Page 35 of Give Me a Reason

Frederick couldn’t figure out how it happened, but he sat in the stretch limo for their wine tour sandwiched between Bethany and Tessa at the bottom of the U-shaped seats.

He should have no complaints sitting with two beautiful women on either side of him, but his thighs burned from being pressed tightly together to avoid any accidental contact.

But neither of them seemed to notice his tense silence as they spoke excitedly right around him.

He leaned back in his seat to make it easier for them to see each other.

He gulped down the sparkling wine someone handed him, wishing he’d sat up front with the driver behind the dark glass partition.

If this ride went on any longer, he might give himself an aneurysm from the strain of keeping his eyes off Anne.

She sat to his left at the top of the U, with Katie and Aiden down the length of the leather bench.

Frederick gave up and glanced at Anne just as Katie whispered something in her ear, making her nearly spit out her wine.

She clapped her hand over her mouth and barely managed to swallow.

Then her eyes crinkled and her nose scrunched as she let out a full belly laugh.

She looked and sounded incandescent, and his heart thudded in his chest, much faster than it should for a wine-tasting tour.

He promised himself he’d only steal a quick glance—it would be mortifying to be caught watching her again —but he kept staring at her like he was willing her to look back at him.

He couldn’t deny that he enjoyed catching the moment she saw him—her eyes widening and lips parting as she stilled on a sharp intake of breath.

He enjoyed it even more when her breath whooshed past her lips and a slow blush stained her cheeks.

Frederick prided himself on being more self-aware than most, and he was fully aware that he was in trouble.

Anne didn’t leave him because he wasn’t good enough for her.

She’d left him to take care of her family.

She’d left him, thinking she was protecting him.

And he was dangerously close to forgiving her.

But she was wrong . She’d broken his heart. She’d broken him . He couldn’t forget that. He could understand her, but he couldn’t forgive her. Only a fool would risk his heart again.

Despite the wise counsel of his logic, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her for the last two months. As the days passed, her heartfelt words had sunk deep inside him, knitting his rent soul back together strand by strand.

Maybe forgiving her didn’t have to mean opening himself up to her. Relinquishing his anger might mean letting go of her at last. Letting go of her? Had a part of him held on to her all these years? No. He meant he would finally be able to let go of their past .

But when her eyes met his across the limo, he gaped at her—mesmerized by her lips, her eyes, her breath, and her blush.

The noise in the car became muted like he was underwater, and every person in the car, everyone other than Anne, blurred into shapeless blobs.

He couldn’t turn his head away from her—in fact, he had angled himself to face her with his entire body—so he forced his eyeballs to dart to the opposite end of the U before drool dribbled down his chin.

He was in big trouble.

Pete raised his brows, and Frederick blinked slowly, hoping to communicate that he was in big fucking trouble.

If he didn’t get away from Anne now, he was going to make a grab for her and kiss those damn perfect lips.

The thought jarred him with its intensity, with its desperation, but it didn’t surprise him.

He still wanted her. He’d wanted her from the moment he saw her across the classroom.

It didn’t matter, though. He could not go down that road again.

Unfortunately, his SOS blink didn’t work. Pete just shook his head and turned to listen to Katie’s conversation with Anne, sitting across from him. Frederick would have roared with frustration if he could draw a full breath.

A massive headache was developing behind his eyes, which were still swiveled toward a corner of the limo, because his head still refused to turn away from Anne. Mercy arrived in the form of Tombstone Winery as the limo pulled up in front of their first stop.

The winery had a tasting room in a stand-alone building resembling a quaint English cottage with a man-made pond out front.

And to the left of the cottage, a vast vineyard stretched all the way to the green hills in the distance.

Forgetting all his manners, Frederick practically scrambled over his seatmates and escaped into the open air—open air and space to keep a wide berth from Anne.

“You guys go ahead,” Pete said gallantly to Anne and Katie with a pointed look at Frederick.

He didn’t care if his best friend judged him.

He’d needed to get away from Anne, and that was what he did.

It was a matter of self-preservation. And yet, when her head peeked out the door, he offered his hand to help her out of the limo, and he couldn’t resist holding on to her soft, delicate hand for one second, or five, too long.

Sanity belatedly reared its head, and he dropped her hand and spun away from her.

Then he aggressively stomped inside the cottage to put even more space between them.

But he nearly turned right around and stepped back outside, because he was confused as hell.

Not only could he still feel the warmth of Anne’s hand in his own, but he somehow found himself inside a gothic fun house, filled with caskets and fancifully posed skeletons, rather than the charming cottage he’d stepped into.

“Keep it moving, Romeo,” Katie whispered with a gentle shove to his back. “You’re backing up the line.”

With Katie’s guidance—or manhandling—he managed to move robotically to a long wooden bar to the side of the morbidly decorated tasting room.

He gathered that Anne had reserved the side bar for the nine of them to sit together.

The large, rectangular bar in the center of the tasting room—coffin black to match the rest of the décor—was open to all the other guests of the winery.

Reserving a semiprivate tasting was considerate, yet bougie. Frederick pursed his lips in thought, then shrugged, grabbing a stool at the far end of the bar. He liked it. Anne was both considerate and bougie. He saw nothing wrong with that. She was also smart, beautiful, kind, talented, and…

Oh, man. He was in huge trouble. While he brooded, the rest of the wedding party grabbed their seats down the bar. He continued brooding until a man in a dandelion-yellow polo shirt approached him from inside the bar and offered him a big, friendly smile.

“Hallo there. Let’s start with you,” he said in a crisp British accent, sliding a bulbous wineglass in front of Frederick. “Pick your poison.”

Frederick stared at that man as though he were speaking alien to him. “What?”

“They have a tasting menu for reds, whites, and a mix of both,” Bethany explained kindly, coming to sit next to him.

“I’m going to stick to reds.” Tessa claimed the spot on Bethany’s other side and leaned forward to wink at him. “Higher alcohol content.”

“Ah.” He nodded like a twat.

“I like how you think.” Aiden stepped up to the bar next to Tessa and hollered to the man in yellow, “The red wine-tasting menu for the two of us, my good man!”

Tessa arched an eyebrow. “I’m perfectly capable of ordering for myself, you know.”

Aiden blushed and gave her a wounded look. “The poor man is serving all nine of us by himself. I thought I’d make it easier on him by ordering for both of us.”

“I’m just messing with you.” Tessa grinned. “It’s fine.”

“Oh, good.” Aiden smiled guilelessly.

The server came back to Frederick, after pouring splashes of red wine into Tessa’s and Aiden’s glasses, and gave him a pleasant but inquiring look. Frederick returned his look with a sullen one of his own.

“If you can’t decide, you should just try the mix.” Bethany smiled at him, then addressed the server, who seemed to have an endless supply of chipper patience. “We’ll have two of your signature tasting menu.”

“Good choice.” The man slapped the table as though that was the best news he’d heard all day. “I’ll be right back with your first wine.”

“Thank you, Bethany.” Frederick cleared his throat and made an attempt to pull himself together. “I was a little thrown by the décor and the British accent.”

“It’s California.” She shrugged as if that explained everything. And maybe it did. “I love how quirky this winery is, and I heard they have excellent wine.”

“Mm-hmm.” He leaned forward as inconspicuously as he could and looked down the length of the bar. Anne sat near the opposite end with Coraline and Joe. He hoped she’d chosen the signature tasting menu as well, so he could taste what she was tasting. Shit. He was fucking doomed.

“Cheers.” Bethany held out her glass.

“Oh, sorry.” The server had filled their glasses with a white wine while Frederick was distracted. The man was apparently as efficient as he was peppy. “Cheers.”

Frederick watched Anne taste her white wine as he brought his glass to his lips.

The wine smelled like white peaches and citrus.

It tasted cool and tart against his tongue and left hints of vanilla in its wake as it went smoothly down his throat.

His gaze dropped to Anne’s mouth as it curved into a smile. She liked it, too.

Shit, shit, shit.

He gulped down the rest of his wine, gripping the fine stem of the wineglass harder than necessary.

He relaxed his hold before he snapped the damn thing in half.

What a train wre — He sucked in a sharp breath, nearly dropping his glass from the enormity of his epiphany.

He and Anne could be friends . That way he could forgive her and keep his heart safe.

He could bask in her lovely company without worrying about losing her.