“So, we know her then?” Hollin asked.
I frowned. Well, shit.
“Forget I said anything.”
Julian laughed. “No chance in hell.” He glanced at Hollin. “Who do we know who would hate him for telling us?”
Then at the same time, they said, “Annie.”
I closed my eyes in resignation. Jesus Christ, was I that transparent?
“Fine. Yes, it was Annie. Just don’t tell her I told you.”
“How did that even happen?” Hollin asked. He tilted his head and ran a hand through his blond beard, his light-blue eyes revealing his shock. “I thought she, like…hated you?”
“She doesn’t hate me.”
“Well, obviously not anymore,” Julian said with another barely concealed laughter. His dark eyes, the mirror of mine, were full of mirth. “But you brought Missy to Jensen’s wedding. No one was oblivious to the argument that ensued.”
I cringed. “Yeah, that was a mistake.”
“Oh, Jordan Wright makes mistakes?” Hollin said with a laugh.
Julian grinned. “Only in relationships.”
“I didn’t mean for all of that to happen. It was a misunderstanding.”
“Meaning…you weren’t really as broken up as you thought you were.”
“Yeah.”
“I told you that space didn’t mean a break up.”
I shrugged. “It felt concrete to me. So when I came back to Vancouver, Missy thought we were still together. I didn’t know how to back out of bringing her to the wedding.”
“Hi, I fucked someone else in Lubbock, it’s over?” Hollin suggested with a laugh.
“Well, when she found out about Annie at the wedding, that solidified the break up,” Julian said.
It sure did. And ruined any chance I had with Annie too.
“I was an idiot, all right?” I ran a hand back through my hair. “It was complicated with Missy. She was there for me when we got Mom’s cancer diagnosis. It felt like the right thing at the time.”
Julian nodded absentmindedly, as if he understood. Things had been different when we found out that Mom had breast cancer for a third time. Everything screeched to a halt. We’d moved here to be with her during her treatment, afraid that this was going to be the time where cancer took her from us. Everything after the diagnosis was still a bit of a blur, and I felt like maybe we should both be given a little slack for anything that happened. Not that Missy or Annie appreciated how stupid I’d been then.
Luckily, Mom was in remission and happier than ever, being back in her hometown with her siblings. She spent every weekend with her siblings, Greg and Lori, and Lori’s wife, Vail.
“Yeah, but I’m still shocked Annie would talked to you. How did that happen?” Julian pushed. “She’s in med school. Every time she comes for a Tacos game, she seems half-frazzled and part-manic. She constantly says she doesn’t have time for anything but this one game a week.”
I shrugged and was saved from answering by Larissa showing up for our meeting.
“Sorry! Sorry! I’m here,” she said, brushing her dark blonde hair out of her face and striding over to meet us. “I always swear I’m going to be on time, and then five kids.” She shrugged helplessly. “Happens.”
“It’s not a problem,” I insisted and shook her hand.
“So good to see you all again. Where would you like to begin? The barn, cellars, vineyard?”
“Let’s start with the barn,” Hollin said cheerily.
Hollin had worked at the now-defunct West Texas Winery for years before it finally collapsed due to a loss of capital. The wine itself was delicious. I still couldn’t figure out where their money problems had originated. It was a problem I’d wanted to solve before agreeing to this endeavor. Though having Hollin on board, who knew every inch of the process of the winery, made me feel a lot better.
“Barn it is!” Larissa said, taking a fortifying sip of her coffee.
I braced myself and followed them inside. I hadn’t been here in three long years. Even when Julian and Hollin tried to drag me in for weekend drinks. I’d spent one night here with Annie, and the memory lingered strong enough that I didn’t particularly want a repeat. Country music, line dancing, dirt floor, and cheap booze would never be my scene again.
But as soon as I stepped inside, the potential for what this place could be swept over me. It had character. I could almost see all the possibilities that Julian and Hollin had been trying to bang into my head since the get-go. Saw the truth in this dusty, old barn—the Wright Vineyard.
9
Annie
“I think this is the last bag,” I said, hauling the trash bag full of stuff out of my bedroom and dumping it into the mostly intact living room.
Jennifer looked on with a frown. “I cannot believe this happened. I was only gone for a couple days!”
“It wouldn’t have stopped the flood if you’d been here.”
“No, but I might have been home and caught it sooner. Before it decimated your room.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “That would have been nice, except that it wasn’t flooding when I went to sleep and something clearly burst in the middle of the night.”
“But I would have woken up before you,” Jennifer offered.
Which was true. I was as much a vampire as I could manage, and Jennifer believed that the early bird caught the worm. She probably would have noticed the flood at, like, five a.m. instead of almost noon. By that time, there had pretty much been nothing I could do, except panic. Which I’d done perfectly.
“What did the landlord say?” Jennifer asked. She stood from her seat on the undamaged living room chair and chewed on her nails. A bad habit she’d never been able to give up.
I rolled my eyes dramatically. “Bastard called me at the ass crack of dawn to come over and inspect the damage. He made some notes and then left. Said he’d be in contact.”
I’d had to get over here so early that I had to ditch Jordan’s place. He looked so peaceful that I didn’t dare wake him. I’d left a note on his fridge, but I hadn’t heard from him since. Guess that was that.
Probably for the better anyway. I had no time for…whatever that had been. The sex had been great, but if he wanted something more than sex, well, that wasn’t happening. I’d have to chalk it up to a drunken mistake.
“Well, the wedding was at least good, wasn’t it?”
Jennifer had just wandered into the kitchen and reappeared with a dreamy look in her eye and a bag of cat food. “Oh! It was amazing,” she said. “Come with me to feed Avocado and Bacon and then I can show you the pics on my camera.”
I couldn’t keep from laughing. “You know if you name the stray cats then they become your cats, Jen.”
She wrinkled her nose at me. “I don’t like cats.”
“You literally have cat food in your hand.”
“Well, I’m not going to let them starve,” she said as if that made sense.
We wandered outside and she filled two small bowls at the front of the house. I thought it was ridiculous that she was feeding two cats that didn’t even belong to her. But despite her insistence that she didn’t like cats, she clearly loved these cats. She’d named them, for God’s sake.