabbed her shoulders and moved her back toward the cellar wall. “Deep breaths. It’s fine. I’m sure someone will come looking for us when we don’t reappear upstairs.”

  Lia nodded. “You’re right. Okay. So what do we do in the meantime?”

  Sarah shrugged. “Wait, I guess.” Sliding her back along the stone wall, she sat on the floor. This actually wasn’t so bad. She’d needed an excuse to get away from everyone; she just wished she were alone.

  Lia surveyed the concrete floor, contemplating the likelihood of getting dirty, then shrugged and sat next to her. She hit Redial, attempting the call again, then set the phone on the floor next to her when it once again failed.

  “I’m sure you’d rather be stuck down here with Wes,” Lia said.

  “He probably wouldn’t want that.” Sarah rested her head against the stone wall
and crossed her ankles out in front of her.

  Lia turned to face her. “Why not? You two were practically all goo-goo eyed for each other that night at the fair, and I’m sure things heated up with Marissa at camp last week.”

  Oh, they’d heated up all right. Then they’d fizzled out fast.

  Unfortunately, Wes may be able to just walk away from the connection they’d had, but Sarah couldn’t just turn off the emotions. She’d fallen hard and fast for her former crush, and the last few weeks had only reinforced her desire to have other things in life besides her career—a relationship, a family…

  “Things are complicated.”

  “Life always is,” Lia said. She paused. “I’m sorry if I was a huge pain.”

  “You really were,” Sarah said wryly. Though right now, her high school frenemy was the least of her concerns. It was silly to always have compared herself to Lia in the first place.

  “Well, I have to give you credit. The way you were able to save the day with Grandmama’s virtual presence might have saved my marriage.”

  Sarah looked at her as though she were talking a different language. “What are you talking about? You have an amazing marriage, along with the perfect career…a penthouse in New York…”

  Lia scoffed. “My career is slowly killing me, if my husband doesn’t do it first, and the penthouse in New York is beautiful but lonely.”

  Sarah blinked as she stared at her. “Wow. I had no idea.” Social media really did make it easy for people to portray their lives in any way they wanted. No one really knew what was happening beyond the internet connection.

  “That was on purpose,” Lia said. “I’m always trying to give the illusion that everything is wonderful. But it’s actually exhausting.”

  “So why does Malcolm want to kill you? Is he…abusive?” The man had been slightly standoffish and high and mighty, but he hadn’t seemed dangerous.

  Lia shook her head. “No. I didn’t mean it like that. He’s just as fed up with me as the rest of you.” She hesitated. “We’ve had our issues over the last few years, and they’ve driven a wedge between us.”

  “You both work long hours; that has to take a toll on a marriage,” Sarah said.

  “It’s worse than that.” She paused. “I kissed my boss about a year ago.”

  Sarah’s mouth dropped.

  “It was after a big court case win; we were all out celebrating…Malcolm and I had been arguing about starting a family, about where my career was heading, about everything, it seemed. And one thing led to another. It just happened. Nothing more—just one kiss. He can’t forgive me. I can’t forgive myself. My marriage was definitely heading south. That’s why I planned this reunion. A last attempt to save it.”

  “Do you think it worked?” Sarah asked, feeling sympathetic toward Lia for the first time now that the facade, the mask Lia always hid behind, was gone.

  “Maybe. Malcolm actually smiled at me…like a real smile. The first one I’ve seen in a long time. That’s a start.”

  They sat in silence for a long moment until Sarah said, “Hey, we could be stuck here a while. Wine?”

  “Wine opener?”

  Reaching above their heads, Sarah felt along the edge of a deep stone cutout in the wall and retrieved one. “Grandma left one here for wine cellar tastings she used to hold years ago.”

  “Your grandma was a genius.”

  Sarah looked at her hands. “That’s why it will be tough to sell the B&B.”

  “Then why don’t you keep it?” Lia asked.

  “I don’t think I’m cut out to run a B&B. This whole thing is so far outside my comfort zone.” And could she really stay in Blue Moon Bay now without being with Wes? Staying in town, seeing him and Marissa, and not being part of their lives would be torture. But without a job to return to the city for, maybe staying was the right thing. She certainly felt more connected to her hometown now more than ever.

  “What about you and Wes?”

  The million-dollar question. “We’re friends.” Or they were.

  “Look, this is the cellar of truth, so stop lying to me and yourself. You’ve loved him since we were kids.”

  “Fine. I loved him. I still love him. I walked out of the most important pitch meeting of my career because I love him and Marissa, but that doesn’t matter because he doesn’t feel the same way.”

  Lia frowned, her head spinning toward her. “Wait. You left the meeting? The one you were preparing for for months?”

  Sarah nodded. “Yep. Marissa invited me to the camp’s parents’ day, and there was a scheduling conflict. I basically quit…or I was fired. I don’t know.” The logistics didn’t really matter. She no longer had a job.

  “Does Wes know that?”

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I realized the job no longer made me happy anyway.”

  “So what happened?”

  Sarah launched into the details of the hacked app and her own failings to keep Marissa protected online.

  But Lia shook her head. “That could have happened to any of us. No one’s perfect when it comes to parenting.” She scoffed. “I think you need to talk to him. I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time, and he needs to get out of his own way and give himself another chance at love.”

  “No, he’s right. He has to think about Marissa.”

  “Marissa adores you. You’d be really good for her. For both of them.”

  “You mean all that?” Sarah asked. Lia knew Wes and Marissa so well…if she thought Sarah would be a good fit for the family…then maybe there was some truth to it. But it was hard to get her hopes up when she had no idea where they stood now.

  “Like I said—cellar of truth,” Lia reminded her, gesturing to the room around them. She stood and grabbed a bottle of red in one hand, white in the other. “Anyway, back to the wine—red or white? I drink both.”

  “Both sounds great,” Sarah said. Maybe the answers she was seeking weren’t at the bottom of an expensive vintage wine bottle, but she had to start looking somewhere, right?

  Lia smiled as she rejoined her on the floor. “I think for the first time since second grade, we just agreed on something.”

  …

  An hour after arriving at the event, Sarah had disappeared. Wes had seen her briefly in the dining room when she’d been setting up the electronics for Lia’s surprise for Malcolm’s family, but then she’d vanished.

  He needed to talk to her. They couldn’t just let everything end after one argument. He’d been angry and he’d said things he hadn’t meant. A few days to cool off had him realizing that Marissa was right. He couldn’t protect her from everything, all the time.

  His daughter’s silent treatment the last few days had helped him come to that conclusion. It was torture, her being upset with him and not communicating with Sarah. Ignoring problems never solved anything. And this reunion might not be the ideal place to talk, but he suspected it might be his only chance if she still planned to head back to the city the next day.

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t find her among all the mingling guests. Maybe once the event had started, she skipped out. Her conflicted expression before she’d escaped the dining room an hour before continued to haunt him.

  “Hey, Dad!” Marissa came toward him with several other kids around her age. Blue frosting ringed around her mouth, and the way she was practically vibrating meant she’d consumed way too many sugary desserts.

  “What’s up?” At least she was talking to him.

  “We were playing on the cellar stairs and we heard noises from the wine cellar,” she said, eyes wide, looking sufficiently freaked out.

  “It’s the ghost of the woman who used to live here,” one of the older kids, a teenage boy with a fauxhawk, said, holding his arms up in a ghostlike position to frighten the younger kids.

  Marissa hid be
hind him. “Is it Dove, Dad?”

  “Of course not,” he said. Someone must have gotten stuck in there. That old wooden door was a hazard, one he’d forgotten to fix. His hope rose a little. Could be a great excuse to come back the next day before Sarah left…talk to her then. “Come on. Let’s go check it out,” he told the kids.

  They all made their way down the cellar stairs, and he motioned for two of the bigger kids to help him pull on the door. On three, they pulled, and the sound of giggles and voices made his pulse race.

  Inside, Sarah and Lia sat against the stone wall, an open bottle of wine next to each of them. High heels off, completely unfazed to be trapped in the cellar, they were laughing hysterically at something. The laughter of two slightly tipsy women. He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. For years, the two of them had struggled to get along, always competing for top spot in everything at school. Seeing them this way warmed his heart.

  “Hey…” he said, entering the cellar. “You two having your own party?”

  Sarah’s eyes widened as she saw him, and she quickly ran a hand over her hair. Her cheeks flushed slightly, but then she lifted her chin defiantly and, ignoring him, she turned to Lia. “So I hired a contractor to renovate this place and he neglects to fix the cellar door.”

  Seriously? Wes sighed. “I’ll fix it tomorrow.”

  Lia shot him a look. “We could have died in here.”

  “Well, you didn’t. Free to go,” he said.

  “Hey, Sarah!” Marissa ran into the cellar and wrapped her arms around Sarah’s neck.

  His chest tightened as Sarah hugged her back and looked just as happy and relieved to see her. His actions at the camp had been assholic. He knew that now.

  “I’m sorry I missed parents’ day,” she said to Marissa with a quick glance his way.

  The little girl gave him the side-eye. “Dad told me it was his fault.”

  All three women glared at him. Okay, time to break this up before he was the one locked in the cellar all night. “Okay, everyone can head back upstairs.”

  Marissa ran off with the other kids, and Wes extended a hand to Lia and Sarah to help them up off the floor.