Facing West (Forever Wilde 1)

After getting some coffee down, I made a couple of plates of food and brought one to where Nico had settled next to Griff. They were occupied swapping early-morning grumbles about how so many people could be that cheerful at such an ungodly hour.

“It’s unnatural,” Griff complained, sipping more coffee and stealing bacon off Nico’s plate. I went ahead and slid my untouched plate to Griff before getting up to fix another. He nodded in gratitude before seeming to remember he was dealing with a time difference. “Why the hell am I even awake right now?”

“Cause you have a stupid fucking baby,” Nico mumbled. “They fuck up everything related to sleep. Stupid babies.”

I hid my smile behind my coffee mug as I watched the two friends bitch some more from where I stood at the kitchen island. Griff’s hair was a curly riot sticking up everywhere with no hope of submitting to gravity anytime soon. Likewise, Nico’s Technicolor mane was somehow bobbing and weaving in giant swirls like a soft-serve ice cream cone. A pillowcase crease still marked his cheek, and there was a frowny furrow between his eyebrows that indicated he probably had a hangover headache.

MJ’s teasing voice cut into my reverie. “You’re staring like a lovesick puppy,” she whispered on a low chuckle. “Gotta say, he’s cute as hell.”

“Right?” I asked with a sigh. “God. I can’t handle it.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean? It’s not like I have a choice, MJ. He’s leaving.”

“Ask him to stay.”

I turned to look at her with two simultaneous but opposing reactions. On the one hand, god, how I wanted to ask him to stay. On the other, that was an absurd idea. He’d never go for it.

“You’re insane,” I told my sister. “He has a life, a business, friends back in San Francisco.”

She reached out and grabbed my chin gently, turning my head to look at Nico before swiveling around to see all the other family members who’d gathered around him at the big table to chat with him and Griff.

My cousin Felix still held and entertained Pippa, my aunt Carmen leaned over Nico’s shoulder to grab the bottle of pancake syrup, my sister Sassy pointed her finger in Nico’s face to accuse him of stealing her spoon (to which he sheepishly admitted guilt), and Grandpa passed him a platter with more bacon on it.

“Looks to me like he has those things here too, West,” she said gently. “Maybe he just doesn’t realize it yet.”

Regardless of how Nico felt about any of it, the scene filled my heart. I had half a mind to call in sick to work, but that wasn’t fair to my patients and staff.

I reluctantly shoveled breakfast into my mouth before thanking Doc and Grandpa for the impromptu love-in. After running a hand over Pippa’s fat cheeks, I stepped behind Nico’s chair and leaned my face next to his.

“I gotta go to work,” I said softly.

He turned with raised eyebrows. “Really? Already?”

“Yeah, sorry. Ah… I was wondering if maybe I could make you dinner tonight? I know Griff and Rebecca are here, but…” I let out a breath. “I’d like to talk to you about all this stuff. Pippa and everything.”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Nico said with a shy smile. “See you later?”

“Count on it.”

Chapter 31

Nico

After returning to the house and putting Pippa down for a good nap, Griff and I took turns showering and dressing for the day. Rebecca insisted on watching over Pippa while Griff and I went to the bakery.

Once we were settled in the back, painting some small cakes Rox and Stevie had prepped for us, Griff began catching me up on what was new back home. He told me about Sam teaching a wine-pairings class at his restaurant in Napa and about finally breaking ground on the house they were building on his brother’s vineyard property.

I thought back to when he and Sam had moved from the city out to the vineyard to open the restaurant. It had almost been two years since then. Two years since I’d lived in the same town as my best friend.

The time had gone by fast because I’d been working my ass off at the shop. Sam had been busy with the restaurant, and Griff had been busy creating and publishing his graphic novels. They still came into town fairly often to see Griff’s parents, Sam’s sister, and their other friends and family. But it wasn’t the same as it had been when Griff and I had lived in the same town, and since Benji had been born, they’d hardly come to the city at all.

“Do you like living at the vineyard?” I asked. “I mean, I know you do, but like… was it a hard transition when you left the noise and convenience of the city?”