Page 15 of One Sweet Day is Never Enough

Five

Two evenings later, Seth pulled his father’s red pickup truck into a sprawling apartment complex located about five minutes outside of Heritage Bay. Maybe if he saw the apartment, he might be able to imagine Stacey moving in there. Maybe things might start to feel more real for him. Maybe it would help.

He found the right building, parked, and shut the door to the truck. In a couple of minutes, a guy roughly his age pulled up in a golf cart.

“You here to see the one bedroom?”

Seth nodded. “Yeah.”

“Nice to meet you.” He climbed out of the cart and stuck out a hand to shake. “Tom Garcia.”

“Thanks.” Seth shook it. “Seth Pederson.”

Tom hesitated for a moment, staring at him oddly, as if maybe they’d met before. Then he flipped a set of keys around until he found what he was looking for. “It’s nice to meet you. Right this way.”

Seth puzzled over the strange look and followed him up a flight of stairs. The guy didn’t look familiar. Should he know him? Tom opened the door to the apartment at the top and flipped on the lights, and Seth followed him inside.

“So when would you need to move in? I have this unit and a few others just like it opening up next month. A few on the first floor, if you’d prefer.”

“Oh, it’s not for me.”

Tom looked at him, confused. “Then who’s it for?”

“For my, uh, my girlfriend. She’s out of state right now.”

“Oh, okay.” Tom nodded, glancing back at him curiously. “Where’s she live?”

“California.”

Tom nodded slowly. “I see. Moving to Wisconsin? That’s not something you see everyday.”

“Yeah, I know.” Seth nodded. Wasn’t that the understatement of the year? “She’ll be here in September, probably around the fifth.”

Tom nodded again. “Okay. Well, we can prorate it to the day she moves in if there’s no one on the waiting list for the unit. But if there is, she’ll either have to pay the full month’s rent or risk losing it. But September’s usually not a problem. Most of the summer renters are out of here by the last day of August.”

Seth nodded. “Right.” He glanced into the bedroom and bath. Already furnished. Perfectly adequate. The kitchen and living area were nice, too. But the whole thing wasn’t sitting well with him. He had to get out of there. He couldn’t imagine Stacey living there—right there, in Heritage Bay—and the fact that it was becoming all too real was backfiring for him rather than reassuring him. “Okay, no problem. I’ll have her get back to you,” he said quickly.

“Sounds good. I’ll have the office keep an eye out for her application. What’s her name?”

“Stacey Lochner.”

Tom nodded.

“Okay. Thanks a lot, dude. I’ll see you later.” Seth managed a polite nod and headed out the door and down the stairs before Tom could finish locking the apartment.

Shouldn’t he feel more positive about this? How was he going to go through with it? Stacey would be here in two months.

When she first suggested moving to Wisconsin for him, he’d thought it was a bad idea. He probably should’ve recognized that as a warning and acted on it. Instead, when Stacey pushed the issue, he’d gone along with it, wondering if maybe she were right—maybe it could work? Maybe it was exactly what they needed.

But they were from two very different worlds, and his world, he was certain, would come as a shock to her. She had grown up in Northern California and had never traveled further than the northwest. She had no idea what a truly cold winter was, nor what it was like to live in such a quiet, remote place, especially during the winter, with none of her friends or family around. It would just be him and his family.

She had no idea what she was getting herself into. The people were different; the lifestyle was drastically different. She would be leaving behind everything she knew and spending a lot of money to make it happen, too, and he wasn’t even looking forward to her being here. The guilt was practically eating him alive.

He thought leaving Sonoma would allow him to clear his head, and maybe they could work things out. But it had only served to reinforce the notion that they probably weren’t meant to be.

He took a deep breath and drove back into town. He’d stop and get the groceries his mother had requested while he was out, maybe take a short walk along the lake to clear his head.

He’d even offered Stacey a job working at his winery. There weren’t going to be many other options, after all, especially since September meant the busy season was over for Door County. But having her work on the farm meant more isolation for her. And more one-on-one time for them. How would she meet any other people and establish a normal life that wasn’t wholly dependent upon him?

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