Page 7 of Vineyard Dreams

“How did you get into this? Is it something you always wanted to do?”

Elle smiled as she shook her head. “Absolutely not. It was my wife’s dream, and I went along with it. Sure, I liked wine. Who doesn’t? But running a vineyard?” Elle laughed softly. “If I could tell my twenty-one-year-old self that’s what I’d be doing, she would never believe it. Not in a million years.”

“What were you doing before then?”

“I was a wedding photographer.”

“Really?” Harper asked as she took a sip, but then as she lowered her glass she remembered what she’d told Piper. “Shit,” she muttered to herself.

“Is everything okay?” Elle was looking at her with an arched eyebrow.

Harper blew out a breath. “I just remembered that when one of my best friends, another actress, Piper, proposed to her girlfriend a few weeks ago, I said she could use this place as a venue. They won’t have too many guests, and privacy will be the main concern, but that was before I got here and saw what this place actually looked like.”

“Hey, don’t knock it just yet. If you managed to do so much with the house, I’m sure you can bring that same work ethic to the vineyard. You don’t have to be producing wine to host a wedding. You still have the amazing setting. The views.”

Harper swallowed. “I know I’ve been distracting myself for the last two weeks with painting and picking furniture and all that, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m in over my head.” Harper took another drink. “Not only do I know nothing about this business, but being here, and seeing all of the land and the scale of this business, of what if could be… I’d have to hire people.” Harper shook her head. “You probably think I’m crazy for not thinking of this before buying the vineyard, but my privacy is the most important thing to me, and I can’t see myself having much of it here if this vineyard is back up and running.”

Elle nodded. “I get that.”

“How many people do you have working for you?”

“I have six full-time employees, and from time to time, I’ll hire some college students to fill in the gaps when we’re at our busiest.”

Harper sucked in a breath. She couldn’t see herself finding so many people she could trust. It had taken her years to build the team she had around her.

Harper watched Elle take another sip of wine, struck by how at ease she seemed. The fading sunlight caught in her hair, and she forced her gaze away, focusing instead on the sprawling vineyard before them.

“How do you handle it?” Harper asked. “The employees, I mean. How do you know who to trust?”

“You develop a sense for people. Plus, most of my workers have been with me for years. They’re like family now.” Elle shifted on the cushion, her knee brushing against Harper’s for a brief moment. “And honestly? People around here aren’t that interested in celebrity gossip. They care more about whether their grapes will survive an early frost.”

Harper let out a small laugh, but her mind wandered to the photographers Elle had chased away. “Tell that to the paparazzi you scared off.”

“Those vultures?” Elle’s face darkened. “They’re not from around here. Trust me, the locals would’ve run them off themselves if they’d stuck around.”

The conviction in Elle’s voice made something warm bloom in Harper’s chest. She took another sip of wine, savoring its rich complexity. The taste reminded her of her last few years here, before she’d left for Hollywood, when her father used to explain the subtle notes while they ate dinner.

“You know,” Elle said, “running a vineyard doesn’t mean you have to be here all the time. You could hire a manager, someone you trust to oversee the day-to-day operations.”

Harper considered this. It wasn’t something she’d thought about before. “Maybe, but I kind of liked the idea of being here for a while.”

“You’re looking to take a break from acting?”

Harper pressed her lips together for a second. She shouldn’t be talking to a stranger about her life. She was never normally this open with someone she didn’t know well, but there wassomething about Elle that made Harper feel like she could trust her, and she had no idea what it was.

“It’s okay,” Elle said after a second. “I didn’t mean to be nosy.”

“No. It’s a fair question, and I think I am. I uh… The last movie I did really took a toll on me, and I’ve been turning down everything that’s come my way since. I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back and give another movie my full attention.”

Elle looked like she wanted to ask her what she meant, but thankfully she didn’t. Harper didn’t want to bring down the mood by telling Elle that she’d been waking up in the middle of the night sweating, her heart racing after yet another nightmare.

“So,” Harper continued, “I plan on being here for a while.”

“In that case,” Elle said as she slid her phone out of her pocket, “You should have my number.” She handed it to Harper.

Harper stared at Elle’s phone for a second before taking it from her. This was another line she rarely crossed. Very few people had her real phone number, but at the same time, this was new for Harper, being so far from all of the people she trusted. Her agent, her manager, her friends were all several hours away now. She entered in her number and handed the phone back to Elle.

Elle rang it, and Harper let her phone buzz in her pocket. “If you ever run into any problems or you have any questions, just call me.”

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