Page 71 of Returning to Everton

Hudson’s eyes bug out when she tells us to spit the wine out, and I have a hard time hiding my giggle. “What’s wrong sweetie? Don’t want to spit in front of me?” I tease him.

He cocks an eyebrow at me. “Not at all Sugar. I’m all for savoring the taste in my mouth,” he smirks.

Damn him. He’s always got a good comeback. Not fair. We sip our wine and I go to spit mine out. I’m kinda thankful for that now, because this is not the wine for me. The tasting goes on, with Halley bringing us new wine to try and Hudson and me swirling, smelling, sipping, and spitting. Hudson’s gotten much better; he no longer spills any wine when he swirls.

By the time we’re done, we’ve tried a good variety of wine. As it turns out, we both like white and hate red. Of course, our favorite is dessert wine. Go figure, the bakers would like sweet wine. We really like this Moscato, so Hudson buys a bottle to bring home.

“Do you sell food so we can have a picnic?” Hudson asks the clerk.

“Oh! Of course. We get couples all the time that want to picnic. Let me take you to the restaurant,” she offers.

I smile up at Hudson, wrap my arm around his and give his arm a hug. “Thank you. I’m having so much fun, I wasn’t ready to go home yet.”

“I could tell, baby. You got this wistful look when I was buying the wine. I figured that meant you didn’t want to leave yet,” he smirks at me.

When we get to the small restaurant, we stop and look at the menu. I’m surprised by some of the stuff they offer. I was expecting just charcuterie boards with cheese and olives. Of course, they do have that, but they also have salads, sandwiches, veggies with hummus, and marinated cheese. I’m pretty hungry, so I get a chicken bacon wrap and Hudson gets a Reuben. We also order the marinated cheese to share, and bottled water to wash it all down.

They pack our food up in this cute wicker basket, and we head outside. I guess while I was staring at the menu trying to decide what I wanted to eat, Hudson was busy planning our picnic. He walks me over to a blanket that’s laid out in front of a huge oak tree. We sit down and Hudson unpacks our lunch, while I look around just admiring the view.

“It’s so peaceful out here,” I say wistfully as Hud places my wrap in front of me.

“It really is. I’m glad we came.”

We sit there in companionable silence, just enjoying the good food and better company. This really was the perfect first date. I smile to myself when I think about where the other guys will take me. I can’t wait to get to experience a whole set of firsts with each of my guys.

27

Rowen

We pull up to my house, and I’m still riding cloud nine from our perfect first date. Then I remember my daughter is inside with two of my boyfriends. We really need to have a talk. I look over at Hudson and grab his hand.

“I had a lot of fun today, but I really need to talk to Violet before things move forward.” He starts to look scared, so I quickly reassure him. “I’m not breaking up with you, Hud. I’m saying I don’t want any PDA or longing glances around her. That’s it. Once I talk to her, I’ll let y’all know how we go from there. Okay?”

“Of course, Rowe. We’ll always respect your wishes when it comes to your daughter,” he assures me. “Can I have a kiss now, before we go inside?”

I smile at him, and lean over to kiss him. I don’t think I'll ever get tired of kissing this man. He’s a damn good kisser. I can feel his love for me as our tongues dance together. It was never like this with Harris. That never bothered me before, but now I see what I was missing out on.

We finally break apart and get out of the car. Hudson grabs our new picnic basket with our bottle of wine. When we walk in, we see Nate and Declan watching TV in the living room.

“Hey, guys! Have any problems today?” I ask as we walk into the room.

“Not at all. Violet came down at about 8 am, and I made her some French toast. Apparently, that’s her favorite, so I’m pretty sure she loves me now,” Declan chuckles. “The kids have been playing in the playhouse all day. They came in for lunch and ran back out as soon as they were done eating and cleaned up their mess.”

“Wow. Sounds like y’all have had an easy day,” I chuckle.

“Yup. How was your date?” Declan asks.

I blush, but smile fondly as I remember how much fun the winery was. “It was great. Hudson took me to the winery,” I tell them. I look at Nate and Hudson, “Do you guys mind if I take Declan on the front porch? I wanna talk to him about something, but I want to be sure Violet doesn’t walk in on this conversation.”

“Of course, Sugar. Go on, we’ll run interference if the kids come in,” Hudson tells me with a wink.

I shake my head and Declan and I go outside. After I close the door behind us, I lead him around the porch to the swing. I sit down on the comfy cushions I conjured just last week, and Declan joins me.

“Did Nate fill you in on what happened at your house this morning?” I decide not to beat around the bush.

He gives me a crooked smile and raises his eyebrow. “Of course, he did Rowen.”

I nod, “And how do you feel about that?”

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