Page 43 of The Vineyard Bride

Chapter Seventeen

Lola spent the nightat the Sheridan House, sleeping next to her daughter and having delirious dreams about the future and the past, all mixed together.In one, she and Tommy were twenty-five years old with a little toddler boy who celebrated a birthday with a brand-new toy tricycle.In another, Audrey was an old woman coaxing Lola to eat a big bowl of potato soup.In another, Anna Sheridan carried Stan Ellis’s boat on her shoulders like a strongman in a circus— her eyes alight, as though she did that sort of thing all the time.

When Lola awoke, it was six-thirty in the morning.She would marry Tommy Gasbarro at four-thirty that afternoon, which seemed like a lifetime away.Beside her in bed, Audrey continued to sleep, her thumb a few inches from her mouth, acting as a reminder that, no matter how old and big she got, she would always be that little girl whose thumb-sucking addiction nearly ruined her experience of the first grade.

Recently, Max had moved to the bedroom next door in the Sheridan House, which was both heartening and saddening at once.The past three times that Lola had slept over, Max hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night even once.It was the end of an era.

Lola made her way downstairs, brewed a pot of coffee, and sat at the kitchen table, forcing herself to breathe deeply.Midway through her meditation, Amanda stepped out of her bedroom and nearly leaped with surprise.

“It’s the bride!”she murmured, making sure she wasn’t too loud to wake the rest of the house.

Amanda was dressed in a sports bra and a pair of tight shorts.“I’m going to do a yoga video,” she explained.“Any chance you’d like to join me?”

But Lola’s thoughts swirled too quickly for something as stable and solid as yoga.Instead, she insisted she’d gotten up early to do something she hadn’t done in literally years: go running.As she tied up her dusty tennis shoes and trounced out the door, she half-regretted her decision.By the time she stretched her legs out toward the road, getting into a firm jog, she fully regretted it.I can’t turn back now.Amanda would force me into yoga.And besides.Don’t I want to feel empowered on my wedding day?Don’t I want to feel strong and alive and open to the possibilities of life?

Lola began to run out toward the Sunrise Cove Inn, grateful that each stride made her legs scream less than the one before.As she ran past the inn itself, she waved a hand to Sam as he opened the back shed, a confident smile on his face.

“See you later, Sam!”Lola hollered as she passed, which caused him to say something she couldn’t exactly hear in return.

She continued: along Pall Mall Street, down Dudley Avenue, all the way to Simpson Avenue, where she dropped down and gripped her knees, seizing with adrenaline and fatigue.When she rose to check her phone, she read a message from none other than Jenny.

JENNY: Happy wedding day, beautiful.

JENNY: I reached out to Valerie last night.No answer.And actually, it went straight to voicemail.

JENNY: Feeling strange and nervous about it.I feel like, no matter how angry Valerie is with you, she is still happy for you in her own way.

JENNY: I just thought she would have reached out by now, is all.

Lola tilted her head as she read and reread the messages, her heart pumping.She then quickly searched again for Harry Billson’s address, realizing that she was little more than a ten-minute runaway.Did she dare head over there and bang down the door mere hours before her wedding?

Then again— didn’t she want Valerie at her wedding?Didn’t she want the air to clear before she fully stepped forward into her new life?

Lola sprinted toward Harry Billson’s place, her legs screaming throughout and her hair stretching wildly behind her.Somewhere along the way, she’d lost her hair tie, which gave her a Disney’sPocahontaslook— one she would have coveted as a much younger girl.

The stretch of fence she’d seen on the satellite image appeared off to the left, about a quarter mile from where she had to stop running.She staggered toward it, trying to calm her breath, and found that the fence itself wrapped around the entire property.When she reached the edge, she leaped up to try to peer over it but couldn’t see anything but the tip-tops of trash piles.

Trash piles?

This was such a contrast to the Valerie that Lola had met all those years ago, the coolest woman in the world and someone Lola felt honored to call her friend.

Oh, Valerie.If you’re here, why did you stay?This isn’t your world.You deserve so much more.

The photographs online showed a fence without an opening.Fortunately for Lola’s mission, however, someone had recently yanked the fence open at the entry of the driveway.Lola found herself in the gap between the street and Harry’s private property, her heart pounding.She’d listened to one too many true-crime podcasts not to believe what she was doing was completely safe.

Up ahead, the garage door was open to reveal a garage fit for a hoarder.Garbage bags and newspapers lined the big room, where a large Rottweiler sat panting in the middle.Across the property, the trash heaps lifted into the sky alongside clunky-looking vehicles, some of which were rusted out.Others were gleaming and expensive looking, as though they’d been taken right from the pages of a magazine.

Every single alarm bell in Lola’s head rang out at once.

And then, on cue, there came the yelling from inside the house.

“You’re always going on and on about that.Don’t you ever get the hint that you should shut your mouth?”

The voice was masculine and charged.It sent shivers up and down Lola’s spine.What kind of man speaks to a woman like that?A man who hates himself and is willing to bring the world down along with him,she thought.

Lola lifted her chin and charged toward the garage, inhaling a wave of the smell of rotten food.Wrinkling her nose, she paused at the edge of the garage, eyeing a strange oil stain in the very center, directly next to the now-growling dog.

Within, the horrible voice grew louder.“I shouldn’t have ever given you an inch.Everyone knows that when you give a woman like you an inch, they take a mile.”

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