Checking the time on my watch, I notice it’s already after seven o’clock. “It’s too late, Ellis. We’re gonna leave soon.”
“No,” she whines. “I want to stay.”
“You can come over and watch a movie with me and Uncle Fletcher soon, okay?” my sister chimes in.
Ellis’s eyes widen. “Can we eat lots of cavities?”
Laney bops her on the nose. “Yes. And we can have you practice throwing the flower petals for the wedding.”
My daughter bounces up and down, her exhaustion from before melting away. “Yes!”
Laney glances up at me. “By the way, I invited Vienna to the wedding.”
“What?” I bark out, but Ellis squeals, clapping her hands.
“Ms. Lewis is coming to the wedding?”
“That’s right,” Laney says with a grin.
“She’ll get to see me in my princess dress then!”
“She will, which means we have to practice a lot so everything is perfect.” My sister’s eyes meet mine. “Youmighteven have to spend the night. That way, your dad can hang out with afriendif he wants.” Her tone is so suggestive that I’m surprised she was able to say those words with a straight face.
“Subtle,” I mutter.
Laney arches a brow at me. “I try.”
Yeah, her suggestion was the opposite of subtle, but I can’t deny that she’s got me thinking—not that I haven’t already been doing that. There are only a few things that occupy my mind most days—my daughter, my job, my family, and now my sexy neighbor.
Vienna has slowly slipped her way into my world, and I can’t deny that a part of me likes it.
Once my dad and Fletcher have finished the dishes, Laney and Fletcher head home since she has an early morning tomorrow, leaving me with my father. He grabs us two beers, and we drift outside so that Ellis can practice riding her bike in the driveway.
My parents’ house sits on the back of the property that Hart Winery is on, with the vineyards that grow most of our grapes just off to the right, climbing up the side of the mountains behind it. I remember running through those fields as a kid, helping pick the grapes and listening to my dad talk to me about how much care is involved in growing the perfect grape for the best wine. This winery was my mother’s dream, but sometimes I think he took more pride in what they built together than she did.
“You seem like you have a lot on your mind,” my father says, cutting through my thoughts as I watch Ellis circle the U-shaped driveway in front of the house, the lights on the house shining brightly so I can see her.
“As opposed to any other day?”
My father shrugs. “Your conversation with your sister seemed intense.”
I glance over at him with an arch in my brow as I bring my beer to my lips. “Are you trying to tell me you were eavesdropping?”
“No, but Fletcher mentioned that I should probably try to get you to talk to me. Why do you think that is?”
“Because now that he and Laney are getting married, he thinks he needs to meddle in my life too.”
“Fletcher is just trying to look out for you…like you boys promised each other you would.”
Back in June of last year when shit hit the fan between my friend group, the boys and I sat down and hashed out some shit that had happened over the years. The result of that conversation—with the help of my dad and his friends—was that we would agree to lean on each other instead of keeping shit inside.
Let’s just say that some of us are doing better with that than others.
My eyes trail Ellis as she continues to stride along on her bike, belting out the lyrics to “Let It Go” fromFrozen, her own personal theme song at this point.
When I finally feel ready to speak, I glance over at my dad. “Why didn’t you ever move on after Mom died?”
The look of surprise on his face tells me that I caught him off guard. “Well, I never met another woman who made me feel that it was worth the risk of loving again.”
