“I wasn’t forcing anything?—”
“Yeah, you were. I know you.” He crossed his arms. “You want to fix everything at once. Help her with the wine, get her to admit she has feelings for you, all while she’s trying to keep her head above water.”
The accuracy of that hit harder than I wanted to admit.
“So what do I do?”
“What you said you’d do, and let everything else happen when it happens. Be honest with her about howyoufeel.” He picked up his beer again. “She’ll come around. But she’s gotta do it on her own timeline, not yours.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“She will.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “I know it.”
We headed back inside, and I wanted to ask him how he could be so certain, but Ma was calling everyone to the table.
“Where’s Saffron?” she asked like Kick had.
“She had to go home.”
“That’s too bad. I was hoping she’d stay.”
Me too.
Dinner was the usual chaos—too many people talking at once, Reagan and Neva demanding attention, Bit and Cru arguing about some vintage they’d tried last week. I picked at my food and contributed when someone asked me a direct question, but mostly, I just sat there, thinking about the woman I came so close to kissing.
“What did Saffron say about opening the bottle of Christmas Blessing Wine Tryst found?” Bit asked.
I hung my head and shook it. I’d completely forgotten to bring it up. Where in the hell had my head been? That was a stupid question. On her. All on her.
“Don’t give up on her,” Bit said, squeezing my shoulder and looking at me as though he could read my thoughts.
“No? You should’ve seen her?—”
“I did.”
“Leaving?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“So then, you know. She wants nothing to do with me.”
He took my arm and led me outside. “You’re wrong. So wrong.”
“Yeah? If that’s the case, how do you explain why she had to get away from me like her life depended on it?”
“Because it does.”
“Bit—”
“Hear me out. She’s scared.”
“Of what?”
“Of needing you.” Bit swirled wine in the glass I hadn’t realized he brought out with him. I grabbed it and took a swig, remembering I had to return to the caves to put the stuff away we’d left out, and that included the bottle of Zin I’d opened.
“What’s so bad about needing me?” I asked.
“What happens if she lets herself and you leave?”
