Page 11 of For Now

“That soundsfun.”

“You should come with me sometime! I bet you’d like it,” shesaid.

“Yeah, maybe Iwill.”

I hugged Emma goodbye and thanked her for the invitation to come see her studio. “Bring David by this weekend and we’ll all have dinner, okay?” Isaid.

Emma agreed and I walked to my car, realizing halfway there that I needed more wine. Luckily, there was a liquor store on my way home so I drove straightthere.

The doorbell chimed overhead as I walked in and made a beeline for the wine section. Their collection was pretty extensive and I ran my hand over the bottles as I read thelabels.

“Oh, hello again, Delilah,” a familiar voice rang out over the winerack.

I looked up to see Samuel looking at wines on the other side. Well, he was looking at me, not the wines.How had I missed him when I walkedin?

“Hi, Samuel.” I kept itshort.

“How are you? I haven’t seen yousince…”

“I’ve been pretty busy with draft revisions,” Ilied.

“I bet that does keep you prettybusy.”

“It suredoes.”

“So what’s the occasion?” he asked. “For the wine, Imean.”

“No occasion. Just a woman in need of a glass of wine.” I shrugged andsmiled.

“Fair enough. Looking for anything inparticular?”

“Well, you have wines here that we didn’t have down in Nashville, so I’m trying to find something local. I like buying local,” Isaid.

“If I may,” he held a bottle of wine out to me over the rack, “this is from a vineyard just over in Peducah. It’s very good if you like dark, somewhat sweetwines.”

I studied the bottle in his hand. Purple Toad Winery. The label had a cute watercolor frog on it and it was wearing Band-Aids. I giggled as I saw it was called “Black &Bruised”.

“It’s a sweet red blend,” hesaid.

“I’ll give it a try,” I said, offering asmile.

“You know there’s a little wine bar and restaurant here in town. It’s a nice place. If you’re interested, I’d love to take you sometime,” he said with a genuine smile and comfortableeyes.

This is it, I thought. I knew it was coming, which is why I had done my best to avoid him.But you invited him in for dinner!Ugh, that was so stupid. It was a mistake. I couldn’t possibly say yes. No way. I wasn’t ready for any of this. And as the air grew thick between us, I examined his face much closer than I had before. His deep brown eyes were the kind a girl could find herself gazing into for far too long. His thick brown hair begged for fingertips to play with. His perfect white smile was mesmerizing. And his voice. His voice reminded me of jazz music and cigar rings. Rough but silky.Good Lord, how long have I been staring at him in silence? Nope, noway.

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said with my eyes fixated on everything but hisface.

“Why not?” heasked.

The question threw me off. I assumed he would just say okay and back off but he inquired.How do I tell him that I’mbroken?

“I just don’t think I should be doing things like that. I mean, I hardly know you and I mean, my divorce just finalizedand…”

“So you were married?” heinterrupted.

“Yes.”

“And now you’renot?”

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