”Oh, Mr. Shingleton,” Eleanor said soothingly as she reached out to comfortingly touch his shoulder. “It’s only 4 years and I promise you, nothing bad has happened during those years.”
She looked at him for a moment, hoping she could somehow find a way to make that desolate look on his face go away. “Now,” she said and slipped her hand down his arm to hook into the crook of his elbow. “I didn’t get bottles of wine you picked out but found two that are much more to your liking. What do you say we go back to your cabin and you and I can have a glass while we figure out how to get you settled in here properly?” He might have been her boss at some point and he might be considerably older than her, but even with using the formal version of his name, she had always seen him as a friendly being in her world. A constant, no matter how flighty his fancies usually were.