Prosecco and Peonies

by SJ McCoy

  “Okay. Whatever you say.” He carried on his way to the kitchen, reminding Molly that she’d been headed that way herself.

  When she stepped inside, she watched him joking around with the sous-chef. Grady had done a lot for the working atmosphere here at Molly’s. He was like a ray of sunshine. She gave herself a shake and got busy.

  When she went back out, she made her way over to the table where her friends were sitting. Chelsea grinned at her. “Why don’t you take a break? Come join us for a drink. I’m sure Grady can handle things.”

  “Thanks, but I’m sure I can, too.”

  Mary Ellen raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Do I look ill or something? Everyone wants to know what’s up with me tonight, and as far as I know, there isn’t anything.”

  Cameron smiled at her. “Take it easy, Moll. We just wish we got to hang out with you more. I thought you’d step back a bit when you brought Grady in, but you haven’t yet.”

  “Yes, I have. I take Mondays off. I’ve taken quite a few Saturday afternoons to hang out with you ladies.” She looked around at Chelsea, Mary Ellen, and Piper. “I came wedding dress shopping. I even went to Summer Lake with you.”

  “Yeah, but we want more,” said Chelsea with a grin.

  “If you’re not going to let Grady step up and run the place, you might as well let him go,” said Antonio.

  Molly tried to hide her smile. Antonio had made no secret of the fact that he didn’t like Grady—or at least he didn’t like him working here. “I’m not going to get rid of him. He’s been a great help so far.”

  Antonio scowled but didn’t say anything.

  “I’d better get back to it. Are you all taken care of?”

  They all muttered their agreement and Molly left them to take care of her other tables. They were her friends, and she loved them, but she didn’t really relish the thought of sitting there with the three happy couples. Cameron and Piper were getting married next weekend—now they’d finally made all their wedding arrangements in Summer Lake. Chelsea and Grant were still considering their options, and their conversation usually involved discussing exotic locations for a beach wedding. And Antonio and Mary Ellen had been married for six months now—and were still adorably besotted with each other. She felt like a spare part when she hung out with the six of them.

  She looked around. Everything was under control; there was no need for her to be here, but she couldn’t make herself leave either. She stepped out back and looked up at the stars twinkling above. She had to wonder if Marcos was looking up at the same stars from somewhere. She didn’t even know where he was. Antonio would tell her in a heartbeat if she asked him, but she didn’t want to. She’d told him that she didn’t want to hear about his brother. She couldn’t torture herself like that. Neither of them had made any promises when they’d talked at Antonio and Mary Ellen’s wedding. All they’d done was agree that the door was still open to the possibility. He’d wanted to come back here—someday he would, but it might not be for another ten years. She couldn’t allow herself to think about him in the meantime. At least, not too often. The occasional lapse like this was okay—not ideal, but okay.

  She’d tried to convince herself that she wasn’t putting her life on hold in the hope that he’d come back and that somehow, they’d work things out. Most of the time she succeeded. That would be a fool’s game. She told herself over and over again that if someone else came along in the meantime, she’d be open to starting another relationship—that she wouldn’t pass up a bird in the hand. It was a lie though. If it were true, she would have agreed to go out with Grady—even though he worked for her.

  As if summoned by thoughts, he poked his head around the back door. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I’d be fine if you’d stop checking on me. How about you act like I left? You can be in charge. You can close up, but I don’t have to leave.”

  He gave her a puzzled look and stepped outside to join her. “Sure. I can do that. No problem. But first—tell me if there’s something wrong?”

  She shook her head. “Really. I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine. I have a lot on my mind, that’s all.”

  “Do you want to go for a drink when we get finished? I can be a friend, listen to whatever you need to get off your chest.”

  She had to smile. He never stopped trying. Maybe she should say yes. He would make a good friend—he already was one, except for the fact that he’d like to be more.

  The door swung open behind him, and Antonio stood there with a scowl on his face. Molly was sure that he must look intimidating to another guy—to Grady—but she’d known him since they were kids. His angry Italian act didn’t faze her.

  “What’s up?”

  He scowled at her. “I was just checking you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine, thanks. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  Antonio folded his arms across his chest and glared at Grady. “I saw him follow you out here.”

  Molly blew out a sigh. She knew full well what his problem was. He wanted her and Marcos to get back together almost as much as she did—perhaps a little more.

  Grady grinned at him. “We both had the same idea. I wanted to make sure she was okay, too.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to make her okay by running the restaurant for her? Shouldn’t you get back in there?”

  Grady cast a glance at her, and she nodded. She needed to have a word with Antonio—tell him to lay off—and Grady didn’t need to be here for that.

  “Okay.” He pushed past Antonio, who didn’t move aside to let him back in.

  “Don’t be an asshole, Antonio,” said Molly as soon as the door had closed behind Grady.

  “An asshole? That’s not nice, Molly. I’m concerned about you.”

  She laughed. “You’re concerned about Marcos, and neither of us knows if he’s ever coming back—or if he and I would have a chance if he did. I know you think you’re looking out for me, but there’s no need.”

  “Why?”

  “Because …” She shrugged. “Honestly?”

  He nodded. “I find that’s usually best.”

  “If I couldn’t make myself fall for someone else in all the years Marcos was married to Caterina, what makes you think I’d be able to now—now that I know he’s divorced and he might come back here one day?”

  Antonio smiled and came to wrap her in a hug. “I didn’t know, Molly. I wanted to believe, but when you told me you don’t want to hear about him, I thought that maybe you didn’t want to know him anymore.”

  “Part of me wishes I didn’t. I don’t know that we could ever move past the way things ended between us.”

  Antonio nodded. “But maybe now there’s a chance for a new beginning?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know, I swing back and forth. Maybe I’m crazy to wait and hope, maybe he’ll never come back—not to live here.”

  “He will.”

  He said it so adamantly that Molly raised an eyebrow at him.

  He shrugged and tried to hide a smile. “You told me you didn’t want to hear about him and what he was doing.”

  Her heart was racing. “Of course I want to know. I just don’t want to torment myself over it while not knowing if it’ll be a year or a month or ten years until we see each other again.”

  “How would you feel about a week?”

  Her heart slammed to a halt. She’d kept wondering about Cam and Piper’s wedding. She couldn’t imagine him not going, but no one had said anything—and she had refused to allow herself to ask.

  “He’s going to the wedding?”

  Antonio nodded. “Can I say more, or not?”

  She blew out a sigh. She had to know. “Yes, go on, tell me whatever you think I need to know.”

  “He’s already in Summer Lake; he’s been there a couple of weeks now.”

  “He has? Why? I thought he was taking his time, traveling, being alo
ne—away from the people he knows.”

  “He did. He started out in Paris like he said. Then he spent some time in London with a friend from college, Josh. Josh has been investing in cryptocurrencies, and Marcos got into it. From what he says, he got in at just the right time, and he’s made a fortune.”

  Molly frowned. “Cryptocurrencies? I thought that was more like gambling than investing. It doesn’t sound like Marcos.”

  “That’s what I thought, too, but he’s convinced he knows what he’s doing. He studies the markets, and you know what he’s like, that analytical mind of his. He’s no risk-taker.”

  Molly nodded. “He wasn’t. Either he’s changed an awful lot, or he’s so smart he’s figured it out.”

  Antonio smiled. “We both know him well enough to know which it is.”

  “Yeah.” She knew Marcos wouldn’t have gotten himself involved if he didn’t know he could master it.

  “He thought it might take him a few years before he could forgive himself for screwing up so badly. He’s turned himself around much sooner than he thought.”

  Molly nodded, not daring to ask if that meant he was going to come back to Napa.

  “You know him as well as I do. He wanted to make amends for screwing up in business—and in love. He’s taken care of business.”

  Molly’s heart raced. Did he really want to make amends with her—and would they be able to make it work again, even if they both wanted to?

  Antonio held her gaze for a moment. “He went to Summer Lake because that’s being around old friends again without coming back here—yet.”

  “He doesn’t want to come yet?”

  “He wants to see how you feel about it first. I guess you can figure that out at the wedding.”

  “I guess we will.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Marcos threw a pebble and watched it skip across the smooth surface of the lake. Skipping stones had become one of his favorite pastimes in the last few weeks. He hadn’t done it since he was a kid. Six months ago, he wouldn’t have seen the point. Since he’d been in Summer Lake, he’d spent countless hours down here on the beach enjoying the peace, the sounds of the lake, the beauty of the sunrise or the sunset. He blew out a sigh and turned to walk back up to the parking lot where he’d left his bicycle.

  He stopped when he saw a gray and black bundle of fur coming hurtling down the beach toward him.

  “Hey, Ollie.” He reached down to scratch the dog’s ears as he waggled around his legs.

  “Ollie!”

  Marcos smiled at the sight of Megan hurrying down the beach toward them.

  “I’m sorry! He won’t listen to me when we get here.”

  “It’s okay. We’ve become friends. I’m pleased he wanted to come say hello.”

  “He’s a bad boy,” said Megan, giving Ollie a stern look.

  The dog gave one short, sharp bark and sat down, offering Marcos his paw to shake.

  “I think he disagrees,” said Marcos. “Is it okay?”

  “If you want to,” said Megan with a rueful smile. “But he really doesn’t deserve it.”

  Marcos asked Ollie to shake again before rewarding him with one of the bacon treats he’d started carrying in his pocket whenever he came down here. He’d made Ollie and Megan’s acquaintance on his first pebble skipping expedition and soon discovered that she was one of the large group of friends of his old college buddies. He’d gotten to know her husband Michael and their kids, too.

  “Where’s Ethan today?”

  “He’s gone to play at his friend’s house after school, and Billy’s with Michael’s mom.”

  Marcos nodded. He wondered what it might be like to have a young boy and a baby and a dog to take care of. He’d been married for almost ten years, but he hadn’t experienced the kind of life that he thought of as family life—the kind of life Megan and Michael had.

  “Are you okay?”

  He looked at Megan. He hadn’t quite figured her out yet. When he’d first met her, he’d thought she was a timid little thing, but seeing her in the group of friends, he knew she wasn’t afraid to speak up when she thought something was important. It seemed the well-being of the people around her was always important to her.

  “I am. Thank you.”

  “I don’t mean to be nosey. I know what it’s like to come here thinking you can just hide away from the world and not have to face it.”

  Marcos raised an eyebrow. It seemed unlikely to him that Megan would understand what he’d been through or what lay ahead of him.

  She shrugged. “Like I said, I’m not being nosey. But if you want to talk, I’m a good listener.”

  “What makes you think I don’t want to face the world?”

  “The fact that you’re here.”

  He nodded slowly.

  “You haven’t come here to make a life, but from what I understand, you don’t really have a life anywhere else either. You left everything that was your life when you got divorced.”

  “True.”

  “I was the same when I came here. I didn’t want to make a life here. I just wanted to escape from the life I’d left behind.” She smiled. “I didn’t understand then what this place does to people. It seems that when you come to Summer Lake, a perfect partner falls into your lap and you get to stay here and live a wonderful life. Maybe that will happen for you.”

  “No.” The word came out so forcefully it surprised him as much as it did Megan.

  Ollie looked up and gave him a woof.

  He reached down to scratch the dog’s ears, more to avoid Megan’s gaze than anything else. “Sorry, Ollie. I didn’t mean to get loud.”

  Ollie licked his hand, as if to let him know he was forgiven, then trotted down to the water’s edge.

  “But there was a reason you were so adamant.”

  He nodded. “I’m not here to hide from the life I left. I screwed up; I screwed up by getting into that life in the first place. I should never have married her. I don’t want to stay here and live a good life, because the woman I love is living a good life somewhere else.”

  “Oh.” Megan looked confused. “You still love your ex-wife?”

  He shook his head. “I never loved my ex-wife. I wanted to. I thought she was the right person for me to love, but she wasn’t. She didn’t love me either. She thought I was a good bet, but I let her down.”

  “I see.” Megan still looked puzzled. “So, who and where is the woman you do still love?”

  “She’s still in Napa, where we grew up together. And next weekend, she’ll be here.”

  Megan beamed. “So, Summer Lake will be able to work its magic for you! She’ll come here, and you can tell her you still love her and …” Her words trailed off as she watched his face. “No? Why not?”

  “I don’t deserve her. She loved me as much as I loved her, but I let her down, and I left her and went back to Sicily.”

  Megan frowned. “Why?”

  He shook his head. “Because I was a stupid, stupid boy.”

  “But now you’re a smart man, and you can make up for the past.”

  “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  “Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

  He nodded; there was, and he couldn’t wait for next weekend to roll around. He wanted—needed—to see Molly. To talk to her, to explain the reasoning behind the stupid decisions he’d made when they were kids.

  Chapter Two

  Molly stared out the window as the plane thundered down the Hamilton-Groves runway and climbed into the sky above Napa. She peered down, looking at all the familiar landmarks from a different perspective.

  Chelsea nudged her in the ribs. “You’re not allowed to worry about the restaurant until Monday. Grady’s more than capable of taking care of the place.”

  “I know.” She wasn’t going to tell her friend that it wasn’t the restaurant that was on her mind. Looking down on the town and the surrounding countryside, all
she’d been seeing were the places where she and Marcos had hung out when they were kids.

  Chelsea nudged her again. “You weren’t even thinking about the restaurant, were you?”

  She shook her head and shrugged.

  “Are you going to give him another shot?”

  She shrugged again.

  “What’s the harm?”

  Molly had to laugh. “What’s the harm? You really don’t know?”

  “No. It seems quite simple to me. The two of you were great together ten years ago—”

  “Twelve. It’s been twelve years.”

  “Okay, however long ago it was, you were great together. Now you’re both single again, and from what I understand, he wants to give things another try. You haven’t shown much interest in anyone since him, so why not?”

  Molly stared at her for a few moments. How could Chelsea not understand that he’d broken her heart, destroyed her when he’d chosen to leave Napa and go back to Sicily. How could she think it would be so simple to trust him again, to forget what he’d done—to forgive him. That was the biggie. Ever since she’d seen him at Antonio and Mary Ellen’s wedding, she’d wrestled with the fact that she’d never forgiven him. She should, she knew that. They’d been kids. He admitted to her at the wedding that he’d been a stupid kid who’d made a horrible mistake. It sounded easy if she just said the words: forgive him. It wasn’t so easy to do though. It wasn’t that she held a grudge, more that she had a self-preservation instinct. Forgiving him would mean opening herself up to let him break her heart again. She wasn’t sure she was strong enough to survive that a second time.

  “I don’t even know who he is anymore. He doesn’t know who I am. There might be nothing there between us. And even if there is something, who knows if we could make it work? All I’ll say for now is that it will be good to see him again, but beyond that—who knows?”

  Antonio turned around in his seat and met her gaze. “He hasn’t forgiven himself any more than you have.”

  Molly looked into his eyes for a long moment. In some ways, he and Marcos were similar; in others, they were poles apart. “I’m not getting into it, Antonio. Like I just told Chelsea, it’ll be good to see him again.”