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Mara did. There was something lovely about affection that had become that ordinary. Had she and Scott ever been like that? At the beginning, maybe. She didn’t know when it had stopped. It was what she wanted, though. Not the grand gestures. A hand on her back while somebody reached past her for the glasses.

Kris poured the final taste and asked which wine everyone had preferred.

“The second one,” Mara said.

“The white?”

She nodded.

“That’s one of Cassia’s favorites too.”

Cassia looked over. “It is. Although I’m probably not an impartial recommendation.”

“I’ll take the recommendation anyway,” Mara said.

When the tasting ended, Mara wandered along the bottles displayed near the counter and found the white again. She hadn’t intended to buy wine, but she had liked it, and there was no particular reason not to. So she bought a bottle.

By the time she stepped outside, the afternoon light had softened over the vines. Mara tucked the bottle carefully into the bag they had given her and looked across the hillside. She had spent the afternoon here by herself, and somewhere along the way, she had stopped thinking about the fact that she was alone.

Mara headed toward her car. She had just opened the car door when her phone rang. Shifting the bag with the wine bottle into one hand, she pulled her phone from her pocket.

Gabe.

The smile came before she could stop it. “Hi.”

“Hi.” His voice was warm in her ear. “How was the vineyard?”

“Really good.”

“Worth keeping the booking?”

“Definitely. I did the tour first, and then the tasting. I even bought a bottle.”

“You bought wine?”

“I know,” Mara said, laughing. “Very adventurous.”

“I wasn’t judging.”

“You sounded like you were judging.”

He laughed softly. “What did you get?”

“A white I liked. I can’t remember half of what Kris said about it, but apparently I don’t need to.”

“That sounds like a perfectly reasonable way to buy wine.”

Mara settled the bottle carefully on the passenger-side floor where it wouldn’t roll around. “What are you doing?”

“I’m nearly finished here. Matilda’s closing up with me.” There was a brief pause. “How about a pumpkin patch visit?”

Mara leaned against the car. “Pumpkin patch?”

“Isaac’s. He closes to visitors later this afternoon, but he said we can go over afterward if we want. I thought you might like it.”

She did. More than that, she liked that he had thought of it. It had been on the list she’d made before the trip, along with the vineyard and half a dozen other things she had almost abandoned when Scott had.

“I was actually planning to go there while I was here.”