“Have you attended Geoff and Katherine’s retreat before?” Marcy asked.
“No.” Leah shook her head. “This is my first time here.”
“Oh, are you newly married or newly engaged?”
“Still engaged,” Caleb said.
Leah whipped her head around, her eyes going wide as she stared at him. Caleb’s expression didn’t change one iota.
“Oh, you were smart to come while still engaged. I wish Mark and I had done the same.” She rested her chin on her upturned palm. “I want to hear the story.”
“The story?” Leah asked.
“Yes, how did you two meet?”
“We—”
“We met when I moved in to the house right next door to hers,” Caleb provided. “And caught her stealing herbs from my herb garden.”
“Not stealing,” Leah said. She turned to Marcy. “I started tending the garden when the previous owners moved out, and I would use the herbs instead of allowing them to go to waste. I didn’t even realize the house had been sold until the morning he caught me picking off a few basil leaves.”
“She was in her bathrobe. It was love at first sight.”
Leah narrowed her gaze. Just what did he think he was doing?
“That’s absolutely adorable,” Marcy said with a wistful sigh. “I can already tell you two will grow even closer this weekend. This is our third time attending Geoff and Katherine’s retreat. We traveled all the way up from Nashville to attend.”
“Really? That says a lot about the retreat,” Leah said.
“It’s wonderful,” Marcy said. “The first time we attended was five years ago, a couple of years after our wedding. We’ve discovered that coming back for a refresher course helps us to maintain a great balance in our marriage. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been together, you’ll always learn something new and interesting about your spouse as you go through this weekend. I cannot recommend it enough.”
“You’re attending the Marshmallow Mixer tonight, right?” Mark asked.
“Of course we are,” Caleb said. He reached across the table and caressed the back of Leah’s hand. “We wouldn’t miss it.”
Electric tingles radiated from where he touched her.
“Great,” Marcy said with a huge smile. “We’ll see you there tonight.”
The moment the other couple rose from the table, Leah whirled on Caleb.
“What was that about?” she asked, extracting her hand from his hold.
“What?”
“You have the audacity to play innocent?” Leah asked. “‘It was love at first sight’?”
Caleb let out a sigh. “I thought I was doing you a favor.”
“By lying?”
“By giving you an out,” he said. “You were worried about how it would look to the other couples if they knew you were here without your fiancé. You don’t have to worry about that now.”
“You think it’s better to lie to them?”
“You don’t even know these people. Why should it matter if you’re lying to them?”
“Because,” she said. “It…it just does.” She held both hands out. “If I went with your logic then it also shouldn’t matter if they knew I was here without my fiancé either.”
