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She gave him a puzzled look. “At the same time, what?”
He reached across the table for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “At the same time, we still haven’t talked about you coming here.”
Her eyes widened. “Shoot! You’re right. If we’re going to talk to Dad and your mom in a little while, we need to tell them something about that, don’t we?”
“We do, but to be honest, what we tell them isn’t my main priority.” He met her gaze and held it. “I’m more concerned about getting you here …” He hesitated, but he had to say it. “And keeping you here. DuPont Wineries is a big company. We have several divisions.” He gave her a hopeful smile. “If you were to decide that you wanted to …”
He couldn’t read the look on her face and so he let his words trail off. If she was thinking that it might be too much too soon, he didn’t want to hear it. But he knew that he’d have to; no matter what he wanted for himself, what she wanted was most important.
She smiled and squeezed his hand. “Don’t look so worried. I’d love to. I’d love to come and work with the company.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Obviously, we’d have to discuss my accommodation. Hotels in Napa are notoriously expensive and …”
He chuckled. “I’m sure we’d be able to find a bed for you. It might mean that you had to share one, though. Would that be okay with you?”
She nodded happily. “It would. I’d love that.” Her smile faded. “But I guess my worry is … Do you think that would be moving too fast?”
“No.” He laughed at the way that sounded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so adamant about it. Well, I am. I don’t think it will be too soon. I … I just know, Alyssa. I know that I want this. I want you.” He swallowed, but there was no point holding back now. “I know that I want a future with you.”
She squeezed his hand even tighter, and her eyes shone as she nodded. “I do, too. And if you don’t think that we’re moving too fast, then I don’t either. I mean, who’s to say what an acceptable timeframe is anyway?”
Bentley had to laugh. “I don’t think that anyone gets to say. But if they do, I trust my friend Jacob. He’s a smart guy. And Becca moved in with him within a matter of days. And his sister, Hannah?”
“Yes, I like her a lot.”
“She’s good people. And her fiancé, Grady, he never went home after their first date. He and his niece, Ava, moved in that weekend and they’ve been there ever since. So, when you look at it that way, we are not moving all that fast.” He chuckled. “In fact, you could even say that we are behind the curve.”
She laughed with him. “Yes, but they didn’t have the same obstacles to overcome that we do.”
His smile faded. She had a point. He could only guess that things would have moved even faster between the two of them if it weren’t for their parents. “True. What do you think? Should we bite the bullet and get on with it? Should we make the phone call and get that obstacle out of the way?”
She sighed. “Yes, I think we should. It’s weird, I’m nervous. I don’t see how or why they would have a problem, but I’m still dreading it.”
“I know exactly how you feel. I feel the same way. But I’ve found that when I’m dreading something, the best thing to do is get it over with.”
“Okay then. What do you think? Should we call them right now?”
“I think we should.” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket. He was hoping that his mom and Russ would be happy about their news, but he still wasn’t looking forward to making this phone call.
He jumped when his phone rang in his hand. He and Alyssa both laughed.
“Jeez! That just goes to show that we really need to get it over with. We both feel guilty as hell when the phone rings.”
Bentley nodded as he looked down at the screen. He was surprised to see Cole Hamilton’s name on the display. Then again, he hadn’t gotten around to calling him since they’d run into him at The Boathouse.
“It’s Cole Hamilton,” he told her. “I’m in two minds as to whether I should let it go to voicemail. Now that we’ve decided, I just want to call them.”
Alyssa pursed her lips. “I think you should take it. He’s there in Summer Lake, isn’t he? Maybe he …” She let the words trail off, but Bentley understood what she meant; perhaps Cole had something to tell them.
“Hey, Cole. What can I do for you?”
“First of all, you can do me a favor and call me Smoke. I feel like you’ve got me mixed up with my dad when you call me Cole, and even he calls me Smoke these days.”
“Smoke it is, then.”
“Thanks. And I’m calling to give you a heads up. I might just be sticking my nose in where it’s not needed but after we saw you and Alyssa at The Boathouse the other week, I figured you might want to know.”
“Know what?”
“Your mom was out here at the airport this morning.”
