“No, should I?”
“I’m not going to get into too much information. I really can’t. Just what was on the news. She was kidnapped. Ford and Clay got to her. Two people died that day. Clay was the one who shot and killed them. Ford got shot and could have died if Clay hadn’t worked fast to stop the bleeding.”
“I read that,” she said. “I hadn’t realized it was Ford’s girlfriend.” Or that Clay had been the one to kill the two men.
She never paid much attention to the details of things like that.
Her life was about fun and rainbows, unicorns and puppy dogs.
Or so she wanted it to be. Didn’t mean it always happened though. At least not lately.
“Yeah. Clay’s had it hard. He doesn’t talk about his experience in the Navy and no one asks. My guess is he just needed to come home.”
“He didn’t want to run the orchards or the farm?”
It’d never really been a farm, but there were always animals around to feed and pet. The summer and the fall were the busiest times. Berries to pick, then apples and pumpkins. Hay rides. All those fun kid things she had fond memories of.
“No. My father and he didn’t always see eye to eye. Clay had a vision though and put his own money into the building out back to turn it into the mill. It was just a place my father made cider to sell in the cafe prior. Clay worked endlessly to get it up and going. I want to say it was like an overnight launch, but he probably doesn’t see that.”
“I mean just to learn to make it or come up with a recipe is great. I know he’s got several flavors. I’ve had them all.”
She’d always loved cider as a kid. As she got older, the fact that cider became alcoholic made it an easy choice for her. When she drank.
Meredith needed nothing else to have her wobbly on her feet or overly enthusiastic. Fredrick always said she got on his nerves when she was drinking.
There wasn’t anything wrong with being a little silly in her eyes.
Why hadn’t she seen the signs of all his crap earlier and saved herself the frustration?
Because she was lost in the romance of happily ever after and thought for sure she’d be able to plan her own dream wedding soon.
Better to focus on her new part-time job than wedding gown shopping for herself.
“Clay had been making hard cider for years,” Gale said. “It drove my father insane. But my father isn’t laughing now at how successful it all is. Clay just needs to do things his own way.”
No surprise there.
“Okay. So he comes home and starts the hard cider. He said you were the one that wanted the wedding venue.”
“I did,” Gale said. “He’s put so much work into the property to make it shine. His idea was having that be a tasting room. Or a place someone could rent for a small event. I told him to open it up to more. He’s the last person who can plan anything frilly.”
A giggle escaped. “I figured as much. He might scare nervous brides.”
“Definitely that,” Gale said. “There you go. That is why you were hired. The two weddings that he’d had were small and they were beautiful. A lot of work, but made more money than Clay thought. You can talk to him about all those things.”
“Your mother sent me the list of prices for what is offered.”
From just renting the space and the Ridgeways being hands off, to actually catering for food and drink, setting up the venue with decor and seating. Now she was going to meet with them about the costs to include her as a planner and have that added to the menu of fees.
“I know you’ll have fun with it. You always enjoyed decorating and playing dress-up.”
“I like being a girl,” she said, putting her feet up and wiggling her toes. She’d just painted her toenails lilac. They should be dried by now.
“It has its perks,” Gale said. “When you’ve got time to go out and see the other sex. I’m not sure I know what it’s like to go out and have a drink with a man anymore.”
“You’re not missing much,” she said, her lips pursed.
“How are things with Fredrick? You said he didn’t take the breakup well.”
