Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
On Saturday morning, Tamara was standing outside her café, ready to go and waiting for Nate. Apart from a surprisingly big bag for a weekend away, she was holding two large coffees.
“Looks like you’ve packed for a week, not the weekend,” Nate said, laughing as he heaved her bag into the trunk of his car.
“I just want to be prepared for every eventuality,” Tamara said. “I hate not having everything I want, and I wouldn’t want to embarrass you by not wearing the right stuff. As your ‘girlfriend,’ I have to make a good impression.”
“I’m sure you are going to look great whatever we’re doing,” Nate assured her as he accepted one of the coffees.
“And there is no way you could embarrass me. That’s not going to happen.
” Tamara always looked perfect no matter what she was doing.
She had a great sense of style. Today, for the drive down, she was wearing a light cotton dress in pale yellow, with hints of a leaf pattern along the hem.
“The only person causing any embarrassment this weekend might be me. Well, me and most of my family.”
“You’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about,” Tamara assured him. “I think we know one another well enough for that not to happen.”
“Tell me that once you’ve met my parents,” Nate replied with a smile.
The thought that he would be introducing Tamara to his parents really hit him then, and the nerves followed right behind.
How would they react to her? Would they like her?
Would they ask too many personal questions?
Nate could have laughed. These were the kinds of considerations that would apply only if they really were a couple.
He should be worrying about whether his family would believe that the two of them were actually a couple.
And although he and Tamara had come up with this ruse so that he wouldn’t be hassled by family members wanting to hook him up, he realized he really did want his family to believe in their romance.
“Well, I guess we should hit the road,” Nate said as he opened the door for Tamara. “The traffic will have died down a bit by now.”
The drive to San Diego would take a couple of hours at least. Nate had made the trip plenty of times before to see his family, to go to their various weddings, and, of course, for things like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
He planned to use the driving time to really get to know Tamara better.
He was going to do everything he could to woo her, although that word made it sound old-fashioned, like something out of an Austen novel.
Still, he wanted to impress her and make sure she had a good time.
In any case, he’d made a couple of preparations for this journey, and he told Tamara to look in the glove compartment.
“You packed Danish pastries!” Tamara said with obvious excitement as she opened the bag. He knew they were her favorites and had been hoping for this kind of reaction.
“I didn’t want you getting hungry on the way,” Nate said, although he had other plans to avoid that. “Also, there is extra coffee in the thermos in the back. I figure if you have to put up with my relatives for the weekend, the least I can do is make sure you’re well fed.”
Tamara gave him a wide smile, and he pulled out onto the road.
They followed the coastal highway going south, and it was a gorgeous day for a drive.
Nate put Tamara in charge of the A/C and the radio.
In her shop, Tamara mostly played the more obscure side of pop, with plenty of ’80s love songs mixed in.
Nate was easy when it came to music, and he was happy to let Tamara choose.
They talked about their favorite bands and the last concert they had been to. Between the two of them, their musical interests covered many genres, and their musical tastes also crossed over.
After a few minutes, Nate asked, “Tamara, is there any kind of music you don’t like?”
She thought for a minute and said, “Just one— barbershop quartets!” They laughed at that, and Nate had to agree with her.
As the miles rolled by, a comfortable silence filled the car, and Tamara’s music choices turned out to be perfect.
Nate found himself thinking about the beautiful woman sitting beside him.
She was so easygoing and friendly, and he loved talking to her about anything and everything.
The chemistry between them was electric, but she also made him laugh.
With her great sense of humor, he was pretty sure that if anyone could cope with his family, Tamara could.
All of this convinced Nate that winning her over was the most important thing in his life.
And the more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t imagine the rest of his life without her.
Just being friends was not enough, and Nate knew he was crazy if he thought he’d be able to persuade himself otherwise.
He just needed to show her that he was worth the risk and help her overcome the way she’d been treated in the past. It might be a challenge, but Nate was going to do everything he could to make Tamara realize that they could be more than just friends.
He’d already put some things in place to make her feel special this weekend.
To start, he’d called one of Kate’s florist contacts to arrange for a bouquet of forget-me-nots to be delivered to the beach house before they arrived.
Tamara had once mentioned that the small purple blooms were her favorite, and the detail had stayed with him.
How could he ever forget anything about her?
“You’re doing a lot of thinking,” Tamara said. “What has you so preoccupied?”
“I’m just thinking about where to stop along the way,” Nate said, because he couldn’t tell her what he’d really been thinking about without ruining the surprise. “Have you been down this route before?”
Tamara shook her head. “I mostly take the I-5 when I go south. I guess because it is faster. Do you always take the coast road?”
Nate shrugged. “Well, it’s a little bit slower than the interstate, but it’s way more beautiful. I thought we might stop in a while and take in the view.”
They continued along the coast, down toward Santa Monica and Long Beach, hugging the ocean the whole way.
They drove in the direction of Carlsbad, and to their right, the ocean seemed to be in a spectacular mood.
There were lots of tourist boats carrying visitors out to spot whales or dolphins.
Colorful sailboats rode the gentle waves.
“I love the ocean,” Tamara said, gazing at the Pacific. “It’s part of why I have my café where it is. At any time, I can just look out and watch the waves breaking on the shore.”
“Yeah,” Nate agreed, taking in a hearty lungful of salty ocean air. “We are pretty darn lucky to live where we do.” Knowing that Tamara would love being so close to the ocean was another reason why he’d chosen this route today.
They turned off at the flower gardens, where they did stop, long enough for Tamara to get some decent pictures on her phone.
“You should get in the shot,” Tamara said to Nate. “This is your road trip, after all.”
“We should both be in it, then,” Nate suggested, and they crowded together close enough for a selfie with the gardens in the background. It was the kind of shot Daniel would have hated, but he wasn’t here to criticize, and Nate relished being so close to Tamara.
They continued through the shifting landscape of forest, hills, and the coast road, while around them tourists stopped here and there to enjoy the stunning views.
“That’s the best way to enjoy the coast road,” Tamara said as a few people on motorbikes sped past with the wind in their hair.
“I never took you for a biker chick,” Nate replied.
“Okay, maybe not a biker chick. But a convertible along here would probably be pretty great.”
Nate smiled at that. “The best I can do right now is rolling down the windows.” Just for fun, he simultaneously opened all four windows and the sunroof. Tamara’s long hair whipped in the wind, and the smile on her face told Nate everything he needed to know.
They stopped for gas, and the attendant at the gas station asked them how their vacation was going.
“Oh, we’re not exactly on vacation,” Nate said. “We’re heading to San Diego for a wedding.”
“Well, congratulations. You make a lovely couple!”
“No, no,” Tamara corrected her. “It’s his brother’s wedding. We’re just guests.”
“Well, you’re still a lovely couple.”
They smiled knowingly at each other as they walked back to the car. It seemed everywhere they went, people jumped to conclusions. At least their chemistry wasn’t all in Nate’s head. It was going to make convincing his family they were a couple a lot easier.
“The temptation is just to keep going to Mexico. The border is getting close,” Nate joked, and he wasn’t entirely kidding. “Maybe we should just give my brother’s wedding a miss and head straight for Tijuana.”
“Nate. You don’t mean that,” Tamara said. “It’s your brother’s wedding. Besides, I’m intrigued to meet your family now. All I know is that they like to get married. But apart from that, are they like you at all?”
“I don’t know,” Nate replied honestly. “I mean, it’s one of those things that’s hard to judge for yourself, isn’t it?
Family is family, and those relationships are the only ones you’ve ever known, until you leave home, of course.
I guess in my family, there are parts of our personalities that are the same, and parts that aren’t. So it’s just normal, right?”
“Even when it’s not,” Tamara agreed.
“My siblings have explored all kinds of different interests,” Nate said. “But they do seem to have a hard time sticking with them.” The same way that they had a hard time sticking with some of the people they married.
“Maybe they just haven’t found the right interests yet,” Tamara said. “Like their perfect coffee shop or perfect computer job.”
“So, it’s perfect, is it?” Nate asked.