When We're Thirty Casey Dembowski (the chimp paradox .TXT) 📖

shifted the attention away from the two of them without even trying. He regaled the table with a blow-by-blow account of one of his recent trauma cases. Hannah wanted to hug him for knowing Will needed an out, even as Will cringed every time his brother used medical jargon. He started biting his hand when Daniel described inserting a chest tube. Binging ER was not in their future.

Renata arrived with the champagne after a too-short reprieve. The joking ceased. Will clutched her hand like his sanity depended on it. Jon sat back and slung an arm around Madison, who leaned into him easily. Daniel eyed his father warily.

Jonathan clinked his fork against his glass. “To Will and Hannah. May your marriage be much longer than your courtship and a shining example of what can happen when you follow your heart.”

From anyone else, that line might have been humorous and cutesy, but from Jonathan, it was throwing the gauntlet. He didn’t believe for one second that they were in love. Determination spread through her, taking root in the pit of her stomach, and from the shadowed look on Will’s face, he felt the same way—challenge accepted.

Chapter 21Will

Try as they might, no one in the Thorne family was a night owl. Not even Daniel, despite a lifetime of overnight shifts ahead of him. Will wasn’t either, but this house never let him sleep. He liked to think that it was his mom’s way of letting him know she was there, choosing him to keep her company like he had as a surly kid and then a teenager terrified of losing his mother. He’d always stayed awake for her, listening to her stories and telling his own. She knew his greatest secrets, which as a fairly normal teenager hadn’t been that big. He knew her fears, regrets, and hopes for each of them.

Even lying in bed next to the girl he’d dreamed about for the last eight years, he felt the pull of the house. Hannah, though she must have been accustomed to sharing a bed at least some of the time, was a bed hog. It was adorable. Last night, she had tossed and turned, almost taking out his knee cap. Tonight, she was sprawled across the bed, her arm slung over Will’s torso, her head resting next to his shoulder. At any other house, on any other night, this would be heaven. But Hannah had done her telltale giggle by the time they returned to their room after accepting Jon’s offer for a nightcap, and this house and all its memories haunted him. At least he didn’t have to worry about anyone spilling the Madison beans—if there was anything his family understood, it was secrets and decorum. Not to mention he’d spent the entire day threatening Jon and Madison within an inch of their lives. And while his father hadn’t sought him out yet, Will knew Jonathan would keep the truth in his back pocket, a grenade waiting to be detonated.

Will sidled his way out of bed, pulling the comforter up over Hannah’s shoulders. She immediately flopped over, pulling it even tighter around herself. It would be nice to stay there and pretend that her cuddles were more than tipsy sleep habits, but he wouldn’t sleep for many hours. Maybe he wouldn’t sleep at all if he stayed here. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Hannah’s cheek, whispering a good night. She turned back over, her arm stretching to where he would’ve been if his restless mind had let him stay.

Will didn’t bother wandering the halls anymore. He knew where he had to go to settle his mind. He walked directly to the back of the house, down a long hall to an old sunroom that had been closed off and redesigned by his mother. All these years later, he couldn’t think of it as anything other than “Mom’s Room.” In the past few months—since Madison and Jon—he had finally come to understand why she loved it so.

The room had picture windows perfect for viewing the expanse of the yard and the woods beyond it but also a fireplace for the chilly nights. His mother designed it so she could go from reading in the natural sunlight to reading by the firelight. There was no television or phone, only a desk nestled into a nook opposite the picture windows and a small stereo she’d never let Jonathan upgrade. He turned the system on now, hearing the whir of the CD in its cradle. It was weird to think there were people who’d never known that sound. Wilderness Weekend filled the space, loud enough for him to relax into the melodies he’d long ago memorized but quiet enough that he wouldn’t bother anyone and no one would bother him.

He ran his finger across the desk—not a speck of dust. His mother had always kept her laptop and stack upon stack of papers there. She kept information about the various charities she and Jonathan contributed to and lists of key members and prominent clients—everything she needed as a wife of the wealthy. It sat empty now, all of her responsibilities long ago assigned to an assistant. Though the room was cleaned weekly, it was otherwise left untouched, a relic of another life.

“I thought I’d find you here.”

Perfect. Madison.

“You don’t look happy to see me,” she said, shutting the door behind her.

Will touched his wedding band, kneading the metal as if willing Madison to turn around and forget they’d ever been a thing. Harsh had been his perpetual tone with Madison for months, but when he committed to Hannah, he made a promise to himself that he would go for simply standoffish, if not cold. He didn’t have to like Madison, but he was moving forward with his life, and he couldn’t properly do that if he was stuck in the past. That was why the next words out of his mouth weren’t “leave me alone.”

“Thank you for not