the wine tasting, wouldn’t continue this sixty-year feud. Because losing the woman you love to another man could make you do stupid things. But losing the woman you love all on your own—there’s no coming back from that.
A few seconds, a few minutes, hell, a lifetime could have passed. Marc stood there, looking out the window and replaying every decision he’d ever made with regard to Lexi. He was surprised when he turned around to find everyone still in the bakery staring at him, including his nonna, who must have come out at some point during the argument, because she was looking at him with shame.
He didn’t blame her. He was ashamed. And angry. And he hurt so fucking bad he couldn’t breathe right.
When ChiChi took a step forward, Marc said, “I gotta go,” and walked out the door, down the street past the Paws and Claws Day Spa, past Bottles and Bottles: Pharmacy and Wine, and kept going until he found himself walking through his family’s vineyard and somehow made it to Gabe’s front door.
The door opened. Gabe took one look at Marc and took a step back, holding the door open wide. “Aw, man, come on in, you look like hell.”
Marc didn’t move.
“I blew it, Gabe.”
“Can we fix it?”
“I don’t think so.” He rested his forehead against the doorframe. “She likes my dog, doesn’t take my crap, and looks at me like I can be the kind of man Dad was. When she cooks…she wears this apron…” He paused and looked up at his brother and felt everything inside tighten. “And I love her so damn much that I have no idea how I’m supposed to wake up tomorrow and pretend like my life hasn’t just fucking ended.”
CHAPTER 17
Lexi’s phone rang again, and she let it go to voice mail—again. It was two in the morning. And probably Marc. And she just couldn’t bring herself to answer it.
She didn’t know if he was calling to ask if she was still going to cater the Showdown tomorrow or if he was calling to apologize and beg for her back. Either way, she couldn’t stomach it. If it was the first, she’d cry because he wasn’t calling to apologize and beg for her back. If it was the latter, she was afraid she’d cry because she’d have to tell him where he could shove his apology. And she was tired of crying. She was also drunk.
So when the phone stopped ringing, she waited for a long beat, then decided to pour herself another teacup of Pricilla’s Angelica and grabbed her needle and thread.
Earlier that evening, she had used the seam ripper to take the Morning, Hot Stuff out of her apron, replacing it with Deflated Cream Puff before she finally settled on I Love You, Dumb-ass!
She had just finished putting a black heart in place of the period at the bottom of the exclamation mark when the phone rang again.
Knotting the thread, she set her craft aside and downed her teacup. It was ringing for the third time when she finally looked over at the stack of three-by-five cards resting on her pillows that Abby had given her. They were a series of prompts for her to refer to in case she gave in to the weakness and answered. Most of them were so profane she would be too embarrassed to even say them, which was another reason not to answer.
By the time the call went to voice mail, she’d managed to refill and reempty her glass again. She’d also managed to spill half of said glass down her front.
“Crap.” She hopped up and grabbed a pair of dirty jeans from the floor and scrubbed at the tank top until it had faint denim smudges on the chest.
A soft tap sounded at the window.
Lexi froze. Jeans in hand, breathing nonexistent, she listened. When holding her breath and standing still became not only impossible but dangerous, she tiptoed over to the window and braced herself.
Was Marc down in the alley tossing pebbles at her window? Because if he was, she would tell him just how cheesy his Romeo and Juliet act was—and just where he could shove his apology.
After a quick fluff to the hair, Lexi grabbed the curtain, yanked it back, and screamed.
A face was staring at her through the glass. A face with frizzy hair and pissed-off eyes that was staring. Right. At. Her. It opened its mouth, only Lexi was too afraid to hear what it would say.