I sat back. “Go ahead. Lay it on me.”
“I’m happy for you, son.”
I waited for the rest of it. “And?”
“And, that’s it. Clearly you care for her, and from what Min tells me, she’s a lovely woman. Gotta admit, I never thought you’d settle down. If you’re missing Wednesday, I know it must be serious.”
Funny thing was, my claiming to be in love with her, which I was, didn’t seem to have as much impact as me missing family night tonight. But I couldn’t wait another second. Now that everything was in place, I needed to see her.
“It is serious,” I said. As long as she forgave me. Min had talked to her, though, and I was pretty sure I’d have at least one more shot to prove myself to Rae.
“And this,” he held up his glass. “You know I don’t like admitting when I’m wrong...”
“Wrong? You? Impossible.”
My dad’s smirk was like a carbon copy of my own. “Grado Valley was a vineyard, plain and simple. I didn’t want to muddy the waters. But you did good here.”
If there were four words that could make a grown man cry, those were them.
You did good here.
Knowing if I spoke, my voice would crack like a teenage boy going to his first high school football game to meet up with a girl, I raised my glass instead.
Four hours later, I wasn’t feeling quite as euphoric. In fact, the pit in my stomach refused to go away. She would be here any second. Everything was cooked and ready to serve. The table was set. Now it was just a waiting game.
I looked at my phone. Two minutes past eight. Maybe she wouldn’t come. Maybe I’d given her too much time to think, and she decided I wasn’t worth the effort after all.
“Something smells good in there.”
I couldn’t get to the door quick enough. There was so much I had to say. Words I’d repeated in my head these past few days over and over. But when I opened my screen door and saw Rae standing there framed by the woods and lake behind her, all of them were gone. She took a step inside, her short sundress leaving little to the imagination.
Words could come later.
I pulled her toward me, meeting no resistance. My mouth descended onto hers, our lips already knowing the others’ intimately. Our tongues crossed, Rae’s body pressed firmly to mine. Cupping her backside, groaning as Rae’s hands held onto my ass cheeks as if I’d dare to pull away, I poured all of my longing—my apology, my love—into her.
It was only when my hand, of its own accord, slipped under her sundress, the feel of her smooth flesh making it hard to stand comfortably, that I remembered dinner. We broke apart, staring at one another.
“Let’s start over,” I said, taking her hand. “Like I said,” I waved the other toward the table. “A late dinner.”
I’d shared this lakeside cottage with Neo until he and Thayle moved into another one on property after they got engaged. Thankfully, I now had it all to myself. Or ourselves, since it seemed Rae might be open to forgiving me.
I pulled out her chair next to my own, and went to the kitchen to plate the veal parm. “I remember you telling me veal parmigiana was one of your favorites. I wrangled Tris’s recipe from him while he was here.”
Putting the dishes of veal parm over linguine in front of us, I went back for wine. Bringing two glasses back, I put them next to our plates. Rae lifted hers by the stem, swirled and sniffed then, and took a sip.
“Nice. Cab and merlot blend? Notes of blackberry jam and cola.”
“Yep. And nine percent cab franc too. Our Meritage.”
“Really well-rounded.”
“Thanks,” I said as if I’d blended it. Of course she knew, that was all Neo.
“Speaking of Tris,” Rae said, putting down her wine.
I knew she was going to apologize about Lusanne, but I wanted to do it first.
“I’m sorry, Rae. I was a total asshole Saturday night. It was wrong of me to take it out on you. Thank you for texting Jerry. I know how difficult he is.”