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Lu takes another sip, her eyes closing as she swallows and savors the flavor. God, it’s almost impossible to keep my eyes off her as she sits beside me, her whole body practically glowing in the slowly disappearing sunlight.
“I could make some for you, if you want,” I say.
She turns to me, her eyes wide as she meets my stare. “Really?”
I shrug, trying to act casual. “Sure,” I tell her. “This is a great winery, a great brand, I’d be proud to have my name associated with it.”
Her eyes lock with mine as she takes in everything I’ve just said. “We, ah…we have all our fruit locked in for this year,” she says quietly, biting her bottom lip.
I shrug, trying for casual as I say, “Maybe next season then?” before looking away, reaching for some cheese.
Lu says nothing at my suggestion and I wonder if I’ve said too much, pushed too far. What she doesn’t know is that I’m already doing something for her, something with the grapes she thought she’d lose when the crusher failed.
When I turn back to her, she’s staring at me still. “You’d come back?” she asks, her words barely audible.
I nod. “Sure,” I tell her, smiling a little. “I love it here.”
What I don’t say, what I find myself wanting to say, is that I don’t want to leave here. That if she asked me to stay right now, I think I would. I have no idea where this is all suddenly coming from. I’ve only been here a week and it’s not as though anything serious is happening between us that could give me reason to stay.
But regardless of how quick this all feels, I find myself wanting to know whatcouldhappen. When I left Oz, my brain was a mess, my heart broken at what I’d discovered had been happening behind my back for god knows how long.
Coming over here hadn’t just felt like an escape though, it’s had felt like coming back home, to something familiar, to memories I had never let go of despite how many years had passed.
And of course there was Lu.
The girl I’d never stopped thinking about, the girl who was always there in the back of my mind, regardless of what girl was right in front of me.
We eat in silence now, as though my admission has left us both unsure about what to say. I refill our wine glasses and watch as Lu curls her legs beneath her, her eyes on the fields in the distance.
“Do you remember,” she eventually says, smiling to herself, “when you tricked me into eating that disgusting vegemite stuff?”
I chuckle. “Oh yeah.”
Lu turns to look at me now, a small smile on her face. “You told me it was chocolate flavored.”
I grin, shrugging as I say, “You were being stubborn. I had to get you to try it somehow.”
“Yeah, but it was disgusting,” she says, laughing a little.
“But you never would have known that until you tried it.”
Lu shakes her head, still smiling as she says, “And then you smeared it all over my face because you were pissed I didn’t like it.”
I laugh. “Mmmm, maybe.”
“Maybe?” she asks, confused.
I stare back at her, her deep blue eyes now pools of blackness in the rapidly fading light. “Maybe I did that for other reasons,” I admit, my words a whisper.
Lu swallows hard as she stares back at me. “What reasons?”
I put my wine down, take hers from her hand and do the same. “This,” I say, pulling her toward me as I fall backward onto the blanket.
Lu’s body falls onto mine, her long hair falling around us as she looks down at me. I slide my hands up her back, one hand slipping into her hair, gathering it in my hand and winding it around my fingers at the base of her neck.
Slowly, with our eyes still locked together, I urge her closer until her lips are brushing against mine, the barest of touches. Lu exhales against me, her breath sweet like the wine she’s just been drinking. I feel her hands as they slide up the sides of my body, slipping under my t-shirt so her fingers are brushing against my skin. I groan at the touch as a thousand goose bumps ripple over my skin.
“God, Lu,” I murmur, pulling her closer as I kiss her now, my tongue slipping between her parted lips.
