Page 149 of Love Among Vines

“Oh, yes. The world’s very excited to see you painting again.”

“Wow.” Maybe the gallery would work with her after all. The pieces she had produced last night were more like her old style. Maybe it would be enough.

“Well, thank you. For everything. Here.” She held out the canvas.

Margie inhaled sharply. Her husband, David, was captured in brushstrokes sitting on a bench in front of the café. The sunflower hovered just over his head.

“This is too much,” she said, turning to Jade with tears in her eyes.

“No. It’s not nearly enough. I’m really going to miss you.”

Margie threw her arms wide and pulled Jade into a tight hug. “You have to come for Christmas. I would love to have all my kids under one roof.”

Damn it. The tears were back. Jade blinked them away and pulled back from the embrace.

“I will. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

They looked at each other for a moment, smiling watery smiles.

“The invitation’s always open, you know,” Margie said. “As far as I’m concerned, the cottage is yours.”

“Rett would say it’s very fiscally irresponsible to not rent out a vacant property,” Jade said.

“Well, he’s also a bit of an idiot. So forgive me if I take any advice from him with a wheelbarrow full of salt.”

The chill fallair tickled her nose as Jade stepped out of the DMV. A beam of sunshine blinded her as she looked at the plastic card in her hand.

“What’s the verdict?” Cindy called across the parking lot. She had stepped out to do a teleconference with a patient. Penny’s leash was wound around her wrist.

Jade triumphantly held her driver’s license in the air.

Cindy’s fist pumped the air. “You did it! Is it awful that I’m kind of sad you got it on the first try? Because it means you’re leaving today, not because I don’t want you to succeed.”

Jade hustled across the sidewalk, enjoying the scent of decaying leaves in the air. Was that cinnamon? Did the airalways smell like fall here, even outside a place as heinous as the DMV?

“I didn’t expect to, honestly,” she said. “But you guys helped so much, especially with the parallel parking. I can’t thank you enough. This gives me…options.”

“But you’re still leaving?”

“I have to.”

And she was taking Rett’s car with her. It was the least he could do. Was she ready for a five-hour drive into a major metropolitan area with a freshly minted driver’s license? Probably not. But she had been through worse.

Cindy stared off into the distance, in the direction of the mountains. “I still can’t believe Rett did that to you. He’s on my shit list now. My first stop after work is his rival winery.”

“Don’t punish him on my behalf. The next time I see him, I’ll probably be six months pregnant and married to some smokin’ hot basketball player or musician.” It was a joke, but her tone sounded flat even to her.

“Not another artist?”

Jade shook her head. “Artists are too temperamental. We’d kill each other.”

The truth was, she couldn’t imagine moving on right now. As much as she was trying to be brave and confront her new reality, there was a gaping, Rett-shaped hole in her heart. He couldn’t have been more opposite than her. While she flew by the seat of her pants, he lived his life by spreadsheets and plans. Everything was carefully regimented, every scenario prepared for. They would have made an amazing team.

He had given her so much—kindness, affirmation, support, encouragement. He had been nothing but a gentleman—well, outside the bedroom. Their future together had been as clear in her mind as if it were a memory. It would have been beautiful.

But he had royally fucked it all up. If that was how he acted when he was provoked, she would never see him again. Her new normal was going to be one of boundaries and self-care.

“I’m going to miss you so much,” Cindy said tearfully.

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