Free Passionate History by Libby Waterford

her mother and took the seat next to her sister. “Hey, Tess. You got dragged along, too?”
    They had not been particularly close growing up, but now they no longer fought over Barbie dolls and whose turn it was to empty the dishwasher, they got along better than most sisters.
    Tess smiled. “Family road trip. I turned in my last final on Friday, so it’s actually nice to get a change of scene.”
    “I can’t believe you still live with Mom and Dad. Don’t you want your own place?”
    “Of course I do, but it’s convenient to school and the price is right.”
    Tess was notoriously cheap and determined to graduate law school debt free. Bree mentally applauded her but didn’t understand how she could stay sane living under the same roof as their parents.
    “You’re interning at the law firm again this summer?”
    “Yeah, actually, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Tess said, her voice lowering. The waiter arrived, and Bree’s father ordered for the table. The ice water Bree had been served soothed her frazzled nerves.
    “What is it?” Her younger sister was the model student and child, and the tone of her voice said maybe something interesting was finally afoot.
    “Um, I’m not sure this is the best place,” she said, nodding toward their parents.
    “Okay, later,” Bree replied. Perhaps she should run the whole Aidan situation by Tess. Lena’s take had thrown her. Tess might have something more encouraging to say.
    But for sure they would have to talk out of earshot of the parents. Their mother peppered Bree with questions about her friends and reunion and her flight and every other thing she could think of. Bree was in the middle of a rundown of what all her old college friends were up to when the door to the restaurant opened with a cheerful tinkle and her words dried up.
    Aidan stood at the hostess stand, flanked by Professor Woodlawn and two other professors Bree recognized but couldn’t name off the top of her head. He hadn’t seen her, and she was struck by how handsome he was. He looked as good to her as a Michelangelo sculpture or a sunset over Puget Sound. What was he doing here?
    “Bree?” Her mother’s voice called her back to earth. “You say Lena’s engaged?”
    “Um, very nearly,” she said, looking away from Aidan as the hostess led his party to a table across the room. What was she supposed to do now? Go say hi? What would she say? How would she explain this to her parents?
    “Exciting,” her mother said. “Oh, dumplings!”
    They were served, and Bree checked out Aidan’s table. He’d been seated with his back to her, so it wouldn’t be too hard to finish the meal and get out of there without having to deal with seeing him right then. Coward .
    Why was he here anyway? Weren’t they supposed to be meeting up? She couldn’t dwell on the thought because her plate was being piled high with dumplings.
    “You have to try the shrimp ones, they’re fantastic,” her father said.
    “Dad, stop!” she said, shooing him away from her plate.
    Her parents were dears, but they still treated her like she was thirteen years old.
    “Fine, but don’t sulk if they’re all gone by the time you want one,” he said with mock sternness.
    She managed to eat and answer the myriad questions thrown her way. She even got caught up on the doings in Midville, Connecticut. A suburb of Hartford, Midville had been a lovely place to grow up, but if she’d been able to talk her parents into letting her go to college at Oxford or Tulane or Anchorage, she would have. The most she could manage was Weston, a two-hour drive to an adjacent state. Now having been to England, and Alaska, as well as a half dozen other exotic places, she had to admit there was something homey about Weston Village; even Midville had its charms when she was there for the holidays, ensconced in the warm glow of her family with snow drifts piled high outside.
    She wondered if Aidan was ever homesick. She’d never been