Page 142 of The Difference Between

And it’s only made the physical pull stronger.

He barely got a full worn boot in the tasting room this afternoon before I wrapped myself around him and he had one hand up my shirt and his tongue down my throat.

I welcomed both.

Until Addie came in to show me her newest Toto rendition and killed the moment from escalating to the level I longed for it to escalate to.

Maybe that’s for the best too. Maybe Gavin and I will make out and talk and he’ll occasionally make me scream his name with a piece of glass then I’ll get pregnant by a donor and go back to Chicago and get Fizz Co and find someone to manage the vineyard until the time comes to sell. It will be fun and then it will be done. Maybe he’s something I get out of my system. There are worse ways to spend a sabbatical.

And if I really do love him? Well, then maybe I . . .

“Reese,” Remy says, pulling me back to the moment. “I said how does it work if you get pregnant with some other guy’s baby?”

I rub my tongue on the roof of my mouth as I roll my neck. “I don’t know.”

In my mind, if this becomes more than us spending the rest of my sabbatical together, it looks the same as it would with any man I might date in the future: him naturally progressing into a father-like role with the child down the road.

“What?” She’s outraged. “That’s a terrible answer.”

“It is not,” I insist. “Everyone kept saying I’m too controlling, and now I’m going with the flow and that’s not right either?” I scoff. “You’re impossible.”

Remy’s hands fly in the air. “And you’re blind.”

“How am I blind?”

“For starters, you missed the fact he was him⁠—”

“I didn’t see him for twenty-some years!”

“—or realize he was a glassblower⁠—”

“That was some conspiracy plotted against me by everyone—” I swing my glare between the two of them. “Which reminds me I need to yell at you both for not telling me.”

“And because he’s good, Ree,” Remy says. “He’s—” Why does she look like she wants to cry? “He’s a good man and he takes care of people he loves and he’s—he’s selfless.”

Rue shrugs. “He is.”

They’re not wrong.

“His selflessness doesn’t change reality,” I volley back. “I’m protecting my interests. You think businesses shut down while they’re looking to expand?”

Remy groans. “Why—why—do you always compare relationships to business transactions?”

“Why do you always compare relationships to the bullshit books you read?”

Rue snorts. “You do let books cloud your judgment, Rems.”

I laugh. “Remember that time she tried to reenact that scene from, what was it, Rue?”

“Oh my God.” Rue sits upright, thinking. “It was⁠—”

Remy shouts, “Stop!”

We look at her, stunned. Remy never, ever raises her voice.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, tracing the grain of the table with her index finger. “I just don’t think what you’re doing is very fair. He is in love with you and jumping through hoops to be what you want, and you’re off looking for something better. He might be saying he doesn’t care, but I don’t think you’re hearing the truth.” She shrugs, eyes fixed on the table. “And I wouldn’t feel very happy if someone did that to me.”

And there it is. This has very little to do with me and Gavin and everything to do with her and Darren.