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My jaw drops. “No way.”
“Yeah. I really think we might.”
I scoff. “Will I be invited?”
“Owen has a very demanding schedule,” she explains, “and it’ll be spur-of-the-moment.”
“Is his schedule too demanding to allow room for you?” I chuckle. “Eloping is serious business.”
“Oh, don’t get all big brother on me. I know it’s serious, and Owen is exactly the kind of man who should be in my life. I’m twenty-two. Not five. I don’t need a lecture from you.” She gasps. “Shoot. I’m running late. We’ll catch up again soon, okay?”
She disconnects, and I’m left unsettled. Is this Owen guy the kind of man who should be in her life? That doesn’t sound right. Who’s to say who should be with whom?
“Hey,” Caleb says as he approaches. “You got a minute? I was waiting ’til you were off the phone.”
“Yeah, sure. That was Claire, not a work call.”
He sits across from me and grins. “Thanks for reminding me about her. Is she still designing wedding dresses?”
I nod.
“I’ll have to have her call Lauren soon.”
“You haven’t even proposed yet.”
“But I will. And I think Lauren and Claire would get along anyway.”
He’s not wrong. Caleb’s always considered Claire like an honorary little sister from a distance too. She’s been farther from us while studying abroad, but it sounds like that will be changing with her graduation.
“I wanted to talk,” he says.
I gesture with my hand for him to go ahead.
“Is something going on between you and Aubrey?”
I blink at him, surprised he’s asked me so straight like that. Closing my laptop, I give him my full attention, but the longer I look at him and debate how to reply, I feel certain that anything I say will automatically be relayed to Lauren. And whatever Lauren hears, she’ll repeat to Aubrey. I’d much rather talk to Aubrey myself about what we’ve got between us, but I can’t make up my mind how to view it all.
I close my mouth and slouch in my seat. “Um.”
Caleb nods knowingly, and I roll my eyes.
So much for choosing the right words. My non-answer is an answer, and it prompts me to just come clean. This is Caleb, my best friend. If I can’t tell him, then I really need to reconsider my actions.
“Aubrey’s been a surprise, all right?”
“A good one?” Caleb chuckles. “I mean, we heard you the other night.”
I go still.
“Not here.”
Right. He wouldn’t have. Aubrey and I haven’t talked much since sharing the room in Breckenridge. And since Caleb and Lauren are staying in the cottage on the property, Aubrey would need to be much louder for sound to carry that far.
“At the hotel.”
I shrug. I did tell her to keep it down, but then I failed there too. She just felt too good. She still feels good, her presence and seeing her smiles, it all makes me feel better.
“Whatever’s happening between us wasn’t planned,” I add.
