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He’d been a fool to think loving Andrea would be anything but a disaster for them both.
CHAPTER NINE
ANDREALOOKEDATthe text for about the twentieth time in the past hour.
Z: Can’t do the hike tonight. Don’t stop by. Busy with stuff.
“Sweetie, do you think the words are going to change if you keep checking your screen?” Tani raised an eyebrow at her. They were sitting at the bar at the Purple Shamrock. Andrea had texted Tani to meet her for a drink and for help interpreting this new development.
“I just don’t understand. He’s the one who was so excited to go check out the old deck Cliff Thompson supposedly built.” She scowled at her phone. “He was going to bring dinner. I sent Hudson to stay with Mom for the night. I don’t care if we don’t walk up the hill, but him sayingdon’t stop bybugs me. And he’s not responding to my calls or texts.”
“Maybe he had a family emergency, or he doesn’t feel well and he’s sleeping, or, you know, he’s actuallybusy.” Tani nudged Andrea’s shoulder. “Girl, you’ve got it bad for this guy, don’t you?”
She chewed her lip for a moment before replying. “It sounds crazy, but I think I’m falling in love with him, Tani. Like...forreal.”
Her friend’s expression went soft. “Good for you. Have you told him yet?”
“Not in those exact words, no. But we’ve been so great together.” She grinned. “And I’m not just talking about the sex. Even if I’m just sitting in the shop watching him work, it’s...great. We talk, although sometimes we don’t say a word. We’re just together and it feels...”
“Great? Yeah, I’m getting that.” Tani took a sip of her wine. “But doeshefeel the same way?”
“I thought he did.” The way he smiled when she walked in. The gentle touches—and the scorching ones. The fire in his eyes when he held her. The way he was with Hudson, teaching him how to put spindles together in patterns, laughing when he set him high on his shoulders as they walked around the farm. His lips on her skin... “I’msurehe did.Does.I mean... I really thought we had something going.”
“You stillmight, Andrea. It’s one lousy text. It is way too soon to assume he’s ghosting you. Especially if nothing happened between you—no fight? No weird conversation?”
“No! Hudson and I were at the farm last night for dinner, and we worked on a puzzle afterward, and it was all so relaxed and happy. I wonder...” She paused. “I wonder if it scared him a little. Maybe we’re moving too fast...”
She tapped out another text to him.
A: Call me when you want to talk.
Tani chuckled. “Maybe what’s scaring him is you stalker-texting him every five minutes. I’m going to take that phone away...” She looked over Andrea’s shoulder. “Oh, hi, Vickie.”
Andrea turned to see Vickie Pendergast standing beside her at the bar. She didn’t know Vickie as well as some of the other book club matchmakers, like Maura McKinnon. She remembered that when she was a child, Vickie and her mom had been friendly rivals for a while. Two Rendezvous Falls socialites trying to outdo each other with their garden parties. Then something had happened, as it often did with Mom’s many short-term friends, and Vickie wasn’t part of their life anymore.
“I know this sounds a bit forward,” Vickie started, “but have you talked to Zayne today?”
“Um, yes. This morning. Why?”
“But not since then?”
Andrea shook her head, not wanting to share the date-busting text he’d sent two hours ago.
Vickie looked away, her eyes squinting as if she was arguing with herself. Then she sighed and looked back to Andrea. “He and your mother had a bit of a...sceneat the diner this afternoon.”
Oh, no.She straightened. “Definescene.”
“Apparently your mother didn’t know you two are...involved. Hudson ran to jump in Zayne’s lap and Marissa lost her mind. She treated Zayne like he was some monster and yanked Hudson away.”
“Oh, shit,” Tani muttered.
“Exactly,” Vickie answered. “It wasn’t pretty. Evie got Hudson away from them with a milkshake, but your mother was...well, she was Marissa. All abouther, and how your life choices have affectedher, and basically just me, me, me, as always.”
“Sounds like good old Mom.” Marissa’s world had always centered on Marissa. “How did Zayne react?”
Vickie smiled, putting her hand on Andrea’s arm. “He defended you, of course.” Andrea felt a blossom of warmth in her heart, but Vickie’s smile faded. “Not that your mother listened. She’s still hung up on who the Rutledges used to be. What their father did. How rough they grew up. I don’t know how Zayne kept his cool.”
“How did it end?”
