Page 12 of One Sweet Day is Never Enough

He switched on the small desk lamp in the study, settled into the leather desk chair, then propped his laptop on the desk in front of him. He spent every waking moment working on the orchard and winery, anyway. Why add a commute?

Seth turned on the laptop for a closer look at the data from last year’s harvest. A few minutes went by before his phone buzzed. He glanced at Stacey’s picture as it popped up on the screen and picked up the video call, his tone flat. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Hi,” she said, animated. “I was just thinking about you. You working? How’s it going?” She gazed eagerly into the phone’s camera.

“It’s going.” He tried to muster some enthusiasm. “Yeah, I’m working.”

“Anything interesting happen at the orchard today?” she asked with a fluff of her long, brown hair. Stacey was gorgeous—there were no two ways about it. She could also be temperamental if he set her off. He usually was careful about what he shared with her.

Seth hadn’t called her back after his meeting with Gia, but he’d planned to speak with her tonight, anyway.

He thought about the rest of his day since he’d talked to her. The plan to host more events at the farm was interesting.

Meeting Gia was interesting. She’d been a pleasure to talk to. There was something about her that really lit up the room. But he certainly wasn’t about to tell Stacey any of that or she’d get the wrong idea. “Nah, same old, same old. We’re going to start hosting more events—weddings and parties and stuff—though. Met with the agency today to get the ball rolling on an anniversary party we’ll be hosting in about a month.”

“Oh, that’s great! We’ve had so many weddings here this summer.” She leaned back. “But I’m sure you knew that already.”

Seth nodded. The Henderson Estates hosted weddings every weekend during the summer, with frequent dates throughout the rest of the year as well. Weddings were big business in Sonoma. “Yeah, that’s what gave me the idea.”

He’d worked at the Henderson Estates with Stacey for two years and dated her the second one. She was a lifeline to that world—his old life, his old friends. As much as he was glad to be back, he missed his buddies. He hadn’t met many people here yet, really, at least no one he had much in common with anymore.

His old high school friends had largely moved on—to the cities or the suburbs south of the peninsula, or even out-of-state. Some who were still local had married and were having kids. Apart from a couple of guys he went to high school with who worked down on the docks, there was really no one to call up and meet for a beer on a Friday night, so he sometimes went alone and just watched a game on the bar’s TV.

The Fourth of July a couple of weeks ago had been totally lame, if he were being honest. He’d stayed home and watched the fireworks from afar with his parents. Such a let-down.

He’d been too busy to try and have much of a social life, regardless. Most nights he was exhausted. The farm kept him busy. He’d had a lot of catching up to do on the books, the fields, the vines, and everything else. “So how’s everyone doing?” he asked.

“Everyone’s fine,” Stacey replied. “You know how it goes around here in the summertime. Busy, busy. I miss you, though.” She leaned into the camera and pouted.

“You too,” he said, aware of how half-hearted he must sound.

“Is something wrong, Seth? You seem a little off.”

“Nah, I’m fine.” He shrugged it off.

“Okay. If you say so.” Stacey changed the subject. “So I found a one-bedroom place that looks pretty good online. Do you think you could go and look at it for me in person? It’s a month-to-month lease, and I’ll have to send a month’s rent plus security deposit if you think it’s legit.” She raised her shoulders with excitement and dropped them. “Only eight weeks until I leave. I can’t wait.”

Seth cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, but I’m pretty busy this week. The festival’s on Saturday. Send me the address and I’ll see if I can find the time.” His pulse quickened, but it wasn’t with excitement.

“But I might lose it if I don’t act on it quickly. What am I going to do if I can’t find an apartment before I come out?”

Things with Stacey had been bothering him lately. It had been bad enough when he’d first left and they had to separate, having been forced into an unintended long-distance relationship. But he’d adjusted to it, and he figured it wasn’t so bad, at least until they saw how things went for a while.

Which brought him to the question of how things were actually going, which weren’t well.

He didn’t really miss her anymore.

He’d gotten used to not having her around, and instead of longing to see her, he found that life was a lot easier without her. No more walking on eggshells because she wasn’t having a good day. No more constantly feeding her endless need for attention. She did call and text a lot, but that wasn’t so bad—she was easier to take in small doses.

In all honesty, he’d been having misgivings about their relationship for a few months before he’d even left California. Stacey was a handful. He didn’t miss her tantrums.

And now this whole moving plan was starting to make him anxious. For someone who was from Wisconsin, to move back here seemed well, natural—easy. But for someone who’d never even been to the area before, who was just picking up her life and moving it all the way to Door County in the hopes that her relationship would work out—well, it was starting to freak him out.

But she was all in, willing to give up everything for him. He’d been with her for a whole year—so why wasn’t he more committed? Why didn’t he want this more?

Although he’d been able to push it out of his head and accept the plans they’d made until now, for some reason, tonight, he couldn’t seem to get past the anxiety. He felt something growing in the pit of his stomach. It was too much.

“Hey, my mom’s looking for me. I gotta go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

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