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“I haven’t heard of them, but my friend Becca told me all about a swamp tour she went on there. They saw tons of gators and turtles.”

Sam raised an eyebrow at her. “Are we planning our first trip together?”

Arden laughed. “I think we might be.”

She wanted to steer the conversation toward the realistic decisions ahead of them—after all, she was heading back home in a matter of hours. But the server stopped by to take their order and a minute later came back with a silver coffee press and two white mugs.

“Give the coffee about five more minutes, then press it down,” the server instructed.

Arden and Sam looked at each other, their conversation now stalled with five coffeeless minutes ahead of them. Arden wrapped her hands around the warm silver urn.

“Sam…”

“Arden.”

“I don’t want to ruin the moment, but I want to tell you something.” Sam took a deep breath and nodded for her to continue, his blue eyes smiling but worried. “I don’t want to move away from my home.”

“Ah.”

Arden rushed to continue. “It’s not that I think you’re asking me to. Not yet. I know we’ve barely started… what we’re starting. But I’ve been thinking about the different ways this could possibly go, and I love where I live. I love my house and my job and my friends. So…”

She hadn’t been expecting any particular response when she started talking, but now she found herself hoping against hope that Sam would say that was just fine with him. Her imagination spun a scenario where Sam had already been looking into moving to Florida before he’d even met her.

But as soon as he met her eyes again, she knew that wasn’t the case.

He offered her a sad smile. “That’s okay. I completely understand. I can’t imagine moving away from my home, either.”

“Oh.”

“I have my whole family here. My mom would flip if one of us ever moved away.”

“Of course.”

The lull in their conversation was filled by the hum of talk from the patrons around them. Sam gently took the French press from Arden’s hands and plunged the filter down. They took turns pouring cream into their coffee from the small silver pitcher. Arden noticed that Sam added one sugar cube to his cup, just as she did. She would have enjoyed getting to know these things about him, gathering the tiny details that make up the person. But now she doubted that that would happen. She tried not to dwell on it, because it made her want to cry.

The server returned with a plate of beignets with a berry dipping sauce and a platter of bananas Foster French toast.

“After you.” Sam gestured to the beignets. Arden dipped one in the syrupy sauce and took a bite. It was pillowy soft, warm, and delicately sweet.

“This is amazing.” She put a hand in front of her mouth, not wanting to spray him with powdered sugar.

They each ate two beignets in silence apart from moans of appreciation.

When they started on the French toast, Sam joked, “We probably should have ordered an egg or something to balance this out.”

“The food coma will be worth it,” Arden said around a mouthful of bananas Foster. “This is delicious.”

“Will you have time for a nap? You said you’re taking the train at noon?” Sam’s voice was innocent, but his eyes had a naughty twinkle.

Arden smiled. “I might have time to rest for a bit. My flight is at four.”

Sam choked on a sip of water. “Your flight leaves at four, and you want to be on the train at twelve?”

“Doesn’t it take like an hour to get to the airport?”

“Yeah, but that gets you there three hours early.”

“I like being early to the airport.”