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“Not me, Zoe. Us. I want it to be a deliberate decision, moving in together, and not just something that. . . happens.”
I hated that Zoe was frowning, though I’d expected the reaction. Try again. Take a different angle. “Clearly I’ve been giving staying here some thought. And how that might work. And I agree with you. There’s a lot to recommend Kitchi Falls.”
“Such as?” she teased.
“The wine.” I lifted my glass.
Zoe sighed. “I don’t love the whole moving-back-with-Lucas thing, but as to the rest of it. . .” She wiggled closer to me in her seat. “It’s perfect.”
“Glad you think so.” I leaned down to whisper in her ear, “It just so happens, I think you’re perfect too.”
What wasn’t perfect?
Anything else about this reintegration into civilian life except Zoe. Maybe it would have been easier if I’d moved back home to the familiar. Or maybe that would have made it worse. From talking to Lucas, he hadn’t seemed to have such a difficult time.
But for me, nothing felt quite right. Except being in this woman’s arms. Though I needed my own life outside of her. Zoe had created a life before me, and we should both have one outside of each other too.
Trouble was, I was more Zoe’s boyfriend in this town than I was anything else. A vague idea for a future wasn’t a future.
“Enough serious talk,” Zoe said, likely sensing my mood. “Let’s just enjoy the afternoon. After the boat ride, I’ll take you next door to Grado Valley Vineyards. They have a newish brewery there.”
Enjoy the afternoon. Sounded like a solid plan. In the meantime, I’d try to forget about the alarm bells in my head that were becoming harder by the day to ignore.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
zoe
“I can’t believe how long it’s been since we got together,” Natalie said.
Sitting on the back deck of Grado Valley Vineyards Wine Barn, the main of their three buildings, Natalie, Charlee, Mazzie, and I were enjoying the Saturday afternoon sun. And wine, of course.
The Grados were going to wonder if I were moving in. Nate and I were just here a week ago, though that was the brewery.
“Two weeks isn’t that long,” Charlee said.
Mazzie swirled the red wine around in her glass. “Okay, I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since the emergency meeting at your house, Zoe. And now look at you.”
“That was a bad night,” I admitted.
“But all is well now, no?”
“It is. I mean. . .” Thinking back over the last week since the wine cruise, I didn’t have a lot to complain about. When we were together, it was like that first day. When we weren’t, Nate and I continued to text like he was still stationed halfway across the world. “The only sucky thing is that he moved back into Lucas’s apartment.”
Everyone knew this already but Mazzie.
“No kidding? Why?” she asked.
It was hard to explain. Thankfully, Natalie seemed to see I struggled with this one. “Personally, I think Nate was worried he and Zoe sort of moved in by default. It’s a pretty huge adjustment to come back into civilian life after a year in a combat zone. Then meeting Zoe, figuring out next steps. . .”
“I get it. You want to make sure you’re doing things the right way,” Mazzie concluded.
“I suppose,” I said, taking a sip. “And he stays over some nights.”
“And,” Charlee added, “he’s there in the morning before she goes to work. Honestly, he’s at Lucas’s less than he is your place, Zoe.”
“True,” I admitted.
“What’s he planning next?” Mazzie asked the most obvious question.
