Angie stepped over the threshold to enter the house. Raymond raced past her and ran upstairs to change into play clothes. She glanced at Max before following the sound of music towards the living room.

Grandma sat on the couch, eyes closed. She rested her feet, clad in polka dot socks, on an ottoman. Was she sleeping or meditating? “Grandma?”

Her grandmother’s eyes popped open and she sat up straight. “Angie, I’ve been waiting for you to get home.”

“I should’ve called or sent a text to let you know I was on my way to get Raymond.”

“You could’ve called to let me know you got engaged to that man, too.” She jabbed a finger at Max.

“What?” Angie raised her voice in shock. “How did you know?”

“It was all over the news today at the physical therapist’s. You and Max Kelly at the diner.”

“The reporters said they weren’t going to air it until six o’clock tonight,” Max said. “Ma’am, I’m sorry you found out this way. Angie and I were going to tell you today.”

Grandma took her feet off the ottoman and planted them on the carpet. She gave him a shrewd gaze. “Are you really engaged?”

“We are, ma’am.” Max made a move for Angie’s hand. He put his underneath hers to prop it up and display the ring.

“You don’t have to flash the ring at me. I already saw it on the news.” She reached for her cane on the arm of the couch and rose up to leave the living room.

Angie took her hand away from Max’s grasp and wrung her fingers. The ring made her nervous action harder to do. “That went very, very bad. I have to talk to her.”

“I’ll go into the kitchen with you.”

“No, Max. She’s not going to listen with you here. I should’ve thought about how she’d react to you.”

“It’s because of Detrick, right? Because I wasn’t here last year.” A look of hurt crossed his face.

Angie didn’t know what to say to him. “Let me talk to her on my own.”

He nodded, sighing at the same time. “I’m going to Atlanta. I’ll call you in two weeks about the engagement shoot.”

She watched him leave. Soon, the sound of his car’s engine faded. She trudged into the kitchen where her grandmother put water to boil on the stove for tea. “Can we talk, Grandma?”

Grandma gripped her cane for support. “I don’t understand you young people, Angie. I thought you were single a couple weeks ago. Now you’re engaged to your brother’s friend from high school.”

“Max and I have been going out. I went with him to see the play in Atlanta.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

How could she explain this to her grandmother without giving everything away and actually violating the contractual agreement she signed? “Max is pretty well-known in the business world. We had to be discreet for a while.”

“So discreet you couldn’t tell me?” Grandma shook her head. “Does your son know?”

“We told Raymond on the way home.”

“When are you getting married?”

“We don’t know yet, but Max will be around more often.”

The water began to boil. Her grandmother dropped a tea bag into a mug. “Please be careful. I can’t tell you what to do with your life, but you know you have responsibilities.”

“I do, Grandma. You and Raymond are always going to be my priorities.”

Her grandmother took the mug of tea over to the table to let it finish steeping. “It’s not myself I’m worried about.”

Angie’s shoulders felt like they supported a pile of bricks. How cagey could she be to her own family? She kept the full story of her engagement from her grandmother. She lost respect from her closest living older relative. She never felt so ashamed and cheap in her life, even if she wore a pricey sparkler on her hand.

Max blew out a breath as he finally had a seat at his desk. It was his first full day in the office after being in Harper all weekend. All Tuesday morning he spoke at meetings. He missed lunch. If he could catch a break for ten minutes, he’d be ready for the next round this afternoon.

“Mr. Kelly?” His office assistant chimed in on the desk phone. “I have Trina Kelly on the line.”

He sat up straight. Why was his sister calling? It had to be nighttime where she and his mother were staying in Europe. “Thanks. I’ll take her call.” He pressed the blinking red button to talk to his sister. “Trina, hey. What’s going on?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.” His sister’s voice punched through the line into his ear. He pulled away from the receiver. He heard people speaking Italian in the background. “What’s this about you being engaged?”

“I guess you heard the news.”

“Yes, from my store associates after they saw you and Angela Franklin picking out dresses yesterday.”

“Sis, you know I’m not old-fashioned like that. Angie chose the dress all by herself.”

“You think this is funny?” Trina shouted through the phone again. “Mom and I had to hear the news from someone else. When were you going to say anything to us?”

He opened his desk drawer for the bottle of ibuprofen. “Trina, calm down. Things have been moving fast here, but you’re right. I should’ve called you and Mom earlier to tell you. How is she, by the way?”

“Tense. She’s getting a hot stone massage. We’re at a hotel spa in Florence.”

“Ask her to call me when she’s done.”

“Max, why are you marrying a girl who went to our old high school?”

Her tone and the way she shouted into the phone began to grate on him. “Angie isn’t a girl anymore, Trina. She’s a grown woman with a son. She and I reconnected when I was in Harper and took things from there.”

Max heard his sister mumble in Italian to someone at the spa before she spoke to him again. “Grazie…Max, I don’t know about Angela. What do you and she have in common?”

He thought fast. “Cars, Harper, and Hamilton.”

“Who?”

“Sis, if you want to know what I see in Angie, the best thing for you to do is spend time with us one day. I have to head into my next meeting. You and Mom enjoy your spa time.” He ended the call and stood up to button his jacket. The next meeting began five minutes ago.

On his way to the meeting room, his sister’s words hung over him. She was upset about not knowing about the engagement first, but she didn’t have to take an attitude about Angie. She didn’t even know her growing up.

Was he any different? Max paused in the hall of the twenty-story building and gazed out the window of his office suite. Rain clouds gathered in the distance. He messed things up for Angie lately. First, he made a not-so-great impression with her grandmother. Then his failure to tell Trina about the engagement put her in a bad mood. She saw Angie in a negative light as a result. He intended to make this situation a win-win for him and Angie, not give her more to worry about.

What else could he do to help her while she played his fiancée?

A week and a half passed since Angie had seen Max. Their engagement photo shoot was scheduled to take place in three days. Fancy shoot or not, she still had regular errands to run. On Saturday afternoon, she gathered her wallet, phone, and grocery list. While Grandma and Raymond were binge-watching Star Trek, she could finish her errands in time for dinner.

Somebody knocked on the door and rang the bell twice. She opened it to find a slim, brunette woman in a chic black dress and matching jacket. The woman carried a box in one hand and a garment bag from Trina’s in the other. “Hi. Are you from Trina’s?”

“I am Trina.” She stepped into the house without waiting to be invited. “I have your outfit and accessories for the engagement photo shoot. Where do you want to try on the dress?”

Surprised, Angie studied Max’s sister. Didn’t he say she was in Europe? “I’m on my way to the grocery store. I can take them from you.” She reached for the items.

Trina checked out her engagement ring. “You need to try the dress on in case more alterations need to be made. Your photo shoot is in a couple days.”

“Max told you.”

“My employees did first.” She turned on one well-heeled foot towards the living room.

“My son and grandmother are watching TV in there. We can go into my room.” Angie set her wallet and phone on the console table and showed Trina the stairs. Trina’s heels appeared sharp enough to cut the rug. She took the garment bag from her so Max’s sister could use her hand to grab the rail on the way up.

“You lived here since high school?” Trina viewed the old carpet and worn spots on the wooden banister at the top of the stairs.

“It’s been my home since I was a baby.”

“I see.” Trina passed Angie’s baby picture hanging on the wall in the upstairs hallway.

“How have you been all these years, Trina?”

“Fine.”

Okie dokie. Maybe Trina was in a hurry and had other customers to visit. Why didn’t she just have one of her sales associates deliver the dress if it was such a hassle? Angie opened the door to her bedroom. “I have a dresser mirror we can use.”

Trina walked into the room and assessed the mirror. She smoothed her low ponytail. “It’ll do, I guess.”

“Well, you could’ve called me and I would’ve come to your store.” Trina may be Max’s sister, but Angie wasn’t going to let her prance into her grandmother’s house and put on airs.

The right corner of Trina’s left eye ticked. “I wanted to talk to you in private.”

Here we go, the real reason for the visit. Angie took the garment bag and went to change behind the closet door. “About?”

“How long have you and Max been dating?”

“Not long.” She unzipped the bag.

“Did he even talk to you in high school? I think I may have heard him say your name once or twice when he was a senior.”

What was her point, that she didn’t exist in Max’s universe when they were teenagers? Angie already knew that. “He was two grades ahead of me. We didn’t talk much then.” She slipped the dress on over her head.

“Why is he engaged to you?”

Wow, and Angie considered herself to be a direct person. “You know how it is, Trina. You see someone you knew from a long time ago and reconnect. Sometimes you click.”

“That sounds like what he said.”

Great. She got it right and didn’t say anything to contradict his story. Angie came from around the closet door. Trina checked the dress hem. Satisfied, she opened the box to present to Angie. “You didn’t pick accessories, but I thought these would go well with the dress.”

Angie lifted out a bracelet and a pair of ballet flats. “Max told you my shoe size?”

“No, my associates peeked at yours while you were in the fitting room.”

She put the shoes on. “They’re cute and don’t pinch my feet. Thanks.”

“If you don’t have any concerns or questions, I’ll leave everything with you.” Trina’s heels left tiny circles in the carpet where she stepped. “I’ll talk to you again, Angela. Before the wedding.”

Angie heard her go down the steps -peck, peck, peck- across the floor and out the door. Max’s sister had a tense energy around her, and Angie felt the lingering traces of it like a heavy blanket on her shoulders.