Passionate History by Libby Waterford Page B

paramedics brought a wheeled gurney that would make it on the relatively flat ground.
    She volunteered to lead them to her mother and grandmother, but they were familiar with the terrain and said they could do it on their own. Bree sank thankfully into the backseat of her parents’ car, where her father had the heater running full blast.
    “I’m sure they’ll be fine, once they dry out,” she told everyone.
    “I shouldn’t have made us go out,” her father said. “Not with the rain coming.”
    “It’s just a summer storm, Dad. We’ll be fine.” But her teeth chattered as she said it, and Tess, who was practically dry, having reached the car before the rain started, tossed her a sweater. It didn’t help the fact she could feel water in her shoes, but she started to warm up. Grandma Lucy grouched about how slow the paramedics were, but Bree was impressed with their response time.
    “Maybe we should stay here in Weston Village tonight,” her father said. “I’ll see if I can get us some rooms. What hotel are you staying at, honey?”
    There was an awkward silence as Bree thought. She could lie, or she could prevaricate. “Um, I didn’t get a hotel. I stayed with friends on campus. But you could try the Weston Motel…it’s near where we had lunch today.”
    “All right.” He didn’t seem to notice anything unusual, probably because he was used to his older daughter’s free-spirited ways.
    Still, he’d be shocked if he knew how free his little girl had been in her ways the night before.
    The thought of Aidan warmed Bree. She was kind of pissed at him, but she decided she couldn’t blame him for being confused about them when she was incredibly confused herself.
    She thought of her cell phone. She hoped it hadn’t drowned in the pocket of her dress. Fishing it out, she saw she had missed texts. One was from a college friend saying good-bye before he got on a plane. There were three others. The first: I’m sorry . The second: I’m an idiot . The third: This is Aidan . She laughed, and her phone buzzed again, as if he could tell she had been thinking about him.
    Where are you?
    Weston Pond.
    She was about to send another text to explain what had happened and that she needed to help her family figure out what they were going to do, but then the paramedics emerged from the woods, carrying her grandmother on a stretcher, her bedraggled mother following behind. Her father leaped out of the car and gave her mother a huge, crushing hug. Seeing her parents so devoted to one another after thirty years put an unexpected lump in her throat.
    The paramedics loaded Grandma Billie into the ambulance. The parents spoke with the paramedics then returned to the car. Tess scrambled into the backseat, as Bree climbed out.
    “You aren’t going with them in the ambulance?” she asked her mother.
    “No, we’ll follow them to Weston General. Grandma’s a little shaken up, but she perked up when she saw the paramedics. She said one of them had a cute butt.”
    “Just like her.” Grandma Lucy sniffed, trying to hide her concern. “We better go make sure she doesn’t make a fool of herself.”
    “I’ll meet you there.” Bree gave her mom a quick hug through the open window. The rain was falling softer now, but Bree was still wet and chilled.
    Her dad waited until she was safely out of the path of the Subaru before flooring it. It wasn’t until she tried the door of her car and realized her keys were in the jacket she’d given her mother that she turned and looked, but they were gone.
     
     
    Aidan’s heart hammered and then tried to escape his body through his throat when he pulled into the parking lot at Weston Pond and saw the silver sedan, a sodden figure propped against the driver’s door.
    He’d been berating himself for the asinine way he’d behaved at the dim sum restaurant. He should have manned up and called Bree immediately, and made her see him so he could explain and apologize. But he hadn’t