Page 52 of Bordeaux Bombshell
I clear my throat and head toward the nearest couch. “Well, what?”
“Start at the beginning. And then explain why you think you have a good reason for leaving in the middle of the night like a fucking coward. And it isneverfor that person’s own good, so don’t even try that one.” She yells the last few words in the direction Alfie disappeared.
“Still very sorry for what I did. I don’t deserve you!” Alfie’s voice is faint but clear, and Lauren giggles as she sits on the couch opposite me.
The smile on her face disappears the second she looks at me. With a practiced flick of her wrist, she swirls the wine in her glass. The deep red of the pinot noir Alfie handed me glints in the sun shining through the picture window to our left. “Proceed.”
“Um, well. Long story short—yes, I was upset at the bridal shower because I thought Manon’s son was—”
“Eh.” She cuts me off with a sharp noise. “Try again. I don’t want the short version. Tell me thewholestory, not just the most recent events.”
The whole story? Shit.
I take a large sip of my pinot, noting the quality in the earthiness I taste instead of just dirt. “So, you know that Nate and Kel met when I was in preschool? Anyway, what’s important is that those two were joined at the hip, and our moms also became best friends, so from then on, we were out at the Ridge basically all the time. Not a lot of girls out there for me to play with, so I was always tagging along after them, wanting to join in.”
“But like typical boys, they didn’t let you, did they?” Lauren adds, sitting back in her overstuffed chair.
“Right.” I take another sip, letting the delicious blend settle my nerves. “It wasn’t until I was about nine or ten that they started letting me join in. Well—” I pause. “Natestarted letting me join in. Kel didn’t really care as long as I ‘wasn’t annoying.’”
Lauren’s face softens with a glimmer of understanding. “Oh. Oh, hun.”
There’s a sudden tightness in the back of my throat, but I swallow and nod. “Yeah. So basically, I’ve been in love with Nate since I was too young to even know I was.”
“And he’s been oblivious this whole time?”
More wine eases the tightness in the back of my throat. “No, that’s what makes it worse. I mean, he was oblivious for a long time, because he’s a dumb boy.”
“Obviously.”
That breaks some of the tension inside me, and I laugh. “Right. But what I found out much later was that he was also in love with me. He just had a funny way of showing it.”
“Like how?”
“Stole my first kiss.”
“Stole?”
“Literally chased off the boy I was determined to do it with and kissed me instead.”
Lauren closes her eyes, cheeks puffed like she’s holding her breath.
“Are you okay?”
She lets it out with a loud puff of air. “Trying really hard not to kick my heels and squeal, to be honest.”
“It was not romantic, Lauren. He was a bastard. Kissed the stuffing out of me, made me think I might finally get what I wanted but never dared to ask for, and then literally dropped me on my ass and walked away. He didn’t talk to me for weeks after. He fucking…I don’t know,imprintedon my hormone-sloshed brain what a kiss is supposed to be like. Literally ruined me for anyone else.”
Lauren smirks, waving away my outrage. “Sure, sure. What got you from secretly pining for each other as kids to ready to tear each other’s throats out now? Although, come to think of it, it’s really you who wants to tear his asshole open. I’ve never seen him be anything but polite to you.”
“Weirdly, we kind of started being friends after that. Kel was so busy with June, and then baby Olive, that he didn’t have a lot of time for Nate. And even though I had some friends at school, I wasn’t very good at it. Nate was familiar, and I was in love with him and desperate for whatever scrap of attention he would give me. We hung out more and more until he left for France. Which is where he was when Greg sold to Sutton.” She nods, and I keep going.
“What you don’t know—no one knows, actually—is that the year before Sutton bought the Ridge, we’d finally figured out that all the years spent fighting as kids and teens were really a sadistic kind of flirting. Fun fact, Nate and I were both born on the Fourth of July and have celebrated our birthdays togetherfor as long as I can remember. Even when he was studying abroad, he always came home for it.”
I have to pause, fighting the sadness that hits me whenever I think of that perfect golden day. “That birthday, the one a year before Greg sold the Ridge, he’d come back so much more grown-up. And I’d been away at school, dating a little, but nothing serious because no one could ever compare to him. There was something about that perfect day—it was like every time we glanced at each other, there was electricity in the air. I’d always been painfully aware of his presence, but that day it was like we were breathing together.”
Lauren nods. “I know the feeling.”
“Just when I thought I might explode, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the vineyard. We snuck off to the farthest corner of the fields and, well…”
