Chapter Twenty-One
“Is my leg going to fall off?”
Tanner shook his head. Zoey had been bugging him since yesterday about the findings of the fortune-teller. The thing is, they hadn’t remembered to agree to a time for him to reveal—or not reveal—the prediction. And so he was left to try to process it while figuring out what to say to her and when. Listening to Madame Zorza had kind of freaked him out, and he had no idea how he was supposed to broach this with Zoey. So he’d remained cagey.
“Leprosy. I’m going to die an early death from leprosy. I knew it.” She gave an overly dramatic tug to her hair. “God! Why did I agree to that stupid fortune-teller?”
“I can assure you there was no mention of death by leprosy, Zo.” He chuckled. “Although she did say something about me possibly suffering death by nagging.”
She swatted at him jokingly.
They’d been pleased upon their return last evening that Snowball had settled in surprisingly well. No more crazy destruction. And after a couple of swipes with claws extended at Suki, the kitty and the puppy seemed to have reached an agreement that the other didn’t exist, which was better than there being a bloodbath had Suki decided she was a toy and had Snowball seen her as a sworn enemy to her species. Zoey had gotten a call about her car—it would be ready in the morning, which meant she and her cat would be gone soon. Any animal bonding at this point was irrelevant.
Tanner was surprised at how blue it made him, thinking that Zoey would be gone in twenty-four hours. Two days ago he would have paid good money to get rid of the woman. But it took her coming into his life to realize that she had nothing to do with anything bad in his life—rather he’d wrongfully vilified her all those years. Maybe he’d have been better off pursuing her long ago. Who knew? But he did realize he didn’t want her to leave, at least not yet. They had the beginnings of something that felt so right. If only he could persuade her of that.
~*~
Zoey sent a text to Izzy to be sure she had the all-clear to depart for Banff tomorrow morning once her car was fixed.
“You still good with me staying at your place?” she typed.
“Oh, hey, Zo. Um, the thing is, well, yeah, you could go. I mean you’re welcome to go.”
“But?”
“But I think you’d hate me if you did. I don’t know if I told you, but it’s a one-bedroom. So you’d be on the sofa, and well, to be honest, I kind of think it might cramp our style if you know what I mean.”
Zoey had an idea what she meant. If she and Tanner were in a one-bedroom cabin together, whoever slept on the sofa would be privy to far more than they’d ever want to hear. Might even scar them for life. But crap. That left her without a next stop on her “going nowhere fast” tour and facing the reality that she didn’t have a plan. Maybe Bristol had been her Banff, and she’d already had her getaway. Complete with amazing sex and almost even better companionship, not to mention emotional healing. Maybe she needed to start figuring out what she wanted to do with herself. Go back to LA? Find somewhere new to settle? She hated making decisions. If only she knew what the fortune-teller had told Tanner. Maybe that would guide her. As soon as she was done texting Izzy, she would demand to know what Madame Whatever Her Name Was had told Tanner. At least then she’d know which direction to aim her car as she left the happiest time she’d experienced in ages in her rearview mirror.
It made her sad to think about that.
“Have you done it on a horse yet?” Izzy said, with a big laughing-face emoji.
“That’s not on the camp schedule for today. Maybe tomorrow, but I’m heading out of here by then.”
“Have you thought about staying? Sounds like you’ve enjoyed yourself.”
Zoey tapped out an eye-roll emoji. “That would be weird. Like ‘Hey, mind if I move in?’”
“Well, you don’t have to move in with the guy. You can find a place to stay and see if you like the area and maybe start over. You and he can continue with whatever it is that you’re doing, see where it takes you. You don’t have to be his bitch or anything.”
Zoey thought about that. She could stick around for the hell of it. Maybe by the end of the weekend, the convention would leave town and she could find an Airbnb to rent for a month or so. She didn’t want to impose herself on Tanner. Perhaps they could continue with this thing, because, well, it had been crazy good. And she was sad thinking about how much fun they’d had together, not to mention the sexual connection between them. It seemed crazy to walk away from that.
“Maybe you’re right.” Zoey sighed. “In the meantime, hope you and Mr. HR have hot monkey sex all over the sofa since I won’t be there to be skeeved out about it.”
~*~
Tanner had fixed a farewell dinner of pasta puttanesca and a salad, using all fresh ingredients they’d bought at the market. He’d opened a bottle of Sangiovese, and when Zoey came into the kitchen, he handed her a glass.
“Wow, Tanner, this looks amazing. Anything I can do to help out?”
He shook his head. “Grab your wineglass and I’ll bring everything out to the table.”
He set the table on the back deck with a sunny yellow tablecloth and bright, colorful Italian dishes.
“This looks incredible!”
“For an incredible woman,” he said with a wink.
He served her pasta and salad and then sat down and helped himself.
“So, Zoey, I’ve been thinking…” He steepled his fingers in front of him, elbows resting on the table.
“Me too, Tanner,” she said, squinting at him.
“Oh. Okay…Well, by all means, you go first.”
“No, it’s fine, you can.”
“I insist, ladies first.”
Zoey frowned, took a deep breath, and let it out.
“So, it’s time I found out what Madame Whoever She Is said about my future. Because I need some direction. I was going to head up to Banff to stay at my friend’s cabin, but now I’m not welcome because she’s going to be having hot monkey sex with the guy from HR, and now I don’t even know what I should do. Izzy thought I should stay here in Bristol because I’ve enjoyed it, but honestly, Tanner, I don’t want to be in your space. I mean, I’ve had an insanely good time with you the past couple of days, but I think we both recognize it’s been a whirlwind. And while we kind of know each other in a weird way, there’s so much we don’t know about each other. The last thing I want to do is drop into your town and move in like some crazy stalker. I was thinking as soon as the weekend is up, I could find someplace to stay, and I could stay away from you, avoid you altogether and stay completely out of your space and enjoy the town, maybe do some hiking, that sort of thing. I would try hard not to bother you, but then maybe we could, like, you know, get together if the spirit moved us, and—”
Tanner held out his hands as he laughed. “I’m not completely sure I know what you’re saying—”
She shook her head. “I was getting to that,” she said. “Because before I decide what I’m going to do, I need to know what that woman said about my future. That way I know if I’m making the right decision.”
Tanner opened his eyes wide. “So, let me get this straight.” He took a sip of his wine, trying to figure out how to play this. “You’re going to make a decision about the next step in your life based on what some supposed fortune-teller told you at a farmers market?”
She frowned. “Well, when you say it like that it sounds particularly crazy.”
He nodded. “Ya think?”
Tears filled her eyes. “But Tanner, I’m terribly confused. I mean you’ve got me confused. And I’ve got me confused. I’ve found myself falling for you. Kinda hard. And it seems so damned impulsive and I was avoiding impulsive, remember? So that’s a bad thing. And I was also getting far away from my previous life because I needed something new, remember that too? And I thought new was Banff, but then this happened.” She spread her arms out around her. “And this.” She pointed at him and then at herself. “And I don’t know. I mean I don’t know what to do. So I thought Madame Zazu or whatever her name is could give me some guidance.”
Tanner reached across the table for her hand. “Why not trust your gut?”
“Well, I trust my gut. But I don’t know what your gut wants, and I don’t want to be rude if your gut disagrees with mine.”
“Honey, I trust your gut implicitly.”
He nodded. “Look, Zo. I haven’t known how to say what I wanted to say, either. Because, well, it’s nuts. We hardly know each other. I mean we know each other, and we knew each other, but you know. There’s a lot to be known still.”
“Right? Which is where Madame Zulu comes in. What did she say?”
Tanner swallowed hard. “I haven’t wanted to say anything because I didn’t want you to feel somehow obligated. But now it seems like maybe I was wrong in holding back.”
“Well cough it up, would ya?” She grinned. “As long as it doesn’t have me dying from the bubonic plague.”
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and tell you that you’re safe from that fate. Plague-free, even.” He speared a forkful of pasta. “So here was the life prediction imparted from Madame Zorza: she said something old in your life is something new. She said that fear would become trust. And she said that a big change was on the horizon.”
She knit her brow. “And you’re being honest with me? You’re not making this up?”
He crossed his heart. “I swear to God. I mean, I was a little freaked out when she said all of this. Particularly when she said you would have ten children.”
Her eyes opened wide. She took a large swig of her water. “That woman is so full of shit.”
He laughed, clinking glasses with her. “Sorry, I can’t tell a lie. That was my little fiction I added on.”
Zoey wiped her brow in relief. “Oh, thank God. The rest of it sounds intriguing. The ten babies? Not so much.”
Tanner leaned in, both forearms on the table. “In all seriousness, Zoey, this thing between us is fresh and new and who knows where it might go. But I’m interested in exploring that if you are. Why don’t you stick around for a while, take a little vacation, see what you think about Bristol. And about me. And maybe see what Snowball thinks about Suki. We’d love to have you here. For a whole lot of reasons.” He winked at her.
And it was then that it hit him: he’d been looking for home all these years and here it was, right under his nose, only he hadn’t known it until now. Or maybe it took growing up and fleeing his original home that allowed him to find his true home. His gut was telling him a message loud and clear: there was a good chance that Zoey—and Snowball—would become a more permanent part of his life as well.