Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Tamara got to work early the next morning, long before anyone else.
She parked and then ran across the street to see which cars were in the Married in Malibu parking lot.
Fortunately, Travis was the only person at work.
Perfect. She planned to drop off some things for Nate before he arrived for the day, and she wanted to make sure he wasn’t already there.
She hustled back to the coffee shop and turned on the espresso machine.
While it was heating up, she got out her stainless coffee carafe and filled a small box with creamers and sugars, stir sticks, and a couple of fresh doughnuts she had picked up on the way in.
She filled the carafe with Nate’s favorite blend of coffee and then gathered everything and walked back across the street.
Tamara stood on Married in Malibu’s front door step, right under the security camera. Travis must have been looking at the security screen in his office because he suddenly appeared at the door before she had a chance to ring the bell.
“Good morning, Tamara,” he said, seeing the carafe and inhaling the rich scent of the coffee. “Is that for me?” he asked jokingly.
“I’m afraid not, but if you come over to the shop in ten minutes, I’ll make you any kind of coffee you want,” Tamara promised.
“Ahh, you don’t have to do that,” Travis said.
“Oh, but I want to. Let’s make a deal—you let me in so I can leave this stuff in Nate’s office, and don’t mention I was here, and you can have any coffee you want on the house. Deal?”
Travis laughed, “You bet it’s a deal.”
In less than five minutes, Tamara was back downstairs. She made Travis promise he would come and collect on their deal, and then she went to work, smiling to herself as she crossed the road… again.
Nate was trying not to panic at the time.
He knew that everyone else on the Married in Malibu team was already at work, sitting in the garden preparing for a quick last-minute meeting with Zach and Yuriko before their big day tomorrow.
They still had about half an hour before the couple was due to arrive, and there was lots to discuss, although everything was ready.
The team would just be waiting for him to show up before Zach and Yuriko. He should have been there ages ago.
Nate had run into some problems yesterday, although he didn’t say much about it to his coworkers.
In his typical fashion, he’d tried to maintain a cool and calm demeanor and not let anyone else see how worried he was.
But as the ringmaster of the wedding venue, he knew that Liz had picked up on his vibes.
She’d trusted him to fix the problem, and he hadn’t let her down.
What it did mean, however, was a seriously late night, and as a consequence, he’d overslept this morning.
He pulled into the parking lot and didn’t even have time to go up to his office.
He took his satchel and sprinted to the meeting, feeling more than a little relieved that he had arrived before Zach and Yuriko.
As he walked into the garden, a dozen pairs of eyes turned in his direction, and a dozen pairs of shoulders relaxed.
“Oh, hi, everybody. Sorry I’m a little bit late…” Before he had a chance to say anything else, Liz handed him a coffee. Sweet mercy, he thought as he took his first sip, and Liz began the meeting.
Two hours later, Zach and Yuriko had left. They were thrilled with absolutely everything and kept marveling at how many details had been considered and how many problems had been solved. Nate couldn’t have been happier.
For reasons no one could explain, Tamara’s coffee shop had been hopping all morning, and for the millionth time, she wondered how on earth she’d been able to run the place on her own for so long.
The teens were old pros now, and they could whip up any sort of exotic coffee.
The customers got a real kick out of them, and Tamara’s little business was gaining a great reputation.
Tamara took a late lunch, grabbing her phone and a salad, and went to relax on the back step.
She thought about Nate and how he was doing.
She wondered if he had found her little gift, but just because she hadn’t heard from him yet didn’t mean a thing.
It was the day before the wedding, and he would be swamped.
She trusted Nate and knew he would call or visit whenever he had two seconds.
She began going through her emails and was surprised to find an email forwarded by Nate from what was obviously his brother’s address. The subject line said Wedding Photos.
Sure enough, there was a link there to photographs from the wedding at the beach house. Most of them were of Tim and Florentine, obviously, but Tamara found several of her and Nate. Photos of them standing together, dancing together, caught midkiss, laughing, walking on the beach…
The part that made Tamara’s breath catch was just how much like a couple she and Nate looked. They looked so natural together in the photographs, so obviously right for each other.
Of course we look like a couple, Tamara told herself. We might have been trying to convince his family that we were a couple, but we are a couple, and these photos prove it.
Once the wedding meeting was over, Jenn invited Nate to swing by the kitchen and said she would make him something to eat.
Ten minutes later, he was sitting at the island, eating a sandwich. “Wow, Jenn, this is delicious,” he said. “I didn’t get time for breakfast this morning, and I’m starving.”
She shook a playful finger at him. “Nate, you have to start eating properly. Coffee and Twizzlers are not food groups.”
“Yeah, I know. Once this wedding is over, I’m actually going to stock up my fridge.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. I’m giving you a pass because I know you’ve been so busy. While you finish lunch, I’m going to finish frosting the wedding cake.”
“Sounds good, Jenn, and thanks again. When I’m done here, I’ll head up to my office, go through the last couple of bits, check in with Daniel, and then actually head home while it’s still light out.”
“That’s more like it,” she said, pulling out the mixer to make more royal icing. “See you tomorrow.”
Nate headed up to his office, feeling pretty darn good. The online feed for the wedding tomorrow was locked down, and Zach Jarrs himself had done the final check. Liz was happy, Yuriko was happy, and finally he could breathe easy.
As soon as he walked into his office, he noticed a coffee carafe sitting on his desk, and beside it was a small box.
He’d recognize that carafe anywhere—it was one of a few that Tamara kept on hand at her coffee shop.
The box contained some creamers and sugars and stir sticks and a couple of doughnuts.
He smiled. She must have brought this over earlier today. Awww. Then he noticed an envelope…
addressed to him. His heart began to race. It was a letter from Tamara.
The second he opened the envelope, a few things spilled onto his desk—some beach sand, tiny little seashells, a paper napkin, a balloon, and a letter written in Tamara’s large and loopy handwriting.
Dear Nate,
I’ve missed you so much this week, and I can’t stop thinking about you.
I don’t want to stop thinking about you.
I want to think about you for the rest of my life.
You are the first person I think of when I wake up, and your handsome face is the last thing I think about at night.
Our weekend in San Diego was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
I love you, Nate. In fact, I think I loved you the moment we met, but I was too scared to admit it. But I’m not scared anymore.
I know your week has been crazy, but I’m still here, across the street, waiting to make you a coffee, waiting to kiss you, waiting to spend my life with you, and waiting, again, to tell you every day that I love you.
Yours,
Tamara
Tears were streaming down Nate’s face, but they were happy tears.
In fact, he was laughing through those tears.
How did he get so lucky to meet that girl across the street?
He didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. The main thing was that it had happened.
He had never received a love letter before, and he was shaking with emotion.
He smiled tenderly as he imagined Tamara putting those beautiful words together just for him.
He had to take his glasses off and clean his lenses so he could read the letter a few more times.
He sat and looked at all the little things that had accompanied the letter, those sweet keepsakes they had collected on the beach and at the wedding in San Diego.
They were so special because they had chosen them together and because they were memories of their time together.
Tamara couldn’t have given him anything more meaningful.
He had fretted about finding the perfect way to tell Tamara that he loved her and thought that he had blown it. But now Tamara had said “I love you” in the most perfect way imaginable. And in doing so, she had made him feel so special and so loved.
He carefully folded Tamara’s letter and put it in his satchel. There was only one place he needed to be right now.
“Hey, you’re back again,” Tamara called over to the little dog.
He was standing near a hole in the fence, looking up at her with a sweet expression on his face.
She walked over to him and stroked his head, surprised to realize just how much she’d missed him since his last visit.
Nate had always said that Furface would keep coming back, and she hadn’t wanted to believe him in case it wasn’t true. Yet here he was again.
“We can’t keep calling you Furface, though,” Tamara said to him. “Not if you’re going to come live with me.”
She realized she’d made another decision without really having to think about it. It was something so obvious; it must have been in a corner of her mind all along.
“You are going to come live with me, right?”
Furface seemed to understand what she was saying and sat down in a way that suggested he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Yes, I am, unless you want to come and live with me.”
Recognizing Nate’s voice, Tamara froze for a moment before spinning round. “Nate,” was all she said before she ran over and jumped into his arms. “Oh, Nate. I love you. Did you get my letter? You know I love you, right?”
Nate set her down and then folded his arms around her so that she was enveloped in a huge hug.
It was like he couldn’t get close enough to her.
They kissed, they cried, they laughed, and they kissed some more.
“Yeah, I got your letter, and yeah, I know you love me. I love you too, Tamara. I’m deliriously in love with you, Tamara.
I’m never letting you go. Are you good with that? ”
“Oh, yeah, I’m definitely good with that.”
They stood in the sun, not saying a word, just looking at and holding on to each other. The little dog was beside them, looking back and forth between them.
“Well, that was easy,” Tamara said, and she and Nate both realized she could have been talking about them or the dog. Either way, they started laughing, and that became a joke between them for years to come. Well, that was easy.
“I always knew he’d come back, Tamara. He’s a cute little guy, and he deserves a good home.”
“Now we just need to figure out what to call him,” Tamara said. She and Nate tried to think of possibilities, but most of them didn’t fit. The double F of Furface just kept coming back. “How about Fifi?” Tamara said.
Before Nate could offer an opinion, the dog looked up, and Tamara knew in an instant that the name was perfect. Fifi it was. And just like that, he curled up and went to sleep in a patch of sunlight, looking like he had been there forever.
Nate and Tamara gazed longingly at each other, knowing they still had things to do before they could leave for the day, but they also knew they would see each other this evening and every evening for a long time to come.