Her friend blew out a breath. “I get that. So much I get it. But—and you knew that was coming—you’re in love with him. You like him and his family, and you’re good when you’re with him. Tell him you’re scared. Help him understand. Don’t let Bob ruin your happiness. Not like this.”

Natalie pinched her bottom lip as she thought about it.

“All I’m saying is, what you have with him is good. It’s hard and rife with bumps here and there. Neither of you knows how to be with someone else. It’s going to be work, but all the best stuff is worth the effort.”

Could she do it? “I need to think about it.”

“You’re off tomorrow. Pack a bag. Let’s go to Portland. We’ll have a fancy dinner somewhere. See if Delia can join us. Maybe see a show. You can enjoy yourself while you think, and deal with him on Monday.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

IT HAD BEEN two days and dozens of calls, and he still didn’t know what the f**k happened between him and Natalie at the winery.

He’d gone out early with his dad to look at some new equipment, and they’d ended up at a diner for an early lunch afterward.

“So, you want to talk about it?”

He should have known news about the breakup would have reached his parents by that point.

“Everything was fine. I’d spoken to her a few hours earlier. She got caught late at work for a grant thing. I was going to cancel and meet her at my house, but she said to go on and she’d meet me there when she finished. She wasn’t mad when we had that call.”

He sipped his iced tea and winked at the server who’d been flirting up a storm with him.

“Did you do that in front of her?” His dad indicated the server as she swayed away.

“All I did was wink at her. And no, I’m not rude. I never even notice other women when she’s around. Anyway, there weren’t any other women around then.”

“Damien says you and Vaughan were drunker than skunks.”

“It was a winery tour. We’d been to two other wineries before that one. I didn’t throw up on her or anything.” Also Damien was a dick for tattling.

“But you were drunk.”

“Yes. I didn’t drive! Mary drove, and she wasn’t drinking at all. I was going to drive home with Nat because she wouldn’t have had much if any to drink.”

“Do you know why that is?”

“I asked her once, you know, if she was in recovery or something. She said no. She’s...” Got a thing about control. She’d told him, and he’d listened, but it hadn’t really occurred to him until that moment that being around him when he was like that would have pushed her buttons. She’d told him she had them.

Question was, could he deal with that? Did he want to push to make things right or let it go and be glad he got out before things truly went bad?

“Just figured something out?”

He groaned at his father. “Did you know already?”

“Nope. I’m a mere male mortal, too, you know. Your mother can get in a right-old snit from time to time, and I have no idea what I did. Usually because I needed to think about it some, and I figure it out a while later. Sometimes because she’s weird and she just gets pissed off about stuff for no apparent reason, but if you ever say that, I’ll deny it. The thing is, women are complicated creatures. But really, if you pay attention, you can figure them out. Mostly. And when you can’t, throwing yourself on their mercy and presents usually help.”

“She could have at least told me what was wrong.”

His father thanked the server when she dropped off their burgers and fries before turning back to their conversation.

“You can pout about it if you think that’ll do the trick. Or you can give it another try and open with, I’m sorry I was out of control the other day, can we please talk about it?”

“How was it between you and Mom? At the beginning, I mean.” He knew the basic story, that his parents, both from small towns in Tennessee, had met and married within six months and then ended up loading up two of their kids in a truck filled with their belongings and moved west to Hood River.

“I love women. And before I met your mom, I loved a lot of them.” He grinned. “I was not interested in settling down. Not a single bit. Oh, sure, lots of women tried. I think I was a project. But I liked being free. I liked my wild life working the land, bedding whoever I liked whenever I liked, and I had no plans to change. And then one day, I was in town at the record store. Back when they had such things.” His dad snorted. “And she came in. She was laughing with someone. Your aunt Cathy. Anyway, she was just beautiful. And so I sidled on over and introduced myself because I wanted some of that in the worst way. She said no when I asked her out. I was twenty-four years old and I’d never been turned down before. Never.”

They continued to eat as the world outside passed by. “Anyway, so of course, I wanted her even more. It wasn’t in my hometown but one a few over. Small enough, and I knew several folks so it wasn’t long until I found out who she was and that she worked at the JCPenney, and I showed up there until she finally agreed to let me buy her lunch. I tell you, once I kissed her, in the alley behind the JCPenney, not very romantic, I know. I knew she was different from that first time I saw her, but once I kissed her, I knew she was it for me. We got married five months after that.”

“You said you married six months after you met. It took you a month to kiss her?”