Chapter 3 Danny
DANNY
The music is too loud, the lights are too low, and the only people left on the winery patio are the ones who don’t want to call it a night.
My best friend Matt and his fiancé Kylie have planned a surprise party for me here at Grape Expectations, the winery in Starlight Bay.
But it’s her who makes the night what it is.
Sadie paces in front of the dessert table, muttering to herself, rearranging fruit cups and evening out the half-cut cake.
From what I’ve heard, she fought planning this party for three months.
It wasn’t until Matt threatened to take her off payroll as the event organizer at the winery that she finally relented.
I can’t blame her. We’ve been broken up for over a year now, and our run-ins since then have been less than appealing.
But seeing her tonight, knowing she did all this with me in mind has me remembering everything good about what we were together.
“You realize no one cares if the plates look half-eaten, right?” I say, leaning against the wall, sipping a glass of red wine. “Everyone here’s already drunk. They’d eat dessert off the floor if you let them.”
Sadie freezes mid-rearrange and slowly turns to face me, her all-black dress showing every curve I know personally.
With a raised brow, she says, “Presentation matters, Danny. It's a reflection of the host. Which tonight, is technically me.”
“Technically,” I echo with a smirk, “it’s Matt. You’re just the unofficial boss of everything.”
She rolls her eyes and walks toward me. “You think it’s cute to make fun of me, don’t you?”
“No,” I say, my voice low as I push off the wall, stepping up to her. “I think you’re cute when you’re about three seconds from snapping.”
She stops, holding her breath before she whispers, “You’ve been drinking.”
“I have, but it’s still true.”
Her eyes narrow, but a reluctant smile tugs at her lips anyway. She’s too close—or maybe just not close enough.
“You’re such a pain,” she murmurs.
“You plan stress for fun.”
She shoves me back half a step but doesn’t really mean it. “You cause chaos just to make me crazy.”
I fire back, wanting her hands on me again. “Your order needs disrupting sometimes.”
She stares at me. “Together, we were a disaster.”
“Or,” I say, brushing a stray curl from her face, “maybe it takes a disaster to level things out so you can start again.”
Her breath catches, and for a moment, everything around us disappears—the noise, birthday balloons, and lights. The past disappears, and it’s just us, remembering the good and giving a little too much honesty.
And then she kisses me, hard and fast, with so much passion, just like we used to. And I kiss her back, trying to slow it down and show her I really miss her.
Because I do.
I pull her out into the shadows by the grapevines, half-laughing, half-still-kissing, with no real plan for anything past this moment.
That’s always been the best and worst part of us—no plan.
Just us. Some truth, some snark, and a little carelessness, building into a lot of fun and freedom.
Getting her to say and do whatever comes to mind in that short timeline, where I push her enough that she finally lets down her guard.
Grape Expectations - present day
I stand in the same spot I pulled her to six months ago.
The same hidden corner where nothing mattered.
Dates and scheduled kisses weren’t a thing.
We kissed, hugged, and danced to faint music drifting through the air.
I thought that night was a turning point.
We hadn’t spoken much in a year besides some perfectly timed insults.
But here? That night? It felt like we were turning a corner.
Until suddenly her sister called her name from the deck and broke the spell.
Sadie pulled back from me so fast she almost lost her balance.
She wiped my kiss from her mouth, smoothed her hair back from the touch of my hands, and straightened her dress that I wanted to see on my bedroom floor.
Her chin lifted, and she hit me with a look that said, we were never getting back to how we were.
I was too much disorderly conduct for her.
So, although the music was gone and the party over, the memory was still loud and fresh.
Like me.
“Mr. Love,” Matt calls out, taunting me. “No class today?”
I snicker, turning and meeting him on the deck. “Any day.” I meet his sarcasm as we clap hands and walk inside. “That chill is moving in fast.”
“You’re the one standing outside.” I follow him to the bar as he takes his place behind it, and I sit on the other side. The bar top is cool as I roll my sleeves up and lead forward. “Beer? Wine? Water?”
“How about a shot?”
He raises a brow and puts his hands on his hips. “How bad we talking?”
“You know the Christmas Gala you’re sponsoring and your in-house event rep is handling?” He nods. “The Starlight Bay Town Board picked a teacher to assist. And I’m that teacher.”
He whistles but has a shit-eating grin. “So, it’s bad.” He grabs four shot glasses and lines them up, then grabs the bottle of Jameson, filling all four. He pushes two forward, then grabs one. We tap glasses and down it, the burn making me feel slightly better.
“Does she know?”
“Oh, she knows.” I slam the second shot. “I just came from seeing her at the school auditorium.”
“How’d that go?”
I shake my head. “She’s still Sadie. Color-coded, clipboard-carrying, and convinced I’m here to sabotage her centerpiece arrangements.”
“Seems to be a specialty of yours.”
“Causing chaos is my love language.”
Matt laughs and pours one more shot. “You mean your ‘desperately trying not to be in love’ language?”
“Excuse me. I’ll have you know I am very successfully not in love with her.”
“You're so full of shit.”
I shrug, then do the third shot, the fire sitting low in my stomach. “I can’t help it if I remember everything she says, and still think about how good she looks when she’s mad.” I smile. “I pushed her buttons on purpose today to see what would happen.”
He scoffs. “Still trying to get a blow job after a fight, huh?”
I snicker. “I should have never told you that.” I spin the empty shot glass, and my mind reverts to every fight I picked on purpose just so she would show me some passion.
“Mhmm. Totally not in love. You sound like a movie side character who dies of unresolved tension.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re no help.”
“Listen, I’m the guy who watched his high-school sweetheart waltz back into his winery with her fiancé to plan their wedding and still managed to marry her, so if anyone gets being the side character at first, I do.”
“Yeah, well, Sadie’s not exactly giving me the green light. In fact, her words were ‘we’re not anything.’ So, pretty sure she’s over me.”
“Maybe. Or maybe she’s scared you’re not joking this time.”
I pause, letting out a breath. “I wasn’t joking then.”
“I know you weren’t, but she didn't, and that was the problem. You’re not a kid, Danny. You don’t have to pull her ponytail to get her attention.”
“I did if I wanted a blow job.” I laugh, then sober. “She’s got this whole world mapped out—timelines, goals, perfect damn centerpieces. And I’m just…me.”
“Yeah, you’re you. The guy who’s funny, loyal, great with kids, and probably the only person on earth who could balance her out when she finally lets go.”
“You really think that?”
“Only because my fiancé tells me I have to be nice to you.” I flip him off, and he laughs. “But Sadie thinks that, too. She just doesn’t want to admit it, even if you're holding a lighter to her perfectly timed schedule.”
I huff a laugh and stand. “Thanks for the drink. And for the talk. I'll catch ya tomorrow.”
I walk out, remembering how it felt to have her hand pushed against my chest, kissing me like she didn’t want to want me but couldn't resist me either.
That was the night I realized I might actually love Sadie Johnson.
And today showed me I never stopped. Now, I just have to figure out how to get her to see what I’ve always known. We weren’t perfect on paper, and we definitely didn’t make sense together, but when it was just me and her with no schedule between us, we were something worth fighting for.