An elbow to my upper arm brought me back to the present. “You in there?” my beloved asked. “Because you looked kind of fuzzy for a second.”

“Fine,” I said automatically, and looked across the table. “Are you two making any plans for trips?”

My aunt and Otto smiled simultaneously, smiles that looked identical in their relaxed ease. Aunt Frances laughed. “We’re working on where we can go during the fall break. Maybe driving to Toronto. Only a seven-hour drive if the weather holds.”

“But the break over Christmas and New Year’s is almost three weeks long,” Otto said. “We can get some good mileage in.”

“And then there’s spring break.” My aunt looked thoughtful. “If I take an extra day at both ends, that’s almost two weeks. I’ve read if you’re willing to fly standby, you can get some tremendous deals.”

Rafe, Otto, and my aunt all started to tell stories of travel savings they’d heard about, some that ended happily and some that didn’t. As a humble assistant library director with an associated humble salary that was still paying off student loans, I tended not to pay attention to insider travel tips.

Someday, I told myself, I’d get to all the places I’d read about. Meanwhile, I’d go on being happy that my aunt was finally able to stretch her legs, both literally and metaphorically.

Right in the middle of a sentence about the timing of buying plane tickets, Rafe reached for my hand and gave it a nice, firm squeeze. My heart instantly went all mushy. Rafe understood. He knew how badly I was trying to get out from under the weight of my loans. Not badly enough to give up the occasional meal out, of course, but enough to keep driving an already elderly car, enough to buy most of my clothes from a local consignment shop, and enough to wonder how on earth I was going to be able to pay my half of whatever Rafe was paying for the house.

“Right over here, gentlemen.” The hostess led a group of three men past our table. While I didn’t recognize two of them, the third was Drew Parnell.

Hmm.

After a moment, I eased my hand out from underneath Rafe’s, murmured something about the restroom, and wandered in that direction, which just happened to be in the direction of the table where Drew and his companions were getting the recitation of the day’s specials, something we hadn’t heard because of Kristen’s high-handedness.

By the time I drew near, the three men were deep in conversation about tax-exemption certificates and, if I’d heard correctly, rehabilitation districts, whatever those were.