It gave me wanderlust.
I had always wanted to travel and had even planned on taking a sabbatical with Tyler to travel in a couple of years. We discussed doing a world tour for our fifth anniversary early on. However, it didn’t sound much like that was what he wanted any longer.
I looked down at my phone again, my thumb itching over the screen as I noticed Gavin’s name on my messages list, and a boulder grew in my stomach when I looked out at the landscape again. I wanted to send him a photo, tell him simply good morning, maybe compare views and ask if he was up early with his coffee.
But as a light flicked on in the kitchen, and I saw Tyler’s father rummaging around for his coffee, reality washed over me.
His father, John, had always been the family's nicest, most normal member. Quiet, reserved, and very handsome. He rocked that salt-and-pepper look better than anyone I’d ever seen. It suited his olive skin and seemed to bring out the wisdom in his grey eyes. Lana had always said that if I was smart, I would have tried to land his dad instead, though I wasn’t about to try and bring out the crazy in Abigail.
I heard the sliding door open and looked back to find John heading my way. Tyler looked very much like him, except he’d gotten his pale skin and blue eyes from his mother, and he also didn’t have his father’s rugged confidence. John cared for himself; his beard was always trimmed neatly, and he still worked out to keep himself in good shape.
As he came toward me, that confident aura seeped into the air like a potion wavering through the fog.
“Morning, Chloe,” he said, pausing at the edge of the veranda where I was curled up.
“Morning, Mr. Drake,” I replied.
He scoffed. “I’ve told you before, call me Dad. Especially now that you’ll be in the family.”
I pressed my cup to my lips as a smile rose, knowing what Lana would have said to that sentence. “How about I just call you ‘John’ instead? We’ll compromise,” I said.
“Compromise accepted,” he said. He sipped his coffee, staring at the landscape as I was. “I try to tell my wife she should get up early like this to enjoy the moments we all seem to forget,” he said. “But sometimes it’s nice to have those few minutes to myself.”
“Tyler is never up this early unless he has a flight,” I said.
“He sleeps like his mother,” John said. He sighed audibly and sat down on the nearest couch, facing the vineyard instead of sideways like the one I was on, and he crossed his ankle over his knee. “He tells me he’s looking at houses near us.”
“That’s what he tells me, too,” I replied.
“I take it that’s not your idea,” he said.
“He wants to start our family,” I answered with a slight shrug.
It had always been easier to talk to John. His calming presence was open to listening, and while I may not have told him all of my secrets, it was nice to get his opinion on things. I even talked to him when I’d started my business and asked him what he would and wouldn’t have done looking back on his endeavors. He’d given me a lot of great advice, and I knew even if Tyler and I were to break up, I could call him anytime, ask him anything, and he’d tell me the truth.
John huffed amusedly and shook his head. “My son is an idiot,” he said behind his coffee mug, and I frowned.
“Why’s that?”
“Because if I were him, I’d want you to myself as long as possible,” he said. “Let things fall into place as you go, not force it.”
And this is why you are superior, I thought.
He leaned back on the couch, his arm draped across the back. “You’ve only had your business for a year, haven’t you?” he asked.
“Barely.”
“Are you planning on running it from Florida?” he asked.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead. I only just found out about his plans on Wednesday,” I said.
“I can talk to him if you like,” he said. “Tell him to give you more time.”
“I don’t think he’d like that I ask you for advice sometimes.”
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” he said, and I had to lift my mug to my lips again to hide the blush on my cheeks.
“I hear you’re tasting cake and finalizing flowers today,” he added.
