Page 8 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

If the plant’s roots tangled together too much, I wouldn’t be able to move them, and the sun wouldn’t be able to get to where it needs to. I put my hand to the roots of the plant as I held on to the stem to keep it steady and willed the dirt to move away fromthe roots. Once the earth obeyed, l pulled the grape plant out and reset the soil. I moved a foot away and had the soil make a hole, set the plant in it gently and then asked the earth to gently surround the roots. I made sure to saturate the earth with water and added a stake next to it and tied the plant to it for good measure. I felt the happiness of the earth hum back to me as I gave it a pat of thanks before moving on. I repeated the process a few times, getting the six of seven plants clustered together until they were finally in a happy line. With a little luck, the plants would continue happily, and the grapes would see no disruption in their growth. We needed a good crop.

I shifted and ran back to Eric.

“We should water the east side. The earth is dry.” I told him, handing him the purple markers.

“I’ll see to it,” he answered.

“Anywhere else?”

“No ma’am. We’re good around here.”

“Okay, I’m going to head into the wine cellar. Link if you need me.”

I made my way down to the cellar. Our vineyard generally aged the wine only for a few years before we sold it. We relied on selling volume.

I checked the temperature before I examined the rows of casks, checking for leaks or signs of issues. We already had one year missing from the cellar. Over fifty percent of the crops were destroyed last year and without the people to process it, all I could do to salvage the crops was to sell them at the farmer’s market. There were three wines we would be bottling and selling this year. A five-year, a ten-year, and a fifteen-year. The fifteen-year wine was more like seventeen.

Brandon had wanted to expand into fine wines and age them twenty years, but we wouldn’t be able to take the financial hit wetook last year if we waited. A fifteen-year-old wine would fetch a decent prize and help bridge the gap.

I went back to the pack house around eleven and made Adam and me a picnic basket with sandwiches and fruit. I grabbed a few apple juices from the fridge and then, because mom always taught me that life was better with something sweet, I grabbed a couple of packaged pecan-swirls from the cupboard. It wasn’t the greatest meal, but Cory inherited the cooking gene, not me. I could make some basics but left all the baking to the professionals.

After lunch, I holed up in my office, but before I could get work done, my phone rang. I smiled when saw the caller ID and picked up.

“Hey Vi, how’s it going?”

“Okay. Just checking in to see how you were,” my sister answered.

“Buried in paperwork, as usual. Got the harvesting in a few weeks. What are you up to?”

After a deep sigh, she said, “Trying to figure out if taking online classes to finish my degree is worth it or if I should defer again.”

“Are all of them available online?”

“No. Most of them, but there are a few only available in person.”

“Will they penalize you if you just take the online ones this year? Is there an order that they need to be taken?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, isn’t that the first thing you should find out?”

“I guess, but I don’t want to go see my counselor and she doesn’t do online meetings.”

I saw her dilemma and I bit my tongue. I knew how hard everything that happened to Violet hit her, but at the same time, I thought she needed someone to push her a little more. Violethad always been timid, and she always hid behind mom’s skirts as a child.

“Then maybe it’s best if you defer, Vi.”

“Yeah, maybe. But I need to figure something out. I feel like I’m going nowhere. I’m stuck Bells, and I don’t want to be stuck anymore.”

That was a good sign.

“Small steps, baby girl. That’s the only way to do it. One foot in front of the other.” It was something I learned the hard way.

“I managed to eat at the pack house a few days ago.”

“That’s good! That’s huge Vi,” I told her, surprised and proud of her. It’d been months since she tried.

“I freaked out halfway through,” she admitted. “I went to the bathroom and bumped into someone on the way back, and I freaked out completely.”

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