I spend the rest of the drive giving Miranda directions to my parents’ house, and her question about Matt goes unanswered. A few minutes before we get there, I call Sutton House and get Miranda into a tasting.
She drops me off at my front door, and heads down to the guest center at the entrance to the vineyard.
I find my dad in his office, which is thankfully on the first floor. He’s bent over his iPad, squinting. His glasses are on the table beside the tablet, but he refuses to wear them. I think he keeps them there so he can throw them on if my mom walks in.
“Hey, Dad.” I swing myself in.
My dad’s eyes bulge when he sees me. He stands and hurries to me. We can’t really have a proper hug, so he settles for patting my back. “Noah! What are you doing in town?”
My mouth opens to respond but shuts again when I see realization dawn. I close the office door with my foot and hobble to one of the two chairs in front of his desk. Dad sinks down beside me.
“Ember’s mom was in a motorcycle accident, but you know that already.” I’m going for nonchalant, but it’s hard.
“I—”
“How long have you been cheating on Mom?”
Dad holds up his hands, trying to pacify me. “Whoa, Noah. That’s not what’s going on.”
“Then why were you at the hospital this morning? I was in the waiting room, Dad. I saw you.”
My dad sighs, swaying his head slowly from side to side. “Maddie is an old friend.”
Bullshit.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me you knew Ember’s mom?”
“I didn’t know for certain that Ember was her daughter, but I suspected. That red hair had to come from somewhere.” His lips twist into a half smile. “The past can be murky. Sometimes it’s best not to re-visit it.”
“Until today, you mean?”
“She’s an important piece of my past. I couldn’tnotgo see her.” His eyes shine as he speaks.
“Does Mom know you went to see her?”
“It was she who insisted I go.”
What?
“Why didn’t Mom go with you?”
He shifts in his seat, crossing one leg over the other, and then dropping it back to the floor. “Maddie wouldn’t want your mother there.”
I nod, my head spinning. “Are you paying her medical bills?”
Dad leans back in his chair. His belt cuts into his mid-section, and his white undershirt peeks out from the top of his denim button-up. It’s what he wears when he walks through the vineyards on his own. I’ve always thought of him as young, but for the first time I’m seeing his age. It makes me uneasy, knowing he is susceptible to time.
“Noah, you’re still young. You may not understand this until you get older, but sometimes people can’t see things for what they were until they’ve traveled far enough from it. We tend to romanticize our experiences, and that changes how we look back on them. Kind of like a tinted lens.”
“Is that a yes?”
He nods slowly. “Why are you here?”
“Ember’s mom.”
He leans forward. His eyes penetrate, like he’s diving into my thoughts. “Why are youreallyhere?”
Pulling my gaze away, I look out through the large window behind the desk. Blue skies stretch on and on, and the breeze presses through the trees, causing the leaves to tremble.
