Canada Day weekend, Brent had to work, and the winery had a big event as well. Jess would have been pouting over that, except her month of non-stop work had killed her immune system, and she spent the holiday in bed with a nasty summer cold.
When she missed the next Pilates class, Beth and Lola both called in concern. “Is everything okay?”
“Ebery-ding is bine,” she insisted.
“You don’t sound fine,” Lola said. “I’m coming over with chicken soup.”
“You don’t sound fine,” Beth said. “I’m sending Evan over with his best bottle of whiskey.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were this sick?” Evan scolded when he showed up twenty minutes later.
“I’mbine,” Jess insisted.
“You can’t evensayfine,” Evan retorted. “And Brent is on his way.”
“Well, so ib Lola, so dat will be…” She didn’t even try to pronounce awkward.
Evan frowned and poured her a stiff drink. Then he went and answered the knock at the door that came next.
It wasn’t just Lola. It was Carrie, and Evie, Liam and DeShawn.
“I’m contagious,” she said.Thatshe could say no problem, at least.
“We have a problem,” Liam said, frowning.
Lola glared at him. “Soup first. Then talking.” She disappeared into Jess’s kitchen.
Then the front door swung open. “Is the entire town here? There’s a pile of cars out front,” Brent called out. He walked into the living room. “Oh. Yeah. Hey everyone.”
“There’s a problem,” Jess said to him miserably.
“I know, you’re sick.”
She shook her head and pointed at Liam, who shrugged. “I’m not allowed to tell her until she’s had soup.”
She shot a Evan ahelp melook, and he looked at Brent. They both looked back at her. This would be easier if everyone hadn’t just shown up.
DeShawn cleared his throat. “We know, by the way. And it’s cool.”
“You know?” Evan said in his bestare you sure you want to do this?voice.
Apparently Olympians were impervious to it. DeShawn shrugged. “We know that you three are dating, or in a relationship.”
Evie hastily added, “And we think it’s sweet. Also, I didn’t tell anyone that, for the record.”
“Group effort,” Lola said from the kitchen. “Sorry! You’re really adorable, though!”
Jess wasn’t sure she wasn’t having some kind of summer cold-induced hallucination. Where was her soup? She took another swig of Evan’s whiskey. Taking “medicinal” as literally as possible, maybe, but the burn felt good on her throat.
Lola reappeared with a steaming bowl of chicken soup, with red and green chilies in it, too. “The heat is good for you.”
Jess dug in. This was better than the hot tea and Vick’s Vaporub treatment plan she’d prescribed for herself. “Tell be the problem,” she said between slurps.
Liam sighed. “We need you well for the town meeting.”
“What town meeting?”
“Dale has called an emergency town meeting. Think of it like a confidence vote for town council, and his position as mayor.”
