Page 69 of Come Take Me Now

“To going out!” Appa agrees, clinking her glass to ours.

I take a sip of my mixed drink and grimace at the sharp sting of alcohol and cranberry juice.

“And no boys allowed! You two are so obsessed with your men,” Adri complains.

“Well, I’m married with kids, so…” Appa trails off, and I hold back a giggle…and try not to blush after what she told me about Robby. “Since it’s your last night in Napa, find someone to take you home.”

Adri looks around at others in the club and shakes her head. “Nah, I scoped it out. Pass. Unless a bachelor party rolls in, I’ll be continuing the dry spell.” Her eyes land on me. “What about you? Obsessed with E?”

I laugh quietly. “I think that’s pretty mutual, but you don’t want to know the details about him.”

“I’d like to know that there are still good men out there. I have to go home and be around my ex since his friends are all dating my friends.”

“Sounds like my life in Sac. My ex is my mom’s best friend’s son,” I reply.

“We’ll need to go blow off steam once you move to San Diego,” Adri adds.

I rub my arm. “Yeah, just depends on school, and E might visit.”

“He’s not going to leave you alone. You could go to school in fucking Timbuktu, and he’d follow you. Same with Robby. He’d follow you anywhere.”

Appa’s eyes meet mine, and she smiles my way. “I followed Robby back to Napa.”

“And Enzo has his whole life here. He’s not following me anywhere,” I reply.

Adri shrugs and toys with the straw in her drink. “He could. The winery’s here, but he could get a big-shot job at any beverage company with his experience and reputation.”

“What do you mean by ‘he could’?” I ask.

“Only one of his brothers lives in Napa now. The other two have left, but you’re right. Enzo’s not going anywhere,” Adri explains.

“He hasn’t said much about his brothers.”

“Not surprising. Johnny is the second oldest and Aunt Sophie’s first biological kid. He lives nearby and does general contracting or something like that, I think. Cody moved to San Francisco right after high school. Then Paulie, the youngest. He’s, um…” Her lips shift in thought. “I don’t know. He’s a little older than you and got off on the wrong foot straight out of high school. Uncle Vin kicked him out, and he lived with Enzo for a while. I think he was hoping Paulie would want to work at the vineyard too and be his right hand, but it wasn’t in the cards for Paulie. Then he ended up getting some girl pregnant, and they moved to Nevada where it’s cheaper to live.” Her eyes flare as she glances down at her drink. “Enzo was fucking furious about that whole situation. Probably still is. You know how he can get.”

“That’s an understatement,” Appa quietly adds.

“Because he couldn’t control his brother’s actions?” I ask.

Adri sits back against the booth. “You got it. That’s enough about that.” She turns her head to Appa. “I want to dance.”

“Okay, Adri,” Appa replies. They scoot out of the booth.

There’s so much I don’t know.

Appa waves over at me. She’s still shorter than Adri, despite her platform heels, and I stand from our table to join them. I’ve never been a dancer and have never gone out like this. In college, my evenings were spent on homework, the treadmill, or having very vanilla sex with my ex, so I follow their lead.

Just as the alcohol loosens me up, I glance toward the bar, like a magnet pulling me in. A tall man stands there with his back to me. I squint and notice a bun at the top of his head, and I can’t tell if his neck is tattooed in the dim lighting. But his shoulders are broad, just like Enzo’s.

“One sec,” I tell Appa over the loud music, and she nods.

I cut through the drunken crowd to the bar. But by the time I reach it, the tall man has vanished as quickly as I saw him.

“Hey, was there a guy standing here just now?” I breathlessly ask the bartender.

“Yeah, it’s a bar,” he answers and laughs.

“No. Like, a tall, tattooed guy.”