If someone had walked into the inn's restaurant at that moment and tried to figure out the dynamic at the table, they would have gotten it wrong.
Completely wrong.
They might have guessed it was a job interview, which would have been partially correct. Or maybe an interrogation, which would have also been partially correct. What they wouldn't have guessed was that the person firing questions with the calm, methodical efficiency of a researcher working through a checklist was someone's older sister who had traveled here on the basis of a casual goodbye.
Ariana was enjoying herself.
That much was obvious. She moved through her questions with the easy confidence of someone who already knew roughly where they were going and was simply filling in the details. One question landed, Aaron answered, she nodded, moved on. No dramatic reactions. No gasps. Just steady, focused information gathering dressed up in the clothes of a family reunion.
Aaron answered everything.
