AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Paige shook her head. Trunks the size of a telephone pole and just as tall, if not taller, with branches of pine needles clustered at the top were most definitely not supposed to bend.
“Don’t worry. We’ll save the grapes.” He looked up a moment. “And hopefully the trees.” That he was all in on saving the grapes warmed her heart. He could have been hunkered down in a comfortable hotel room, warm and dry. Instead he was here helping her. When the wind died and rain passed, she could wrap that thought around her like a warm blanket.
The blasted net was giving them fits. “This isn’t working!” she shouted. “Let’s unroll the netting along the row and attach it to each pole as we go.”
Daniel nodded, still wrestling the wind and the netting while Paige followed along behind him. When they reached the next pole she could see it wobble. Half as wide around as a cypress tree and about six feet tall, she needed these suckers to stay upright or her grapes wouldn’t stand a chance.
She stapled the netting while Daniel held the pole steady, and prayed the blasted hurricane would take a sudden shift and just go away. Glancing around, she could barely see a dozen yards ahead, but she could tell her staff and family were making progress. Slow like her and Daniel, but progress was progress.
Daniel was ahead with his long strides despite the weather and his burden. She caught up just as the next pole looked as if some invisible person was trying to tug it from the ground. “Is that going to stay stable?” he shouted.
“It has to. I have no way of fixing it now.”
Despite the wave of wind, he straightened to look down field at the work left to be done, and probably evaluating how much could they depend on those poles doing their job. Deciding something only he knew, he bobbed his chin, turned to survey the rest of the fields and then, his gaze lifting, his eyes went wide and large as a silver dollar. Hands cupping his mouth, he took off at a fast pace for someone running in mud, screaming, “Craig! Heads up!”
Her heart slammed against her chest, she tried to see what he saw. Craig and Mitch were working together several yards over. She didn’t understand. Lifting her gaze, her heart stuttered to a stop at the sight of a nearby cypress teetering like a drunken sailor. Worse, looking down she could see the fallow roots tugging out of the ground. “Oh my God. Daniel!” she screamed as loud as she could and took off running, her heavy boots slipping and sliding in the Texas clay that normally passed for dirt, and had turned to mush.
The pelting rain had become almost blinding. Waving her arms, she tried to warn everyone else to get out of the way. The tree was ready to break free. If it landed straight ahead, it would take out at least one row of grapes, but she suddenly didn’t give a rats ass about the grapes or the vineyard. Craig and Mitch were in its path.
A crack louder than lightening striking snapped and the tree hung at a terrifying angle. Knowing the damn tree was going to give way, literally any second, she struggled to see ahead, spotting Daniel, arms stretched, reaching forward and shoving her brothers with all his might. A breath of relief filled her lungs as the two men seeing the tree Daniel pointed to, turned and ran. They were safe, they’d be safe.
Another snap filled the air and the tree finally gave way, the wind blowing the slow motion fall not straight ahead but to the side. The side where Daniel stood. Recognizing the shift in the tree, he turned and slogged through the mud away from the slowly falling tree’s new path.
She couldn’t breathe. Just as suddenly as the tree had snapped, Daniel was down on the ground. The thunder of a heavy tree slamming to the ground echoed around her. She couldn’t see him. “Daniel!” tore from her throat.
Everyone was running as best they could toward the fallen tree, the grapes forgotten. No sign of movement. No sign of Daniel. He had to be okay. He had to. If he lost his life over her stupid grapes, she’d never forgive herself. Running as fast as she could, she lifted her eyes to the dark angry skies.Dear lord. Please.
Hurricane force winds had nothing on a falling tree. Squinting at the pouring rain, Daniel lifted an arm and moving his fingers, was delighted to see all five worked. Less than ten feet away, the bark of a lone cypress pine laughed at him. Covered in mud from hair to toe, he didn’t know if he should laugh back or grab an axe and hack at the offensive trunk.
“Daniel!” Paige’s panicked voice echoed between the raindrops.
Damn it. He needed to get up. Let her see he was all right. Slowly rolling to one side to push himself up and out of the muddy mess beneath him, a pain rattled between his ears. All right might have been over eager. Alive would have to do.
“Daniel!” A hundred and twenty pounds of worried female flew at him, sending him once again flat on his back. “Talk to me. Are you alive?”
The way her hands rubbed up and down his arms and caressed his face, he almost didn’t want to admit he was mostly just fine. “That’s an affirmative.”
“Oh, thank God.”
He didn’t get a chance to say a word, not about the tree, the grapes, the hurricane or her family. Her lips descended on his with almost the same force as the winds knocking the grapes and trees around. And that was just fine with him. His arms curled around her and he pulled her down into the mud with him.
“Excuse me.” Mitch stood over them. “Do you think you two could pick this up after the hurricane passes and we save what’s left of the grapes?”
The grapes. The vineyard. A starting gun at the Derby couldn’t have gotten Daniel on his feet faster. Still holding Paige with one arm, he practically yanked her upright. “How much damage did the tree cause?”
“Not much,” Mitch shook his head, “thanks to that gust of wind. Forecast says the storm is finally moving east of here, but no telling how soon that’ll be, and we have work to do.”
Daniel nodded and ignoring the harried moments of the last few minutes, everyone got back to work, battling the wind and rain, and protecting the grapes as best as humanly possible. By the time they reached the final row of grapes to tend to, Paige had sent her family and most of her staff to seek shelter inside the winery. The last zip tie in place, the winds still howling with enough force to knock them both over, they held hands and hurried back to the tasting room.
Inside the place was pitch black, lit only by candles and glass hurricane lamps.
“Good thing I collect hurricane lamps.” Paige squeezed his hand. “And keep them filled with colored lamp oil.”
“Smart lady.”
“I’d be smarter if I’d installed a generator. It’s on the list but, didn’t seem so important. Until now.”
“You two need to dry off.” Mitch handed them each a towel. “No idea why you have a closet filled with towels but we’re all grateful.”
