AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Early next week.”
“Awesome!” said Tori.
“We’ll see what we can do at this end and let you know,” Xander told him.
“Thanks, guys. I hope we can work something out.”
“Me too. Talk to you soon.”
He ended the call and turned toward Tori, wrapping both arms around her, and loving the way she melted against him.
“So, you want to go to Nashville?”
She smiled at him. “I do. Mom called this morning, and she offered the plane if I want to go.” Her smile dimmed a little. “The only thing is, she asked if I’d stop in Summer Lake to see her and Russ on the way there – or the way back. How would you feel about that?”
He chuckled. “I don’t have a problem with it. I feel guilty admitting it – knowing that you guys had kind of strained relationships with her – but I’ve always gotten along well with your mom.”
“Oh, that’s right! Of course! She loves you to pieces!”
He chuckled. He wouldn’t put it that way; he knew that she liked him, but he couldn’t imagine Alexandria DuPont loving anything to pieces. Although he hoped that one day her daughter might feel that way about him.
Chapter Five
“What do you think, do you want to go to Muse later?”
Tori blew out a sigh. “I don’t know. What do you think?” They were sitting in his SUV in the parking lot at the park – hiding out like this was getting old already.
Xander shrugged. “I’d like to go, but I don’t like the idea of pretending that we’re just friends if we do.”
“There’s no reason that we should, is there?”
He turned in his seat to face her. “None that I can see, but it’s up to you.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. They’d spent the day driving around the countryside. It was crazy, really. There was no one at her place if they wanted to hang out there, and no one at home at his place, either. But they’d agreed that it didn’t feel right. To her, what didn’t feel right was that neither of them felt like they had a place they could call their own.
Well, she had a place, but it was in Nashville. Xander had given up his place in San Diego when he’d come to Nashville to stay with her.
It felt like they were in some weird kind of limbo. They were both grown adults. Yet, back here in Napa, it felt as though they were still kids in a way. They’d both left town as soon as they could when they were teenagers – and neither of them had been back for any extended time since.
She wouldn’t say it was the same for Xander, but she’d only learned how to be her own person in Nashville – she didn’t know how to not fall back into her old role here.
She’d talked to Bentley, and he’d said that the pilots had the weekend off because they’d been flying a busy schedule for the last few weeks. But he’d said that they’d be free to take her on Monday morning.
In the meantime, they were stuck here. If they went out with everyone tonight, that would be the first step in getting them all used to the idea that she and Xander were seeing each other – although to be fair, she was probably the one who needed to get used to the idea of everyone knowing. She doubted that anyone would have a problem.
He reached across the console and touched her cheek and made her realize that she was overthinking it when he said, “It’s up to you.”
She made a face at him. “I want to but what do we do afterward?”
He winked at her. “Once they see us out together, I don’t imagine that anyone will be too surprised if we go home together. And if they are, that’s their problem, not ours.”
Little bubbles of excitement fizzed in her chest. “Are you saying that if I’m brave enough to go, I’ll get my reward?”
“I wouldn’t have put it like that but …” He gave her a sexy smile. “Yeah. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Okay then. I’ll make it worth your while, too. But …”
He caught hold of her chin and made her look at him. “We don’t have to … we don’t have to go out and we don’t have to go home together – whatever you’re comfortable with.”
