Page 11 of Whisking It All

“Hey, hey, no one blames you for that. Least of all me.”

She drew in a deep breath through her nose. She blamed herself.

“I want to be here. I want us to get to know each other.” His eyes were misty and she absolutely could not handle another second of this heart-to-heart. How had things gotten so heavy so fast? “And in three months’ time, I’ll be out of your hair.”

“You’re not in my hair.”

“You know what I mean. Besides, I don’t like the idea of taking a hand-out. At least if you let me run the pop-up this year, I’ll feel like I’ve earned some of that money. Mom always said not to take anything you didn’t earn.” She ignored the twinge of grief, still so tangible even after three years, and barreled on. “Besides, you’re out a baker for the season and I’m currently unemployed. It just makes sense. I’ve always thought I might want to open my own place. This is kind of like a test drive to see what it would be like.”

“Maybe you’ll even open something around here one day. You know, I know folks who have a few open storefronts in town. I could—”

“We’ve been over this,” she said as gently as she could. “I don’t see myself staying here long term.”

“Right,” Ethan said, taking a step back and flashing a strained smile.

Shit. She didn’t want to hurt her father’s feelings, but did he really not see that being in Aster Bay, even for the few months she had promised him, was going to be hard enough? She’d only been in town for twenty-four hours and already she could feel everyone’s eyes on her. And when she closed her eyes to hide from their staring, all she could see was Jamie tangled in her hotel room sheets, his hair falling over his face as he slept. It would have been so easy to climb back in bed, to just…stay.

Staying had never been Tessa’s strong suit.

“But I’m here now,” she said. “Why don’t you take me over to the vineyard and show me around? It’s been so long, I’m not sure I’d even recognize the place. And I’m dying to see the kitchen.”

“Yeah, alright, kid. Let’s go.”

Ethan’s house sat on a small lot at the edge of the Nuthatch Vineyards property. The vineyard had been in Ethan’s family—Tessa’s family—for generations, but Ethan was the first to build a proper home on the land. A line of tall pine trees served as a privacy fence of sorts between the house and the rest of the property, so while she wouldn’t have a view of the sprawling grounds with row after row of grape vines, she also wouldn’t have to contend with curious workers trying to catch a glimpse of Ethan’s estranged daughter through the kitchen window.

The farmhouse-style main building of the vineyard that housed the winery and tasting room was on the other end of the property, so they rode over the bumpy dirt roads of the grounds in Ethan’s pickup. It also was home to Sugar Grapes. When Tessa was a kid, her grandmother ran Sugar Grapes, a bakery that specialized in dessert and wine pairings and had been famous for its red wine brownies. But when her grandmother had retired, the bakery had closed down. It’d been shuttered ever since, though Cheryl, a local farmer’s wife, ran a pop-up shop out of the kitchen every holiday season, providing pies and cakes for the townspeople’s Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. This year, Cheryl was very pregnant and unable to open the shop. When Ethan had called a few days ago to arrange for the transfer of her trust, she’d been unable to give him a permanent mailing address and he’d invited her to come stay with him and open the bakery for the three-month season. She’d accepted on a whim.

Ethan assured her that the kitchen was kept in good repair and well-stocked with equipment since caterers still worked out of the space when people rented the vineyard for weddings and big events. But she would need to create a menu from scratch, make sure the kitchen was fully stocked, and hire staff. It was going to be a lot of work, but she couldn’t wait. And it would give her something to focus on while she and Ethan tried to establish a new relationship—other than obsess about Jamie, that is.

She didn’t know why she couldn’t get the man from the night before out of her head, but she told herself she’d done the right thing. Jamie didn’t seem like the kind of guy you could have a fling with and then leave behind in three months. He was the kind of guy you kept. The kind of guy who kept you.

She stepped out of the truck, dropping the last few inches to the dirt when her short legs didn’t quite reach. Why couldn’t she have inherited her father’s height? Staring up at the wood-shingled building with its dark green roof and a faux grain silo on one side of the building that she knew housed a winding staircase up to the second floor tasting room, she was hit with an unexpected feeling of déjà vu.

She knew this place, remembered her grandmother scolding her as she slid down the railing, the metal digging into her hands and leaving awful red marks across her palms. Her father building block towers with her in his office while they waited for her mother to get back from her GED classes. The way her grandfather would bring her bunches of fresh grapes for her school lunches, claiming each one to be the most delicious one yet.

Her breath caught with a sudden wave of longing for those grandparents she’d hardly seen over the last seventeen years, grandparents who had helped raise her, who’d never stopped calling or sending birthday cards, even when she hadn’t always returned the favor.

“Are Grama and Gramps here?” she asked, glancing around like her grandmother might appear over the slight rise of the hill that led off to the production facility where the grapes were processed into wine.

Ethan scrunched up his brow. “No, T. Grama and Gramps moved to Florida two years ago.”

“Right. I knew that,” she said. Had she known that? She wasn’t sure. Her mother hadn’t been big on sharing news from Aster Bay, and Tessa was still disoriented by the sudden nostalgia for a place she couldn’t have described two days ago even under duress. “Sorry.” She smiled up at Ethan, squinting in the sun. “It feels weird to be here without them.”

“To me, too, kid.” He looked away and cleared his throat. “Come on. Let me show you around.”

The kitchen was beautiful, all gleaming stainless steel and high-end appliances, well maintained and well equipped. It was also sterile, devoid of any personality. She’d worked for chefs who preferred their workspace that way, a blank canvas so nothing distracted them from their work. But not Tessa. She needed color, vibrance, inspiration bursting from every seam. How could you be creative in a white and steel box?

As she surveyed the kitchen, she could see exactly what she’d change, starting with the shelf of solid white plastic containers, each with a fading label for various cake decorations. It was a travesty to conceal all that joy in opaque containers. As soon as she could find the closest restaurant supply, she’d be replacing those with clear plastic jars filled to the brim with every color of sprinkle she could find.

“What do you think?” Ethan asked.

“Can I hang things on the walls?” she asked.

“Of course. Just run anything more permanent by me first, okay? Don’t go knocking down any walls or redoing the tile without me at least signing off on it.”

“I can work with that. I’m going to take a peek in the walk-in.”

“Have at it. I’ve got a few calls to make. Come find me in the office when you’re ready to go, yeah?”

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