Nolan didn’t even know how she’d get here. Would she fly in and rent a car? Or drive from wherever she lived? In their Blackstone House days, she’d shied away from getting her driver’s licence and relied on rides from him and the others, claiming she had zero spatial awareness so it would be dumb to try. But was that just another lie to conceal her true age?
“You want me to come over in the morning?” Marielle asked. “I can bring those extra pillows we spoke about and welcome—what was her name again? Alexis?”
“Alexa.”
“Oh, like the Amazon gadget?”
A know-it-all with a habit of eavesdropping on conversations? “Yes, exactly like that.”
“So I’ll swing by around nine thirty. I’d come earlier, but I have to go to the grocery store first. Can you believe I ran out of coffee?” Not really. Marielle was permanently caffeinated. Still, she didn’t seem to expect an answer. “You need me to pick up anything?”
Yeah, an economy-sized bottle of acetaminophen, he thought, but what came out was, “A package of macarons if they sell them.”
Marielle screwed up her face. “Those coconut things? Don’t the bits get stuck in your teeth?”
“Not macaroons. Macarons.” Alexa could go through two dozen a day when she was focused on a problem. Coffee, macarons, and club soda. Never tap water—she claimed it tasted weird. “They’re like tiny almond meringues.”
“I’m not sure the Spend ’n’ Save sells those.”
She was probably right, and Nolan shouldn’t be encouraging Alexa to make herself at home anyway.
“Never mind. And don’t worry about the pillows either; Alexa won’t be staying for long.”
“You really think she’ll be able to fix the computer?”
If anyone could, it would be her, which was the only reason Nolan was entertaining Brax’s crackpot idea.
“Yeah, I really do.”
CHAPTER 3
NOLAN
“What’s that noise?”
Nolan stepped out of Guest Cottage Number One to see Marielle shading her eyes as she looked up at the sky.
“Sounds like a helicopter,” he said.
“Who the heck would be flying a helicopter around here?”
“Maybe someone visiting the Cranstons?”
Everett and Antonella Cranston were Nolan’s nearest neighbours, although “near” was relative. Their home to the south was almost a mile away, surrounded by the rolling pastures of their horse farm. Everett liked to joke that they were “in it together,” and it was true they’d both inherited their land and moved to Amador County at around the same time. But that was where the similarities ended. Everett had made a small fortune on Wall Street and married a former Miss South Carolina before moving his hedge fund to Sacramento, while Nolan had come to California to escape the stigma of events at Blackstone House. To this day, there were still people who thought he’d killed Ruby, and with Eddie Calder for a father, he understood why.
“I guess.” Marielle drew a piece of painted wood from a bag at her side. “Surprise! Look what I brought.”
“That’s…not a cushion?”
“No, silly. It’s a sign.” She flipped it over. “Isn’t it adorable? I know you didn’t like the idea of naming the cottages after grape varieties, so I thought we could name them after olives instead. Beldi, Galega, Oliana, Thassos…”
“There are only two cottages.” And she wanted to name one of them Beldi?
“There are only two cottages so far. Think big, Nolan.”
She sounded like Lisanne, before Lisanne realised living on a farm wasn’t as glamorous as it looked on social media and gave him an ultimatum: her or the vineyard.
“I’d rather focus on this year’s harvest and the two cottages that are already built.”
