Page 65 of Kiss My Glass
“I don’t knowanyonewho’s more capable than you,” I tell him. “And maybe when you think of your problems, you should picture them looking like that cocky guy, and unleash your inner Brendan?”
Nate pauses. “What do you think he whispered to him?”
“Hope I’m never in a position to find out,” I reply. “Which is why I’m going to ask extra nicely if we can have another round of drinks.”
ChapterThirty-Five
FRANKIE
Ididnothave a good night’s sleep. Didn’t get to bed too late, because Shelby was shattered, but I lay awake for ages trying to arrange the thoughts churning away in my brain into some kind of order. Trying to figure out my next steps – “Actions for Frankie”, as if I was holding a meeting with myself.
Here’s where I got to: I made a list of the most important subjects and divided each into my two typical assessment categories – what Ioughtto do, and what Iwantto do – to see whether there’s any common ground.
Subject 1: Mom.
Situation: Cam’s picking her up from the airport tomorrow afternoon and bringing her straight here.
What Ioughtto do: be happy to see her.
What Iwantto do: avoid her as much as I can. Her attention will be on Shelby, anyway, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to stay out of her way.
Subject 2: Danny.
Situation:I might be in love with him.
What Ioughtto do: sit down with him and talk about what next. What happens after Shelby and Nate’s baby is born and we need to go back home, him to L.A. and me to San Diego? Or wherever my law firm wants to post me?
What Iwantto do: have fun and a lot more sex with him and ignore the subject as long as humanly possible.
Subject 3: Me.
Situation: my emotional blender is on its highest setting. I could make a smoothie out of golf balls.
What Ioughtto do: confront my darkest fears, of being vulnerable, and rejected, and forced to compromise. Throw a bucket of water on them and hope they melt.
What Iwantto do: have even more sex with Danny, watch TV with Shelby, feed the pigs, get super busy organizing the crush party, and basically utilize every distraction technique I can think of.
So that’s it. There is no common ground between what I ought to do and what I want to do. I’ll have to pick a path. And soon.
Right now, however, I’m carrying a mug of coffee over to Danny in the winery office. He texted me to say he’d slept in and could I be an angel? I’m no angel but I can tote a beverage. Even one that could burn right through to the earth’s core.
I open the office door to find Danny slumped over the desk, head resting on his arms.
“Hit the hard stuff last night, did you?”
He sits up and widens his eyes hugely, like he’s trying to force them to stay open.
“I had two beers,” he says. “I also had a brother who needed to get a lot off his chest. This is an emotional hangover, not an alcohol one.”
I set the steaming mug in front of him. He gazes at it reverentially and whispers, “Bless you.” Hard to tell if he means me or the coffee. I wait until he’s drunk it. Never get between a man and his caffeine.
Thanks to Nate, the office is nowhere near as messy as it used to be, but it’s still cramped. Danny’s sitting behind the desk, and I’ve positioned a chair in front. I brought a legal notepad and Danny has his laptop. There isn’t room for both on the desk at the same time.
“We could work at the kitchen table?” Danny suggests.
“Things were still a little … um,tenderbetween Nate and Shelby this morning,” I say. “I ate my breakfast on the back porch with the dogs to give them some space.”
“Tender but improving?” says Danny.
