Page 91 of The Spark Between Us

He smacked the back of my head. “I know that, you stupid jerkoff. I’m here to help you extract your head from your asshole because clearly an intervention is needed.”

This again? He’d been harping on me for a week to stop acting like a depressed asshole, but I’d refused to indulge him in a conversation.

“Incorrect. Nothing is needed, so I’ll grab you a couple of bottles to go, and you can drink on someone else’s time. I’ve got a wonky drip watering thing that needs sorting out.”

He held up a hand. “Say no more. I installed one at my mom’s house a while back. I can take a look at yours, so you’re not dicking your way out of the conversation.”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“It means grab us some wine and let’s go water some grapes.”

* * *

Before we workedon the drip problem, I gave Mitch a tour of the place, trying to block the memories of walking down the same rows of vines with Sarah a couple months earlier. It was just one of a host of thoughts I’d been blocking, trying forcefully to keep my mind focused on anything but thoughts of her. What was the point in letting my mind go there now?

“All good with Molly?” My voice came out monotone like I didn’t care.

With anyone else, I’d worry about sounding like a dick, but not with Mitch. “Yeah, we’re solid, thanks for checking in.”

It was one of those ideal Saturday afternoons when the powder blue sky seemed to reject the idea of clouds. All I saw for miles were rows of green vines twirling around their posts and sunning their grapes like points of pride.

Mitch had finished one glass of cabernet and was halfway through his second, and we’d walked up and down a dozen rows of vines. There were probably a hundred more, and I wondered how long he planned to wait until he started giving me shit about Sarah.

As it turned out, not that long.

We sat down in the shed, and Mitch refilled his glass and topped off mine. The first thing he noticed was the valve. “You know this is turned off, right? Is it possible you’re that dumb?”

“Normally, no. But I don’t have my head on right.”

“I can see. Now, what are we going to do about that?” He turned the valve until it was completely open and turned on the water. We waited for a minute, and then a trickle of water started flowing out through the pipe.

“We? We’re going to drink our wine, and then I’m calling you an Uber.”

Mitch pointed to the valve and smiled, impressed with himself for saving my vines from an unnecessary drought.

Then all hell broke loose. Out in the fields, one of the hoses went flying up in the air, waving around like one of those air puppets outside a car dealership, water spraying everywhere. Bella popped her head up, apparently thinking we were throwing some kind of party, and began racing around after the hose, trying to bite the water.

Mitch indicated an orange bucket. “Something tells me one of your guys was trying to fix the problem, hence the valve being off.”

“Yet he said nothing.” Irritating. I turned off the valve. The one requirement I had of the guys tending to the vines was that if they found a problem, they needed to let me know or get it fixed without my involvement. It might cost me a little more, but neither of those had happened here.

“Maybe he figured he could fix it before you saw the problem. Kind of like someone else I know.”

I emptied the bottle into my glass and drank half in one gulp. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Asshole.”

“What’s with the name calling?” I was too irritable to figure out what had crawled up his rectum and died.

“Just because I’m younger than you doesn’t make me unaware of what’s going on.”

His directness left something to be desired. “What’s going on?”

“You’re punishing yourself for something that wasn’t your fault. For two years, you’ve closed yourself off from having any kind of a real relationship with a woman, and I can’t fault you for that. I get it. Ellie left, and you convinced yourself you deserved it. Then you decided if you ever did open yourself up and love someone else, it would happen again. But Sarah...she’s different and I’m here telling you not to screw it up.”

“I hate to break it to you, but she days ago. And she’s not coming back.”

“So you fucked it up.” He shook his head at me.

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