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She rolled off me and lay beside me.
“I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it,” I said, turning onto my side. I traced a finger along her stomach. “And I’m glad you don’t find it weird.”
“Me too.”
For a long while, we were silent, listening to an owl hoot outside the window, to the faint hum of cars in the distance, and the bark of a dog.
There was something I had to confess, something I’d been meaning to tell Sophie but hadn’t gotten around to it. “I’ve rented a place in St. Helena.”
Sophie drew her gaze to mine, her eyes heavy with sleep. She pulled the sheet over us and tucked it up beneath her chin. “Really?”
I nodded. “Santa Rosa is only forty minutes away. I used to commute every day when I still lived here in St. Helena, so I thought, why not now?”
“When are you moving?”
“At the end of the week.”
Sophie yawned and caught it just a second too late. “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”
“I’ve never been more certain.”
She then smiled and closed her eyes. A moment later, her soft breaths fell into a gentle rhythm. I watched her for a few seconds and then let my own eyes drift shut.
“Where do you want these?” Sophie asked, lifting up a handful of orthopedic books.
“My bookcase is arriving tomorrow, so for now . . . ” I glanced about the living room of my new house, a three-bedroom Mediterranean Revival with stucco exteriors and a red-tiled roof.
Inside there were arched doorways, exposed rafters, and big casement windows. It wasn’t exactly the modern apartment I had back in Santa Rosa, but it was cozy, and I wasn’t opposed to calling it my home for the next while.
“Just put them right over there,” I said, pointing to an empty side table. Sophie hauled the books across the room and dropped them down on the table, clapping her hands together.
She was a beautiful messy vision with paint-smeared dungarees, a top that just covered her growing stomach, and her hair in a floppy bun. Everything about today—the way we had eaten takeout grilled-cheese sandwiches and sipped juice while sitting amongst half-packed boxes—felt like we were in a movie, one of those rom-com with all the mishaps. Not that we were going to fall madly in love and wrap up this story with a happy ending.
Life wasn’t that simple.
“Did you purposefully choose a house two blocks from mine or was it a coincidence?”
Sophie wiped a strand of hair out of her face and rested her hands on her hips, latching her gaze onto mine. She was smiling;she had been ever since she’d parked her car outside and walked into my house.
I laughed, setting another box I had just carried in from Sam’s truck on the dining table. “You know, if you would just say yes to me moving in with you, I wouldn’t have had to find a house so close to yours.”
Sophie pulled a face, intent on ignoring what I had said, set her sights on a box markedkitchen suppliesand squatted down in front of it. Instead of picking it up—I had instructed her not to do any heavy lifting—, she reached for a pair of box cutters and opened it.
“I’m just saying,” I continued when Sophie said nothing. “It makes logical sense. When the babies are born, I’ll be spending a ton of time at your place.”
“I’ve only got two bedrooms,” she said, glancing back over her shoulder, her hands digging through the bubble wrap I’d unceremoniously stuffed into the open spaces in the box. The last time I moved, I had lost a whole dinner set, and didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
“So?” I said.
“Where will you sleep when the babies are born?” she asked, frowning slightly. “On the couch?”
“Next to you, in your bed,” I said, my face deadpan, but then Sophie fell back onto her butt and glanced up at me like I had suddenly spoken French. I couldn’t help the laugh that fell from my lips. “Why is that surprising?”
“Because we’re not together, Alex,” she said, standing up and dusting off the back of her dungarees. “That’s why.”
For the last five months, we’d spent a lot of time together, all while blatantly ignoring the elephant in the room. I had feelings for her; there was no denying them.
But at the moment, with everything going on with Vicki, with Sophie’s clear hesitation, I wasn’t going to voice them out loud.Besides, I didn’t know where exactly I stood with Sophie. One minute she looked like she could go down on one knee, and the next she looked like she wanted to jump into a getaway car and ride off, alone, into the sunset.
