She shook her head, sipping her coffee. She didn’t want to have to tell Stuart she was leaving. It had seemed simple ten minutes ago when she was talking to Ted. But now, faced with the idea of breaking the news to Stuart’s face, she began to dread it. She was fairly certain she could be back in time for the wedding a week from tomorrow—after all, the board had given her only until Monday to settle things.

Still, that didn’t negate the fact that she would miss everything between now and then. There was a big dinner coming up with Stuart and Jai’s families, a joint bachelors’ party, and all the other activities and meetings before and after those. She’d also be leaving the rest of the planning to Maddie. And maybe that was what she dreaded most, if she was honest. Leaving Maddie.

She sighed, trying to dismiss all of this, and indicated the door. “Shall we?”

He raised his eyebrows again and walked closer, holding out his arms. “Come here.”

“What?”

“Just come here.”

She hugged him, sighing into his chest. He was tall enough to put his chin on top of her head.

“I love you, kiddo.”

“Hey,” she said, pushing away from him. “I’m only two months younger than you.”

“Yeah, and that makes you kiddo. Permanently.”

She grabbed her winter wear and pulled on knee-high leather boots before she followed him downstairs. They greeted Ethel in the front room, and both ended up taking another German muffin with them on the way outside, Stuart immediately tucking in to both, eating, as usual, as if he’d never had food before.

The sun was peeking through the clouds again, but it was still much cloudier than usual. She’d been here only a few days and could already tell this was strange. Stuart was frowning up at the sky.

“It’s weird,” he said, before motioning them toward his car. “It’s almost never cloudy like this.”

“Is it supposed to snow again?”

“I don’t know—I haven’t been paying attention.”

She wondered why she hadn’t thought of this sooner. Missing another flight due to the weather would be a disaster. It might have been better to go right to the airport between storms—leaving now, in fact.

“Hey—you okay?” he asked when they got in the car.

She tried to smile. “Work stuff. Don’t worry about it.”

He still looked a little worried, but he started the car. Unlike the Bronco, his car’s heater was very slow to start, and she wrapped her arms around herself, soon shivering hard.

“Sorry about the cold,” he said. “Can’t complain with a free vehicle, I guess.”

“No. I guess not.” Her teeth were actually clattering.

“Don’t worry. It’s not far. It’ll probably be warming up when we get there.”