Page 23 of A Vineyard Love

“You haven’t arrested Piper yet, have you?”

“We’re on the brink,” Bobby explained as he walked toward the door, suppressing a yawn. “In the meantime, let me know if you have any more events like this. It’s entirely possible that Piper gave out enough information about the hotel to her cohorts prior to her firing.”

After he left, Kelli sat in the dark shadows of her office, staring into space as her heart thudded. Perhaps because she was a masochist, she pulled up social media again to look at photographs from Amanda’s rehearsal dinner, where the faces of those she loved more than anything smiled, laughed, ate, and drank to their hearts’ content, all in celebration of Amanda and Sam’s young love.

“Nothing can go wrong tomorrow,” Kelli said, mostly to her phone. “It will be perfect. It has to be.”

ChapterEleven

At two-thirty in the morning on the day of Amanda’s wedding, Amanda woke up. For a moment, she wasn’t sure where she was, a result of spending some nights in her home with Sam and other nights at the Sheridan House. Moonlight shimmered in from the window above her bed, making Audrey’s face glow atop the second pillow, where she slept soundly. Amanda wasn’t entirely surprised to see her. Her memories of last night’s blissful rehearsal dinner ended at the Sheridan House, where she and Audrey had decided to have “just one more glass of wine” before they fell asleep. This had resulted in a very long conversation on Amanda’s bed that had ended with both of them falling asleep. Such was the way of best friends.

“Tell me when you’re going to have a baby,” Audrey had begged Amanda last night. “I’ll have another one so we can do it together.”

Amanda’s heart had seized at the thought. “Remember how nervous you were about having Max? You couldn’t believe you were going to be a mother.” She paused, then added, “Do you think you’re ready to do it again?”

“I hardly remember life before Max,” Audrey had said. “I was so naive, you know? I wanted to be a journalist in some sense, but I hardly even knew what that meant, either. I have this horrible memory of taking the pregnancy test when I was still at that internship in Chicago. When the two pink lines showed up, the entire nineteen years of my life flashed before my eyes.”

“And then you came here.”

“And then I came here.” Audrey had taken another sip of wine and given Amanda a ponderous look. “But I’d love to do it all again with Noah. And to build our family here, in the Sheridan House? That’s a dream come true.”

Amanda had been quiet for a moment, imagining Audrey, Noah, Max, and their other children in that house, racing through time together.

Suddenly, Audrey said, “Promise that we’ll always be there for each other. No matter what.”

Amanda had laughed at such a silly promise. Her heart, mind, and spirit were forever linked to Audrey. “Audrey, you already know I’m here for you.”

“Promise that you’ll be here forever.” This deep into the exhilarating and very drunk night, Audrey had looked on the verge of tears. “That no matter if our husbands leave us or our mothers die, you will always be here.”

Amanda’s throat had felt very tight. She’d wrapped her arms around Audrey and allowed herself to cry quietly, then whispered, “I promise.”

It was true what Audrey said. There were no guarantees in life. More than that, their mothers were young and vibrant in many ways— but they were also older, the older generation, and eventually, they would leave Audrey and Amanda behind.

Now that Audrey was fast asleep in Amanda’s bed, Amanda tip-toed to the window to peer at the moon overlooking the house. When she’d been a child, her father had told her about a man who’d lived on the moon, about how he knew if she’d done her chores or not. Although Amanda had been a very practical child, she hadn’t been able to think of a reason why her father would lie to her about that.

Still, she’d always done her chores, no matter what, anyway. That was just her nature.

Although it was very late, Amanda hunted for her phone and sent a text message to Sam, who was staying at their home with his brother and a few of his friends. After the rehearsal dinner, Sam’s friends had been slightly rowdy, singing songs and urging one another to take shots. Hilariously, most of the Montgomery and Sheridan men had gotten in on the fun, as well, including Steve, Andy, Uncle Trevor, and even Grandpa Wes. After he’d taken a shot of tequila, just as everyone had begun to wrap up for the night, Grandpa Wes had howled, “Oh boy! Let’s get this party started!” His girlfriend, Beatrice, had shaken her head and said, “Let’s head on home now.” Everyone had waved Grandpa Wes out of the restaurant as though he were a hero.

To Amanda’s surprise, Sam wrote back almost immediately.

SAM: I can’t sleep, either.

SAM: I just keep thinking about how lucky I am to marry you tomorrow.

SAM: If you’d told me I would have met someone as remarkable as you even three years ago, I would have said they were lying.

Amanda pressed her phone against her heart, wishing she could run through the inky black night to reach him. But just before she texted him another “goodnight,” he wrote:

SAM: Meet me outside!

Amanda wanted to protest— she wanted to tell him that they couldn’t jinx the wedding. But she was too excited to see him, too excited to throw her arms around him and gaze at the stars together, so she put her tennis shoes on and hurried out into the darkness to see his car lights beaming down the road.

When Sam’s car reached the driveway, Amanda leaped into the passenger seat. “Hi,” she said, feeling like a teenager who’d snuck out— which was something Amanda Harris had never done, obviously, because she’d always had a test to study for or an early-morning practice to be rested for. Never had she been reckless until now.

“Hi.” Sam laced his fingers through hers and beamed.

Enraptured, they kissed beneath the moonlight as the car buzzed beneath them, high on the certainty of their future. Sam turned off the engine, and they walked through the night, hand-in-hand, until they reached the Vineyard Sound. There, they removed their shoes and sat at the edge of the dock with their feet in the water, their chins lifted toward the stars.

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