Page 79 of Perfect Pairing
And really, who could blame me? I didn’t fall for people easily. I wasn’t like Chloe, who romanticized everything—and had made a career out of the talent as a novelist. Nor was I like Delia, who wore her heart on her sleeve, or the free-spirited Ella. I’d always been more reserved when it came to giving away pieces of myself, more of a pragmatist like Amara.
It figured the first time I truly did, the man had gone and made me regret it.
From the moment I laid eyes on him in the winery dining room, I’d wanted him in ways I couldn’t quite explain—ways that didn’t make sense—and that desire for him hadn’t goneaway. It had only tempered, edged in pain and sadness.
I didn’t want to put myself back there, didn’t want to try again only for it to all fall apart, but I also wanted him so badly, it hurt to look at him. It seemed I’d found myself in a bit of a catch-22.
Ezra had recruited me, Ella, Liam Danvers, who worked as our vintner at the winery, and a number of Owen’s waitstaff from Birdie’s to help serve at his Wine & Dine event, and I hadn’t been looking forward to spending an extensive amount of time with him. I’d barely managed to hold him off the night before—and when he’d kissed me in the CD offices that one day, my body remembering how easily he could light me up and make my nerve endings sing—but I’d been worried for nothing.
Once the appetizer course was passed out and Ezra seemed satisfied everyone was enjoying themselves, he approached me, Ella, and Liam.
“I think we’re off to a good start, don’t you?” he asked with a wide grin.
“Absolutely,” I assured him.
“I still can’t believe you sold out of tickets,” Ella mused.
“I can,” I said without thinking, then resisted the urge to slap my hand over my mouth as I looked at Ezra with wide eyes.
His grin was shit-eating, the chocolate depths of his gaze swirling with satisfaction. “Careful, Brie,” he warned. “You start singing my praises, and I might think you actually like me.”
I scoffed, mentally grappling for something witty to say in return, but my mind was dreadfully blank. Before I could respond, he shot me a wink and waded back into the dining room.
After that, he was so busy running around answering questions and basking in the glow of a meal well-cooked that we neverreally crossed paths.
Which was fine. I was content to watch him from afar, to witness the people of Apple Blossom Bay fawn over him and his culinary genius.
Although, a few of the younger women got a little too handsy, and only Ella gripping my arm, holding me in place, stopped me from stomping across the room and staking my claim.
I really needed to get it together, but he hadn’t been wrong earlier: Ididlike him. I never stopped, and it was a constant thorn in my side.
His words, which wound up being his parting statement before he gave me a sad smile and disappeared into the dark last night, had wound on an endless loop in my head over the last twenty-four hours.
And would’ve been there for you. I’llalwaysbe here for you.
Everything else he’d said was right, of course, and despite my reticence to do so, I trusted him implicitly. Everythinghadchanged, and with Dad no longer at the helm of Delatou, Inc., there wasn’t anyone standing in our way, no sense of propriety holding us back from each other.
He had broken my heart—though not through any fault of his own. Back then, I’d been a young girl giving way too much of herself to a man who had higher priorities.
And maybe my heart hadn’t been broken so much because he’d chosen his son over me, a decision I couldn’t begrudge him. In his position, I would’ve done the same thing. Maybe it was simply leftover trauma from dealing with the highs and lows of finding out I was pregnant to miscarrying not long after that made me so…sad and overwhelmed with griefwhen I looked at him. I’d been broken when he’d left my apartment that morning, but I would’ve gotten over it. Compounding it with everything that came in the few months after had only made it that much more difficult to bear—something I’d had to do alone, no less.
Now, it seemed his priorities truly had shifted, and damn, did I want to give him—giveus—another chance. He’d handled the news so perfectly, exactly as I hoped he would, and it made me fall for him that much more.
That night, after we’d cleaned up the community center, my sisters and I convened at Mom and Dad’s. I’d sent an SOS text, and they’d all dropped whatever they had planned to respond.
Now that we were all older and moving on with our own lives—and starting our own families, in the case of Chloe and Amara—I’d come to find my sisters understood me better than when I was younger. While they still got on my nerves on occasion, for the most part, they were the best friends I could ask for.
Which was why I needed them.
I was finally ready to spill my guts about my relationship with Ezra Wendt.
Thankfully, Mom and Dad were gone on their annual fall trip to Greece, which they were extending an extra week now that Dad was fully retired from the winery. I wouldn’t have to risk them overhearing as my sisters and I set up camp in their theater room, loaded up on popcorn and sweets, turned onLegally Blondefor background noise, and got down to business.
It was Delia who broke the ice. Unsurprising, given she’dalways had a sixth sense when it came to these things.
After all, look where Amara and Cal had ended up.
Then again, she was doing a damn good job of fighting her attraction to Owen despite its blatant obviousness, so perhaps her sixth sense was broken.
