he’d argue, but he never did that when he was supposed to.
“No,” he said firmly. “We can’t.”
I sighed. Why’d he have to be such a good man?
Renzo came sniffing around us again, and Noah finally gave in and threw the stick. Then he looked at me again. “So are we okay?”
I nodded and smiled, although I sort of felt like crying. “We’re okay.”
We walked back down the beach and through town to his car, and then he took me home. The conversation stayed light, and although there was an awkwardness between us, I didn’t feel like we’d wrecked anything. We’d get back to normal. In fact, maybe we’d even be glad we’d gotten that kiss out of our systems. At least we could stop wondering.
Except . . . I didn’t stop wondering.
I spent the entire rest of the afternoon moping around the house, mooning over him, and replaying the kiss in my head. Finally, I got so fed up with obsessing over it that I threw on a sweater and walked across the orchard to the tasting room to see if Chloe needed help. I needed a distraction.
Since it was a Monday, she wasn’t very busy, and the last tasting was just finishing up. But when she looked closer at me, she could sense something was wrong.
“What’s with the face?” she asked. “You look like you swallowed a goose egg.”
“I had a weird day,” I confessed. “I think I need to talk about it.”
“What happened?”
“I kissed Noah.”
Her mouth fell open. “Say no more. Dinner tonight?”
I nodded, relieved. “Yes. Thanks.”
While Chloe finished the tour and closed up the tasting room for the night, I wandered around the farm a little. I stopped in the barn to pet the horses, walked along the hilly path that skirted the vineyards, peeked into the building that would serve as Frannie’s reception spot. It was silent, barren and dark today—no linens, no lights, no flowers, no music. But on Saturday, it would be full of life and love as everyone gathered to celebrate Mack and Frannie’s marriage. Would Noah still want to be my date?
I hoped so. I still wanted him to be there with me.
I still wanted him, period.
What the hell was I going to do about it?
“Tell me everything.” Across the table from me, Chloe lifted her glass of pinot noir, her eyes wild with delight and curiosity.
“Don’t you want to order food first?”
“Oh, right. Food.” She glanced down at the menu of the bistro we’d chosen and gave it precisely five seconds. “Okay, I know what I want, do you?”
I gave it a one-minute scan and decided on salmon with a honey-maple glaze, roasted potatoes, and a house salad. Once the server had taken our order, I picked up my wine glass too. “I don’t know where to start. I guess with yesterday.”
“What happened yesterday?” Chloe asked eagerly, taking a sip.
“Nothing. Nothing physical, anyway. We just had a really good time.”
“You guys always did have great chemistry.” Chloe nodded knowingly. “I always wondered why you two never banged.”
“Because it wasn’t ever like that with us. And I never really questioned it, because we had more of that brother-sister vibe. Which was fine with me.”
“He never tried anything? Not once in all those times you guys sat around watching TV late at night?”
“Never. I always assumed I wasn’t his type.”
Chloe took another sip. “Okay, so go on. You were having fun together yesterday . . .”
“Right. And I couldn’t stop looking at him and thinking how hot he was. I started to imagine what it would be like to kiss him. And then by the end of the night, I sort of tried to get him to do it.”
She looked surprised. “But he didn’t?”
“No.”
“Like, you puckered up and closed your eyes and did a dreamy thing with your face, like this . . .” She imitated a kiss-me-you-fool expression and swayed side to side. “And he did nothing?”
I burst out laughing. “Okay, no. I definitely did not do that. It was more like I asked him if he wanted to keep hanging out, and he said he was tired.”
She shrugged. “Maybe he was. Or maybe he didn’t know that by hanging out, you meant you wanted to put your hand in his pants. I bet he’d have said yes to that.”
“I’m just not like that—I can’t be that forward.” I frowned. “I did give him a really good hug at the end of the night.”