I had Rory and Ryan on my mind when I showed up to work the next morning so I was ready to plunge deep into winery business to distract myself from the both of them. I immediately started creating flyers that I could post around town to advertise my grand opening and after printing them off I decided to take a short field trip. I had tried calling Annabeth as I drove over to Wade's Bakery but it had rolled straight to voicemail. I had left her yesterday with the impression that she would be showing up to work tomorrow but who knows what wedding emergency she had now.

I found a parking meter right in front of the short strip of stores that held the bakery and the smell of fresh bread reaches me as soon as I open the door. I thought Wade's would be busier with Christmas only being four days away but I find myself as the only customer as soon as I walk into the warm bakery. I inhale the sourdough aroma before catching Mrs. Wade behind the counter.

"Well, how do you do Ms. Sweeney?" She asks sweetly, wearing a red apron with holly berries printed all over it. As I stroll over to the display case I reply, "Much better now that I am here." My eyes scan past the colorful cupcakes and candy-packed cookies and land on the small round macarons creating a rainbow in the top corner of the case.

"You carry French macarons now Mrs. Wade? I would be delighted to try one in every flavor," I tell her and she waltzes over to the side of the display. She nods, "Oh yes, Margot is all about Paris at the moment and she insisted I carry these in the shop."

I always forget Margot and Molly are Mrs. Wade's nieces and I think I forget because the Wade's are never at any social events. They bake and cater for them but they never hang around and socialize.

She slides five of the tiny pastries into a box and as she pushes the lid down I ask, "So if the wedding happens in Paris will you be flying out for the festivities?" She laughs and shakes her head, "Oh heavens no, I could never get Mr. Wade on a flight that long."

"My mother says the same thing about my relatives. She'd much rather have a big to-do here in Hollis," I say as I scan the display for more goodies. My eyes land on a blondie and I decide to snatch that up too. I follow Mrs. Wade over to the register and as she rings me up I ask, "Do you think I could tack a flyer up about my New Years' Eve masquerade party?" I hand her my credit card as she replies, "Of course darlin'. You know where the board is. Ms. Matthews was in here last night mentioning it to a few people. Sounds like it will be quite the place to be for New Years."

Surprised I ask, "Oh you saw Annabeth yesterday? I haven't heard from her today." Mrs. Wade stuffs a couple of free Christmas sugar cookies into my bag and replies, "Yeah, she came in here real quick to grab a pie to bring over to Gus's parents last night. Mentioned the party to a few of the people in here and off she went." So Annabeth went and saw the Blackwoods last night and now she doesn't turn up for work the next morning. Could they have mentioned something about her spending habits? Was there a big fight or was she understanding? I need to get a hold of A.B and find out. I thank Mrs. Wade for the pastries and strut over to the colorful corkboard full of local advertisements. I post a bright blue flyer with details of the party on the corner and then head out to my next location. I try calling Annabeth two more times while I am driving around but she still doesn't answer. I leave a message for her to call me so hopefully, I hear from her soon.

I go and grab a mocha from the coffee shop by Mel's and leave another flyer on their board. I glance to my watch and see Mel's opened twenty minutes ago so I decide to stop in and drop a couple of flyers there as well. As I am wandering back over to my car I feel my phone buzz in my bag. I rifle around to find it and when I do I see it's Annabeth finally calling me back.

"Hey, I've been tryin' to reach you all morning," I tell her as soon as I answer.

"Sorry, my mom switched off the alarm. I just woke up," she confesses and I look back down to my watch. It's almost one.

"Your mom? You went to your parent's last night?" I ask and now I am really curious. Annabeth has been living with Gus for the past two months so it's very unusual for her to be back at her parents.

"Ugh...yeah...wanna go grab lunch? I can tell ya about my horrible evenin'," she says and I can hear the melancholy tone covering every word. I look across the parking lot at Annabeth's favorite Thai place and reply, "I am right by the noodle place if you wanna come meet me. I was passing around some flyers with info about our New Years' party so I am right in town."

"Cool. Be there in ten minutes. Grab a booth in the back," she says flatly and then hangs up the phone. Something happened last night. A part of me wants to call Gus first but I'll let Annabeth fill me in with her version. That way I can compare the dramatic version to the real one later if I call him.

I change directions and cross the street instead of heading back to my car. There is a small lunch rush inside the Thai place but I am still able to snag a booth only big enough for two in the back corner of the restaurant. I put in an order of roti bread while I wait and the waitress is just dropping it off as Annabeth comes in. I notice her come in the door immediately as she is no longer wearing her fancy dresses with a blowout. Instead, her dark hair is stuck under a baseball cap and she's covered herself in a baggy sweatshirt and coral-colored sweatpants. Large cat-eye sunglasses cover her face but even from here, I can tell she's been crying. As soon as she drops into the bouncy booth she snatches up a triangle of bread and stuffs it into her mouth.

"Are you goin' into the witness protection program or is that just your new look?" I ask her as she chews. She frowns before yanking her glasses off and she looks like hell. She glances to the menu and says, "I need a glass of wine and I can't drink while pregnant. This isn't fair."

"What's goin' on? What happened last night?" I ask her while she peruses the alcohol list and she replies, "Oh my gosh Sawyer, I don't even know where to start." She snaps her fingers at the waitress and then looks over to me and snaps, "Why aren't you drinkin'? It's lunchtime." Knowing that drinking at lunch was at one time my norm I reply, "It's Tuesday at one o'clock. Now that I have a job even I have limits."

"Yes, but you can have one glass of wine so I can sit here and smell it. Maybe the aroma will make me feel better." She tells the waitress to bring me a Merlot and I go along with it. She stuffs another piece of bread into her mouth and my patience is growing thin. She stops chewing and with a corner of the bread hanging from her mouth she finally says, "The Blackwoods are makin' me sign a prenup."

My eyes widen as I am truly stunned. They have never mentioned Gus's future wife having a prenup and I am sure Annabeth knows that.

"Wow, why?" I ask even though I know it's because they don't want their entire fortune going to Annabeth's credit card bills.

"They said with their fortune bein' passed down to Gus and only Gus, they need to put precautions in place. They will set up our children with trust funds that they can access when they turn twenty-one but other than that Gus and I will not receive any financial assistance until they pass. That, and I will only be entitled to half of whatever Gus makes after we are married. I will not be able to touch any of the Blackwood's assets that they held previously," she says while waving her hand around and rolling her eyes.

I let out a light laugh, "Annabeth, that's exactly the prenup I had with Jackson. It's standard among these wealthy families. If Margot wasn't richer than we were my mother would have forced her to sign one too."

She wags a finger at me, "That's not all, Julie made some comment about me gettin' cozy with Gus's checkin' account. She made it seem like I am actin' like I won the lotto."

I want to scream at her, "Yeah with good reason!" but I stay quiet on my true feelings. Instead, I ask, "What did Gus say?"

"He nodded along and then agreed with everything. He even mentioned scaling down the wedding! What does he even know about our wedding? He hasn't been interested in plannin' any of it," she snaps and she snatches the wine glass from the waitress's fingers before it even hits the table. She inhales the rich flavors and closes her eyes in ecstasy. I let her keep the glass.

"You know Gus is very close with his parents and from what I know they hardly ever discuss money. Maybe this threw him off too and he just wanted to appease his parents," I offer as I pick at the only piece of bread Annabeth hasn't managed to snatch up yet.

"They think I am a gold digger Sawyer, he wanted to make sure they knew I couldn't get my 'greedy' hands on their precious lumber fortune," she says in a mocking voice before smelling another gulp of wine. I want to tell her she was acting like a gold digger. I want to tell her she was blowing through his money. I do want to tell her that it looked suspicious and I don't blame them one bit for setting boundaries. But instead, I say, "Look, I know you might be a bit embarrassed they even thought a prenup was necessary but you can't be offended. Georgina Draper had to sign one, LulaBelle did, I did with Jackson, Betty said Tate's wife will have to. It's the nature of the beast. The Blackwoods are just deciding to follow along."

She shakes her head, "No, it was decided when he chose to marry me. If I was of a founding family this wouldn't be an issue." That comment brings my thoughts to Ryan and I wonder if my parents will make Ryan sign a prenup. And would he be offended if they do?

"Don't think like that Annabeth," I tell her.

"How can I not? They are basically saying Gus and I are bound for divorce or that I am only marrying him so I can get my grimy fingers on their money. Now anything I buy I feel like I have to tell them I bought it with my own money. Like I have to justify every purchase," she whines and she catches the waitress to order a glass of water. I think it will be good for her to second guess some of her spending habits and maybe the paranoia will prevent some purchases.

"You'll be fine, don't let you and Gus start fighting about money now or you'll never even make it down the aisle. Just sign the prenup and they'll have nothing to worry about," I tell her. I can tell she wants to continue to mope so when the waitress drops her water glass off I order lunch for the both of us. As she walks away from the table my phone buzzes and I see it's a text from Rory. I enjoyed my few hours without him on my mind so I inhale a large breath before reading it.

Turns out Theo would like to join us and he was hoping your friend was available to come along too.

The last thing I want to do tonight is hang out with the little blackmailer but it would be better for it to be us four instead of us two. I send a text to Aurora asking if she can come along tonight and seconds later she replies, "Yes." I hope she knows I am not helping her find an outfit and her threat weighs more heavily now if Annabeth were to discover I knew of Gus worrying about her spending habits before this conversation. I reply to Rory and Annabeth is so engrossed with her own thoughts she doesn't notice my distraction. I decide to change the subject, "So anyway, do you and Gus have any plans for Christmas?"

She finally snaps her attention to me and I seemed to have shaken her from whatever deep thought she was having. "Yeah we are spending Christmas Eve with my parents and then Christmas day at his parents," she says before suddenly frowning. "Oh lordy, I hope Christmas isn't awkward now. I bet they are gonna wanna know who bought their presents."

I roll my eyes at her, "You need to stop obsessing over this. Christmas will be wonderful. And speaking of gifts what are you getting Gus?"

"These stupid boots he was goin' on and on about. Says he needs 'em for work but at least it made my shoppin' real easy this year," she says. She swings the glass up to her lips and I wonder what he got her. She takes a sip and then asks, "What about Ryan? What are y'all doin'?"

"Christmas Eve will just be Ryan and me I and then Christmas day we will be at my parent's house with Margot and Austin," I answer. I think of spending our first Christmas together at his house and I wonder what we'll do. It's only three days away but we haven't really made final plans.

"What did ya get him?" She asks and I reply, "Margot and I got him and Austin a sky diving package thing. They've been talking about doin' it for a while so we decided to go in together and get it for them."

Annabeth feigns enthusiasm but I can tell she just wants to sit around and mope some more. We chit-chat briefly about our own party and she offers to drop off some more flyers around her old work. After we finish eating I practically sprint to my car to get away from her sour mood. When I am back on the road I decide to swing back to my mother's house and get ready for my next big date with Rory. Hopefully, my momma isn't home to ask me a million questions that I can't answer.