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“I was.”

Gabe waited.

Mara glanced at him. “I nearly canceled it after Scott and I split up. The tasting was booked for two, and I thought going by myself would just make the whole thing feel worse.”

“But it didn’t.”

“No.” She looked down at her cup again. “That was the strange part. After a while, I stopped noticing I was there alone.”

There was no triumph in her voice. If anything, she sounded faintly surprised by herself. Gabe understood why that mattered. “That took courage.”

He wanted to tell her she never had to do anything alone again. That he would always be by her side. But he kept those words to himself. They were true for him. They couldn’t be true for her, not this soon. And hadn’t she just told him how good it felt to find out she could manage on her own? The last thing she needed tonight was a man telling her she would never have to.

Mara set her cup down. “And then you called.”

Gabe looked at her. Her smile was small.

“And I was really glad you did.”

He reached for her hand.

Mara shifted closer until her thigh rested against his. This time when Gabe kissed her, there was no laughter between them.

Her hand slid up the front of his jacket and curled lightly at the back of his neck. Gabe drew her closer, feeling the change in the kiss almost immediately. As if something had shifted between them. Deepened.

When the kiss finally ended, they didn’t speak. Above the field, the first stars had begun to appear. They sat and watched them, but as the temperature dropped, Mara shivered against him.

“It’s cold. We should get you somewhere warm,” Gabe said.

Together they packed everything away, watched by Gabe’s terrible pumpkin, which glowed eerily in the dark.

Mara straightened up, the half-empty wine bottle in her hand, and looked at his pumpkin. “I think it’s getting worse.”

“It’s the lighting.”

“Of course.”

Gabe came up behind her and slipped his arms around her. She leaned back against him without hesitation. That simple trust affected him almost as much as kissing her did. For a few moments they stood there looking across the empty patch. The mountains were only dark shapes now, the sky above them clear enough that Gabe could see more stars than he ever noticed from the middle of town.

Mara rested her hands over his. “This was a really good day.”

Gabe pressed a kiss against her hair. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She stepped out of his arms and held up the bottle. “We should finish this at my cabin.”

For a moment he lost all ability to speak. “Do you want me to share it with you?”

“I do.”

They carried the pumpkins to the truck, locked Isaac’s gate behind them, and headed back toward Bear Creek. Mara followed him in her car. Gabe was ridiculously aware of her headlights in his mirror all the way into town. By the time they reached the lodge, he still wasn’t ready for the evening to end. Apparently Mara wasn’t either.

She parked near cabin seven, and Gabe pulled in beside her. He carried her pumpkin to the porch while she brought the wine bottle and her bag from the car. The cabin windows were dark. Gabe set the pumpkin beside the door. Mara put the lantern inside it and switched it on, then stood back. “There.” The carved shapes glowed across the porch.

Gabe looked at it. “Better than mine.”

“That was a very low bar.”

He smiled, but when Mara turned toward him, the humor faded between them. She was close. Close enough that he could see the question in her expression before she moved. Gabe touched her cheek. Mara turned into his hand and kissed his palm.