Page 47 of Blush
“Didn’t I ask you not to tell anyone?”
“Yeah, but it’s my family. You put me in a bad position,” Sadie said.
“So what did she say?”
“Um... that she would do the same thing.”
Mateo shook his head. “Well, next time, learn to keep a secret.”
“I’m sorry,” Sadie said.
Mateo moved his laptop out of the way and leaned forward on his elbows. Sadie felt herself beginning to perspire.
“So what brought you into the field today? Since you’re not an outdoors person,” Mateo said.
Not an outdoors person? Oh—right. Their conversation at the seafood restaurant.
“My grandfather basically implied that I’m useless,” Sadie said.
“He can be tough.”
A clap of thunder made her jump. It was as if the universe were punctuating his observation.
“Yeah. But it’s hard not to respect someone who’s so accomplished.”
“Your grandfather grows excellent grapes,” Mateo said, seeming to choose his words carefully. “But a successful vineyard is not just about growing great grapes. It’s also about growing therightgrape for the time.”
“And my grandfather doesn’t?”
“Well, I don’t know if I’d say that,” Mateo said. “After all, you might repeat it.”
Ouch.
He turned to look out the window.
“It looks like the rain is slowing,” he said. Was that Sadie’s cue to leave?
She shouldn’t have opened her big mouth. She always said the wrong thing. Had she been too honest? Was there such a thing as too honest? Oh, relationships—even just casual interpersonal dynamics—were exhausting. This was why she was better off just reading or writing. Even if lately, the only thing she was managing to read were selections from her grandmother’s trashy book club.
Now Leah needed to find a bookstore. The night before, somewhere between talking to her mother and talking to Javier, she’d misplaced her copy ofChances.
“Are you sure you haven’t seen it?” she asked Vivian at breakfast.
“No,” her mother said.
Leah drove to town, fully aware there wasn’t a bookstore on Love Lane. There was, however, a great cheese shop.
The Village Cheese Shop was usually one of Leah’s first stops on the North Fork. This summer, she’d gotten distracted. But the cloudy day and her missing book inspired a visit.
Vivian had bemoaned the shop’s opening. “You’ve lost your chance!” For years, she’d been hinting that Leah should expand Bailey’s Blue to the North Fork. Leah knew it wasn’t so much a business suggestion as it was her mother’s way of saying that she missed her.
The shop was so spacious, it made Bailey’s Blue look like a closet. It had cheerful yellow walls, a black-and-white-checked floor, and a dine-in café. She walked the length of the display case and spotted a gorgeous wheel of English Wensleydale, heavily marbled with cranberry. It looked like a cake. She would bring some back to the house.
Before she could place an order, her phone rang with a call from Steven. She’d left him a message earlier; he was expecting her home the next day. After her conversation with Javier the night before, that simply wasn’t possible. She dreaded telling Steven, but the longer she waited, the worse the conversation would be.
“Hey,” she said, walking over to a display of Harney & Sons tea. “How’s it going there?”
“Busy,” he said. “I’m managing, but I miss you.”
