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“You don’t need to,” Ellen says sheepishly. “I saw Jack a few minutes ago and mentioned it to him…”
“What did he say?” And I catch the nervousness in my tone. This isn’t something that would be the norm. I’ve always had a relationship with Ellen that was entirely separate from my personal relationships.
And I get that since Jack is living on the property and working with me that we spend a substantial amount of time together so our relationship has accelerated faster than most, but I worry that a double date with Ellen is a little premature.
“He said yes,” Ellen tells me with a look on her face that says I’m being stupid. “Why wouldn’t he say yes?” she asks, looking for the answer that I’ve got buried inside my head. She knows I’m second-guessing everything.
“I don’t know. It’s kinda… soon?”
“It’s not too soon. Jack is crazy about you and he has been forever.” She shakes her head and shoots me a look that our mother perfected around the time that Ellen and I became teenagers. “He’s not Nate, Lauren.”
It’s like she can read my thoughts, my transparency glaring and obvious.
“I know,” I say trying to convince myself that this is a good idea. “Okay, what time?”
The smile that spreads across Ellen’s face is large and beaming as she gives me the time and the restaurant and tells us to take an Uber because she plans on all of us getting drunk tonight.
It’s several hours later and Will and Ellen are already at the restaurant when we arrive and from the looks of it, Ellen wasn’t joking about that getting drunk thing.
There are two bottles of wine already on the table and Ellen is putting back what’s left in her glass when we walk in.
“Yay!” she practically yells when we walk up, jumping up from her chair and hugging both Jack and me.
“Ellen doesn’t get out often,” Will says, jokingly smiling at us. “The kids were a little intense today with us leaving for vacation in a couple of days.”
“You don’t need to make excuses for Ellen’s drunkenness. It’s what she does best.” I tease her as I pull out the chair next to her and sit down.
Jack pours us both a glass of wine in an attempt to catch up to Ellen who has obviously drunk more in a half hour than most people drink during an entire meal.
“Just catch up with me,” Ellen says, her voice a touch louder than necessary and Will shakes his head, but smiles at her.
We order a few appetizers and another bottle of wine, and coax Ellen into drinking a little water so Will doesn’t have to carry her out of here.
But it doesn’t take us too long before we’ve caught up to her and the conversation begins to flow.
The vineyard dominates the conversation and even though Will doesn’t work in the business, he knows it’s something that has been front and center in our family.
“So, Jack,” Ellen starts and I have no idea where she’s going with this conversation. “Did you know that Lauren used to email me while I was away at school when you were visiting?”
“Oh, is that so,” Jack plays back and he turns to smirk at me. “I’d love to hear what she said in those emails.”
With her glass of wine in her hand, she’s prepared to unload everything and I’m cringing inside. I can’t for the life of me remember what I wrote to her in my annoyance-filled evenings with Jack.
“You kept her very busy,” Ellen says, not giving anything away just yet. “An email practically every night.I hate Jack. Jack’s a jerk. Jack did this, Jack did that. Mom says he has a crush on me. Do you really think he like me?She was relentless.”
“Oh my god, Ellen. I was not relentless! And I never asked you if you thought he liked me!”
“Yes you did and I always told you he did like you. You made fun of Jack for having a big ego, but you were stringing Jack along because you loved the attention just as much.”
“So you actually liked my attention, huh?” Jack says, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, a smug smile on his face.
“Stop,” I say, shooting a look at Jack because he absolutely knows I liked him all those years ago. “And Ellen, you stop adding fuel to his fire.”
“Fine, fine,” Ellen concedes but not before adding, “I always knew you’d end up together. So glad Nate finally disappeared.” She rolls her eyes dramatically, not even realizing what she’s just said.
The conversation halts, the restaurant loud, but Ellen’s words resound louder and my eyes widen giving away that what she said had an impact.
Will catches my eye and quickly flips the conversation away from Ellen’s comment.
