“Oh yeah,” I tapped my chin. “Well, I needed someone closer in age to me around here.”
Now the smile dropped.
“You always take shit too far.”
But I was laughing.
Two yearsand some change ago, I came here because my father shipped me off. Now I ran half the company.
Now I was engaged to the man everyone thought would ruin me and we were preparing to become parents to a little boy who liked dinosaurs and quiet spaces.
Life was funny. But not ha-ha funny.
More like ‘look at what you’ survived funny.
I reached for Marlon’s hand and he gave it to me immediately.
That still did something to me.
Not because he touched me, but because he let me touch him back.
“Do you think he’ll like the vineyard?” I asked.
“I think it’ll take time.”
“Do you think Spades will scare him?”
“Spades scares grown men.”
“True.”
“We’ll start him with Chewy.”
I looked down at the dog. “Chewy is a terrible ambassador.”
Chewy sneezed.
“See? Unbothered already.”
“The perfect big brother. I wish Marcus’ pushy ass had that trait.”
I laughed, and this time it came out easier. He leaned closer and kissed the side of my head.
“We’ll take it one visit at a time,” he said.
“One visit at a time,” I repeated.
My eyes dropped back to the page, and I wrote one more line under everything else.
Then I underlined it.
By the timeI got out to the vineyard, the sun was already high and the air had that dry warmth.
Expansion looked messy before it looked good.
I stood at the edge of the new section with my clipboard tucked against my chest, scanning the layout Lav had sent over earlier. Hartland was texting me from the office about Chewy needing a bigger bed, but I was too focused on what was in front of me.
“They’re off by two feet on that line,” I said, pointing toward the far row. “Check all measurements with Patch before digging, he knows the layout by heart.”
