As the evening progressed and the champagne diminished, the New Years toasts began.
“To the café!” Annie declared to Lila’s “Woo Hoo!” and the further support of clinked beer bottles.
Debates began as well. Jake and Pete became engrossed on the relative merits of furrow, border or basin irrigation. Watching them and leaning in toward Lila, Annie whispered, “Too bad they don’t get along.”
“They hate each other,” Lila agreed as Pete and Jake shared a laugh over something to do with drainage.
“They’re going to be out riding bikes together again in no time,” Annie mused. “Probably trying to do the same tricks they did as kids. I can already picture the trips to the ER.” In a louder voice, she asked, “You guys know you’re 32, right?”
Looking at her without comprehension yet not exactly confused, accustomed as he was to not completely comprehending his wife, Pete offered her the bottle of champagne. “Have some more of this.”
“You know what I was thinking we should do?” Jake asked, arm around Lila’s shoulder. “Since Lila’s back from Massachusetts she can’t stop talking about the snow.”
“Better to visit it than live in it,” Annie commented.
“I know, everyone back East is all bitter,” Lila acknowledged. “But it’s so pretty.”
“You miss it,” Jake continued. “So maybe we could all head to Tahoe? You guys could take Charlotte sledding.”
“She’d love that,” Annie agreed.
“And we could go hiking,” Pete added.
Annie leaned over to Lila and explained, “He just spent 175 bucks on this tricked-out backpack for carrying kids.” Again they watched as Pete and Jake took the conversation and ran with it, committing to all sorts of outdoors athletic pursuits. “Dear God,” she turned once again to Lila. “They’re going to be signing us up for an Ironman if we don’t watch out.”
“Yeah, we could do an Ironman,” Pete agreed, having overheard the key word. “You can do the swimming, honey. And Jake and I can do the biking.”
“Lila’s a great runner,” Jake said.
“So are you,” Lila insisted, knowing she was gushing but unable to stop herself.
“We’ve got the running leg covered,” Jake concluded.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Annie said, “But I have a business to run now.”
“Me too, Annie.” Jake smiled and gave her a moment to recall that he was actually now in charge of a multi-million dollar business.
“Then what are you doing wasting time hanging around here?” she asked. “Don’t you need to be, I don’t know, running things?”
“Not right now,” he replied. Seemingly not any more able than Lila to stop himself from gooshy public displays of affection, he gazed into Lila’s eyes and added, “Right now, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
As the young lovers melted into a gentle, tender kiss, Annie murmured to her husband, “Oh my God.”
Lightly chucking her under the chin, Pete murmured back, “You need to lighten up.”
Smiling at each other, Annie took only a moment to agree. “Yes I do.” With a giant exhale, she reclined back on the blanket and rested her head on Pete’s stomach where he had some fatherly padding perfect for the purpose. “I have a feeling you’re going to need to say that a lot to me this next year.”
“Oh, honey,” Pete laughed, entwining his fingers with his wife’s. “I signed up for a lifetime of it.”
Looking at her friend across the blanket, rosy and gorgeous as she was wrapped in true love’s embrace, Jake’s finger lightly lifting a stray tendril from the side of her face and caressing her cheek, Annie had to ask. “OK,” she brought Jake and Lila’s attention back. “I have to know, Jake. When did you first realize that our Lila was completely irresistible?”
“Annie!” Lila laughed and turned even a lovelier shade of pink.
Jake thought a moment, then answered, “I’d say…about the time I saw her do storytime at the bookstore.”
“Awww,” said Annie, approving.
“Really?” asked Lila, having a hard time matching that with her own experience.
“Yeah,” Jake confirmed. “I’d have to say it was seeing you with Mr. Meows.” Looking at Lila and adopting a far creepier tone, he added, “And imagining all the things you could do to me with that hand puppet.”
As Pete and Annie broke into loud laughter, Lila’s eyes widened. “That is… the most disgusting thing you could possibly say to me.”
“Meow?” Jake asked, unable to stop teasing her just yet.
“Seriously.” Lila wasn’t having it. “Images are making their way into my head that I can’t get out.”
“All right, all right,” Jake gave up. “I don’t have a secret hand puppet fetish.”
“Hey,” Pete interrupted, serious and extending his drink. “Here’s to hand puppet fetishes, man.” The men clonked mugs and drank to that while Annie and Lila shook their heads.
“OK, when did you fall for me?” Jake asked Lila.
“Well, it would have been when I saw that magazine spread on you. But you were only bachelor number seven, so…”
Lila and Jake shared a laugh that grew into a kiss. As they descended once again into their sweet and private world, Annie and Pete exchanged a glance.
“Ted’s?” Pete asked.
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Annie agreed, slowly picking herself up. They already had their coats on before Lila and Jake noticed. “OK, you two.” Annie pulled on her chunky mittens. “We’re going to head the party so we can rock on into this new year.”
“No, don’t go,” Lila objected and probably meant it, a little.
“Happy New Year,” Pete called back as he headed to the door.
“See you tomorrow,” Annie said to Lila. Turning to Jake with the laser-like focus of a strict second grade teacher, her voice grew sharp and serious. “Now Jake.” Lila felt a shot of anxiety. “I want to say something to you that I don’t say very often.” After a pause that seemed to Lila to stretch and beg at multiple moments to be broken with distractions such as “look at that bird out the window!” or “ha ha, have I ever mentioned Annie’s insane?” Annie finally broke the silence with, “I like you.”
Concurrent with Lila’s relieved sigh, Jake—whose relaxation and happiness remained unperturbed—said, “Thanks, Annie.” After a moment, he added, “You’re…growing on me.”
Nodding in appreciation of his wryness, she pointed a finger at him. “Don’t screw things up.”
“I have no intention of doing that.”
“All right then.” Giving them a smile that could only be described as satisfied, Annie wished them Happy New Year and went to join Pete.
Alone at last, Jake insisted on pouring them both champagne. In lieu of champagne flutes, Lila retrieved some of Joyce’s heavy blue-glazed mugs from the kitchen. Heading back into the main room of the café, empty save Jake on the picnic blanket opening the champagne bottle, Lila paused for a moment. Was it all simply a hallucination induced through too much happiness? As Jake swore and bit his thumb, injured implausibly by the wire holding down the champagne cork, Lila took the imperfection as proof that, yes, Virginia, there was a Santa Claus and this was, indeed, all happening.
Popping off the cork, Jake nearly filled the two mugs with bubbly. Holding his up, he promised, “Next New Year’s I’ll take you somewhere more romantic.”
“I’m pretty happy right here,” she smiled up at him, clunking mugs for a toast.
“Oh, and wait!” Jake jumped up, grabbed his jacket and fished around in the pocket to retrieve a large bar of dark chocolate. Joining her back on the blanket, he leaned against the wall and wrapped an arm around Lila as she leaned against his chest. “Now we’re all set.”
Outside, the fog settled in, the waves continued their ceaseless pounding and a packed Ted’s erupted in a chorus of “Happy New Years.” Back in the kitchen of Corner to Corner Café, the moment of midnig
ht passed unnoticed, too involved were Jake and Lila in the business of engaging in the happiness of the new year.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Hungry Like the Cat
Chapter 2: All Out of Love
Chapter 3: Take. These Broken Wings.
Chapter 4: Get Into the Groove
Chapter 5: Got My Back Against the Record Machine
CHAPTER 6: Cool For Cats
CHAPTER 7: Hit Me with your Best Shot
CHAPTER 8: Show me Show me Show me how you do that trick
CHAPTER 9: You Spin Me Right Round, Baby
Chapter 10: Hearts Broken in Two. Two. Two.
CHAPTER 11: 99 Luftballons
CHAPTER 12: I Gotta Have Faith
CHAPTER 13: Watch out Boy, She’ll Chew you Up
CHAPTER 14: Don’t Stop
CHAPTER 15: Your Kiss Is On My List
Christmas in Wine Country Page 32
