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 behind 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.