Philip walked up to join us, pulling his cooler behind him.

“How about we all sit down somewhere and eat some of this stuff?” he asked with a smile. He drew an arm around me again, and gave me a quick hug. “I’m just so glad we found you, Harley,” he whispered.

Matt checked his watch, and glanced at Philip, “Before we start, should we check around about places to stay, Philip? It’ll be dark soon, and I don’t think we’ll be able to drive all the way back to LA later, after we’re done here.”

“If you guys don’t mind sharing a room, there’s one other room available in this place,” I jumped in.

Matt grinned and turned to Philip. “Well, I don’t mind taking the couch, Philip.”

I laughed and corrected him. “Actually, neither room has a couch, Matt.” It felt odd calling him by his first name.

“Oh?”

“But the rooms have an outdoor lounging bed, which is quite comfortable. If you don’t mind sleeping outdoors …” I added quickly.

“Great!” Matt exclaimed as he clapped his hands together. “Just like scouts! Been a while since I roughed it!”

Well, this place is hardly roughing it, I thought. But I wasn’t about to quibble with him on a nonsense point.

He turned to head towards the office of the inn, and waved his acknowledgement of Philip’s shout, when Philip told him that he and I would be setting things up in the outdoor space of my room.

Ten minutes later, as Philip uncorked one of the bottles of wine, I said, “I’m worried that you’ll be late for the wedding tomorrow, Philip.”

He shook his head, and laid the bottle on the table. “Think I’ll let the bottle sit a bit,” he thought aloud, and then took a seat in one of the chairs, not answering me just yet.

“Let’s forget about tomorrow and have a nice talk, alright, Harley? Let other things take care of themselves. The wedding starts in the late afternoon, anyway, and Daisy is an unparalleled organizer so she can marshall things back in LA for the wedding without my help. Plus, she gave me her blessing to do what it takes to make sure I found you and took care of you, so …” he patted my hand and then reached for the bottle.