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Twenty minutes later, I’m showered, dressed and ready to trek across the vineyard once again, but this time, I’m so confident in my decision all I want to do is find him.
There are only a few places he could be and luckily for me they are in close proximity to each other.
I start with the cider house and only find a couple of the other maintenance guys adding the few final touches on things. I don’t even bother saying anything to them when I realize Tommy isn’t there.
Each step I take that brings me closer to him, the harder my heart races, thumping hard and fast in my chest. There isn’t any hesitation in what I’m doing now, not even an ounce of doubt crawling through my mind. I hate that there ever was. I hate that I made him doubt me.
I check a few of the small sheds that are adjacent to the cider house and find those all set up and ready. Almost every space on the property around the orchard is being used tonight and the last place I need to check is the barn where weddings are held. It’s where the food will be served and where Jack and Lauren will thank everyone for coming. I couldn’t think of a better place to find Tommy and tell him.
I stop in the oversized doorway to the barn, the thirty-foot ceiling is strung with thousands of twinkling lights and backed against the old worn-out wooden beams; it’s a striking contrast. But even more striking is that the room is empty. I was certain this is where he would be and the defeat makes my shoulders sag, my entire body practically giving up.
“Hey, Tommy! Your girl’s out here,” I hear someone say and I look up to find Dylan standing at the other end of the barn.
“Stop fucking with me, you dick,” Tommy yells back and I bite down on my lip to keep myself from laughing.
He’s back to being his miserable grumpy self like he was before we hooked up and I know exactly how to fix that.
“Dude, I’m serious,” Dylan calls, just as Tommy emerges from the small room that’s used for storage.
He stops dead in his tracks and just looks at me. He looks at me with worry and fear and hurt, but underneath it all, behind every worried crease on his face, I see love and I see my future with him.
He begins to walk toward me, but I can’t wait, I run to him, throwing myself into his arms, nearly knocking him down with the force of my body when we collide.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I announce, my lips crashing against his in desperation. My hands tangle in his hair, pulling him closer to me, my mouth smiling against his.
“I was going to tell you I was coming with you,” he murmurs with the softest of words, his lips brushing mine. What he says brings tears to my eyes, pooling and spilling over with everything he’s just said to me.
I understand what he’d be giving up and what that would mean, but I also understand that him leaving means he chose me. He chose me over everything he’s ever known and called home.
“No,” I say, pulling back and shaking my head. “This is where we belong. This is our home, and I can’t ever picture us anywhere else. We met here. We fell in love here and I want to raise our babies here with you. Always you.”
“Penny,” he says, cupping my face with his hands. “I love you so fucking much.”
“I know you do,” I tease, “and the feeling is mutual.”
Again, our lips connect with a kiss that’s forgiveness and forever, and I can’t imagine a more perfect way to start the rest of my life with Tommy Andrews.
“Fuck my life,” Dylan mutters, moving past us and closer to the exit. “I’ve gotta find a new job because I can’t be here with all you love-sick assholes.”
My head falls back as I laugh and Tommy sees this as an opportunity and begins sucking on my neck, making Dylan even more uncomfortable than he already is.
“Are you trying to make me puke?” he now asks, clearly done with our make up make out session.
“Sorry, sorry,” I say, trying to appease Dylan so he doesn’t run off hating us. “We’ll finish this at home,” I now whisper in Tommy’s ear. “I missed you and your…”
And just as I’m about to finish my thought, Lauren walks in with Jack and a stunning dark-haired beauty. This must be the architect and shame on me for thinking it was going to be a man and that architects can’t possibly look like this woman standing in front of us.
I pictured nerdy and balding and fat, not this small stunner of a woman with the most perfect upturned nose and full lips. She walks with an air of confidence and the way she’s dressed conveys the same.
But as we’re standing here, waiting for an introduction, I see a change in her and the once confident woman is suddenly replaced by an unmistakable vulnerability, a nervousness that passes between two people.
I look from her to where her eyes have settled and holy shit, she’s looking at Dylan. She knows Dylan and not just knows him. Sheknowshim…intimately.
I throw a soft elbow into Tommy’s side as he unknowingly misses the cues happening right in front of his face.
“What?” he asks, grabbing my elbow before I jab him again.
“Nothing. Why?” I ask, playing it casual so I don’t alert everyone to the elephant in the room. Changing the subject, I greet the woman. “Hi, I’m Penny. I run the tasting room here at Somerville’s. You must be the architect Lauren hired.”
