by MJ Duncan
She looked entirely too pleased with herself, like she was planning all kinds of trouble, but Bryn found that she did not particularly care. “I can’t wait.”
Anna smiled and lifted her glass in a toast. “Me neither.” She took a long drink and winked at Bryn. “Drink up, Nakamura.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk?” Bryn asked as she lifted her glass to her lips.
“Nah,” Anna said, shaking her head with that easy confidence Bryn admired. “Though I do wonder what kind of drunk you would be.”
“The sleepy kind,” Bryn shared. “Although I would imagine you to be a rather boisterous drunk.”
“Flirty. I am a crazy flirt when I am drunk. So consider yourself warned.”
Bryn’s pulse kicked up as she imagined what ‘Flirty Anna’ must be like. Would she be suave and smooth, all loose limbs and lingering touches, or loud and boisterous, with that adorably cheeky smile of hers serving as the perfect excuse for her behavior? It was disconcerting how curious she was to see Anna like that, and she downed what was left of her wine to try and hide the blush she could feel creeping up her cheeks. “More wine?”
“Now I think you’re trying to get me drunk, Ms. Nakamura,” Anna teased, twisting Bryn’s words and lobbing them back at her even as she nodded and held out her glass.
“Hardly, Doctor,” Bryn muttered. “Just tipsy enough to set you on my competition.”
Anna laughed. “One more glass should do it then. Just tell me where to go and how much damage to do, and I’ll do the best I can. Or, you know…you can always just stick a grasshopper in my car and see what happens.”
Bryn smiled. “Yes, that would be the most effective course of action, wouldn’t it?”
“It definitely would,” Anna agreed.
“I’ll see what I can find, then.”
“Please don’t.”
Bryn chuckled and shook her head. She might not be good with people, but the ease with which Anna traded playful barbs with her made her think that, in this case, it did not matter. “Oh, you’re no fun, Ms. Fitzpatrick.”
“Anna.”
“Anna,” Bryn conceded, feeling like she had finally done something right at the way Anna’s smile softened as she settled back in her chair.
Bryn looked toward the horizon, noting the way the sky had begun to shift hues around the peak of Mt. Hood, and found herself dreading Anna’s departure. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she had not eaten anything beyond half a bagel earlier that morning due to her nerves, and she took a deep breath as she looked back at Anna. The day had been a disaster and yet somehow not, considering the way Anna was lounging on the chair beside her, and she was reluctant to see it end.
So, when Anna’s eyes once again found hers, no doubt drawn by the weight of her gaze, Bryn found herself asking, in a soft voice that held the faintest tremble of uncertainty, “Would you like to stay for dinner?”
Anna grinned and nodded. “Yeah. That sounds great.”
“Wonderful.” Bryn took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She had been planning on grilling some chicken and making a salad for dinner, but she had more than enough in her fridge for two. It was not a particularly impressive meal—just a simple salad as a main course, no appetizer, and she only had some sorbet in her freezer that could pass as dessert—but she hoped that Anna would not mind. “How does chicken salad sound?”
“Delicious. And a lot healthier than the leftover pizza in my fridge that I was planning on having tonight. Can I help make it?”
Bryn nodded as she got to her feet. “Would you prefer to grill, or make the salad?”
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Anna said as she stood beside Bryn. “I’m all yours, just put me to work, Nakamura.”
Bryn smiled and waved a hand toward the house. “I like the sound of that, Ms. Fitzpatrick.”
Fourteen
Bryn awoke at her usual six a.m. the next morning with an untamable smile on her face, still riding the high of what had ended up to be a particularly successful evening with Anna. Her usual awkwardness had been nonexistent as they made dinner, chased away by Anna’s quick wit and infectious smile, and she eventually managed to stop worrying about doing or saying the wrong thing and just enjoy herself. Once the dishes were done and put away, they had retired to the great room with their wine, curling up on adjacent couches as they chatted about everything and nothing, their conversation light and full of laughter.
One last glass had turned into two, followed in time by a cup of coffee for Anna as she waited for the buzz of alcohol leave her system, and it had been well after midnight by the time Bryn walked her to the door to say good-bye. Even then, with their evening clearly at an end, Anna lingered, and they had stayed on the front porch talking until the chill of the nighttime air chased Anna to her car.
A turtle mocha seemed like the best way to ring in the day, a special treat to celebrate the fact that she had not sabotaged her budding friendship with Anna Fitzpatrick, and she sang along with the music on the radio as she drove into town.
Anna had seemed so tired the night before when she finally left the house, that hers was the last car Bryn expected to see in the lot behind Jitters, and Bryn’s heart beat into her throat when she parked beside it. Should she just turn around and go home? Anna had teased her the last time they ran into each other here about stalking her, and the last thing she wanted was to make her think that she actually was.
The pink-haired girl whose name Bryn wished she could remember skipped out the back door to the café with a black trash bag slung over her shoulder, and Bryn’s decision was made for her when the girl stopped halfway to the dumpster to smile and wave at her. Bryn sighed as she waved back, knowing that the girl would tell Anna that she saw her sitting in the lot when she went back inside. She could still leave, of course, but then she would lose both the opportunity to see Anna again and the coffee she was craving—and if she was already caught anyway, she saw no reason to give up either.
She spotted Anna the moment she walked through the front door, her gaze drawn to her as if by magnets. Anna was sitting in the same chair she had been last time Bryn had happened upon her like this, only this time, instead of being alone with a book, she was with her friends. They were all smiling, though Anna’s seemed more embarrassed than amused, and Bryn’s breath caught in her throat when Anna’s gaze locked onto hers from across the room.
Her pulse stumbled over itself at the way Anna’s eyes lit up as she waved her over, and Bryn took a deep breath as she started toward her. Anna blushed at something one of her friends said and muttered something out of the corner of her mouth in response that made both of her friends laugh. Bryn felt instantly self-conscious, and she swallowed her fear that she was doing something wrong by being at the coffee shop. She tugged at the sleeves of the charcoal-colored quarter-zip pullover she wore over her black polo shirt as she wound her way through the tables, and smoothed her hands over the thighs of her tan breeches as she stopped beside Anna’s chair.
Though she was dressed fairly casually, she still felt incredibly overdressed compared to Anna and her friends—all of whom looked like they had just rolled out of bed and into jeans and sweatshirts that were in varying stages of disrepair.
Before she could dwell on it too much, however, Anna looked up at her with the biggest smile on her face and said, “Hey, stranger. Long time no see.”
Bryn nodded and folded her hands in front of herself, painfully aware of the way Anna’s friends were staring at her with identical, knowing smirks on their faces. “Indeed.”
Anna sat up straighter. “Right. Manners. Bryn, I don’t believe you’ve properly met my friends. I mean, they were with me when I, you know, tried to set the world record for the distance a sports car has flown through the air, totally screwed up the landing, and ended up plowing into your vineyard, but yeah. This is Mitch Holloway and Diana Chang. Mitch, Di…Bryn Nakamura.”
Bryn nodded hello to Diana and then Mitch. “It’s a pl
easure to meet you both.”
“Yeah, you too,” Mitch said.
Di waved. “Hi.”
The reminder of the first time they had all crossed paths hung in the air, and Bryn fiddled with the ring on her right hand as she did what she should have done that afternoon at the vineyard so many weeks before. “I am sorry that I did not pay more attention to your injuries that day,” she murmured, looking at Diana. “I was…”
“Focused on Anna,” Di said, smiling and shaking her head.
“And the car in my vineyard, yes,” Bryn agreed. “No matter the case, my behavior was inexcusable, and I do hope you will accept my apology.”
“Of course,” Di replied with an easy smile as she tucked her feet up under her on her chair.
Bryn nodded and glanced at Anna, hoping for some clue as to what she should do next. With introductions made and apologies accepted, there was really no reason for her to linger.
Anna, however, must have had no such qualms about Bryn joining them, because she leaned back in her chair and gave Bryn’s outfit a slow once-over. Mitch muttered something under his breath that Bryn did not quite catch just as Anna’s eyes locked onto her own, and Anna flipped him off without missing a beat as she asked Bryn, “So, you going riding again today?”
Bryn nodded. “I am.”
“Tell Figgy that I’ll see her soon.”
Bryn laughed and nodded. “I will.”
“Figgy?” Mitch asked.
“Figment,” Anna explained. “The horse Bryn let me ride yesterday. I called her ‘Figgy’ after our ride and she head-butted me for it.”
“Um…” Mitch glanced at Bryn. “Was that the horse, or Bryn?”
Anna gave him an incredulous look. “You’re kidding, right?”
Mitch held his hands up in front of himself. “What?”
“Figment beat me to it,” Bryn said dryly, smirking at the look of surprise that Anna shot her.
“Okay. Great,” Anna muttered. “I see how it is. Love you too, Nakamura.” Di let out a bark of laughter that she tried to cover with a cough, and the look Anna gave her was both exasperated and just a little reproachful. “Shut up.”
Diana grinned and blew Anna a kiss. “What?”
“Good lord.” Anna sighed and shook her head. “Do you see what I have to put up with with these two?” she asked, turning back to Bryn with an exasperated look on her face.
Bryn nodded. Not because she understood anything that was happening around her, but because it seemed appropriate for her to commiserate with Anna’s plight. “I don’t know how you manage,” she murmured.
“Me neither.” Anna laughed. “But, anyway, what else do you have going on today besides seeing my new favorite girl, Figgy?”
“Nothing terribly exciting, I’m afraid,” Bryn said. “A little gardening, and I need to see to finalizing some of the details for the Harvest Festival at the end of August.”
“What’s a harvest festival?” Anna asked.
Bryn shrugged. “It’s a little something I put on every year for the people who are on the winery’s mailing list.” She bobbed her head from side to side as she tried to find the best way to describe the event. “It’s a kind of thank you event, I guess you could say. A way to show them that their business is appreciated, and a way to introduce new potential buyers to our product since every invitation goes out with an and guest attached to it.”
“Aw, I thought you were going to say something like it was where you stomp on grapes or something,” Anna smiled. “I’ve always kind of wanted to do that.”
“Running over them with your car wasn’t entertaining enough for you?” Bryn retorted with a grin.
Anna shook her head. “Seriously…”
Mitch laughed and pointed at Bryn. “I like you.”
Bryn gave him a small bow. “Thank you. However—” she looked back at Anna, “—if stomping on grapes with your bare feet is something you truly wish to experience, I’m sure we can find a way to do that at the festival as well.” Bryn’s stomach flip-flopped at the small smile that curled Anna’s lips, and she bit her lip as she realized that she had just assumed Anna would be there. “I mean, that is…if you would like to come, of course.”
Anna nodded. “Just tell me when it is so that I can make sure to take that day off.”
Movement in her periphery reminded Bryn that she and Anna were not alone, and she glanced up at Mitch and Di, who were watching her and Anna with sly smirks on their faces. “You two are both more than welcome to come, as well.”
“Thank you,” Di said with a warm smile.
Mitch nodded. “That sounds fun. Thanks.”
“I will get your information from Anna to send you both invitations,” Bryn murmured. She took a deep breath and made a show of checking her watch for the time. “I’m afraid I should probably get going.” She smiled apologetically at Anna. “Are we still on for Wednesday afternoon? Two o’clock?”
“Of course. I’m looking forward to it.” Anna grinned. “I’ll call when I’m on my way out to pick you up.”
“Perfect. Until then, Ms. Fitzpatrick,” Bryn said. She looked at Mitch and Di and gave them each a small bow. “It was lovely to properly meet you both.” She smiled at their echoed sentiments, and then turned to give Anna one last lingering look before she took a deep breath and went up to the counter to finally order her coffee.
There was nobody in line, so Bryn was able to walk right up to the counter, and she smiled at the pink-haired girl as she reached for her wallet. “A large turtle mocha. To go, please.”
“Coming right up.”
Bryn nodded and folded her hands on the counter. She was hyper-aware of the fact that Anna was only twenty feet away, and it was all she could do to not turn around to look at her. The insecurity she had felt when she first walked into the coffee shop had been replaced with a quiet calm that left her feeling like she could conquer the world.
She smiled at the pink-haired girl as she took her coffee. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
Bryn handed over her money. “I’m sorry, I’ve been in here plenty of times, but I’m afraid I’ve never gotten your name. I’m Bryn.”
“Yeah, I know. You’re Anna’s friend.” The girl grinned as her gaze flicked past Bryn to where Anna and her friends were sitting. “I’m Phoebe. Here’s your change.”
“Thank you.” Bryn dropped the change into the tip jar beside the register. “Have a good day.”
“You too.”
Bryn could not resist looking over at Anna as she made her way to the front door, and she was surprised to see that Anna was looking back at her. Beside her, Mitch and Diana were engaged in an animated conversation that involved a lot of hands waving in the air, but Anna seemed oblivious to them both she smiled at Bryn over the rim of her coffee cup. A fluttery feeling settled in Bryn’s chest as she smiled back at her, and she ducked her head in a silent good-bye before she walked out the door a young man was kindly holding open for her.
She slipped her sunglasses on as she stepped onto the sidewalk, and lifted her face into the warmth of the morning sun. The sky was a clear, crystalline blue, and a gentle breeze stirred the air. Her footsteps were light as she made her way back to her car, and she could not stop smiling as she climbed inside. Not only was she going to see Anna again on Wednesday, she had accepted her invitation to the harvest festival as well. Add to that the fact that Mitch and Diana had not seemed to harbor any ill will toward her considering her behavior the first day they all crossed paths, and it was, without a doubt, the best morning Bryn had had in quite a while.
Fifteen
“Nice outfit, Nakamura.”
Bryn smiled as she stepped out onto the porch and pulled the front door closed behind her. Because Anna had refused to give her any clue as to what they were doing when they spoke on the phone the night before, she had spent a good half an hour going through her clothes, trying to find something that would be appropriate for Anna’s mysterious
outing. She eventually decided on a pair of black knee-length workout pants and a fitted black tank of the same material that would allow her to move freely and comfortably, and she was pleased to see, as she took in Anna’s outfit, that she had made the correct choice. They were dressed nearly identically—though instead of a black tank, Anna had opted for a blue one that set off her eyes.
“Thank you,” Bryn murmured. “You—” She stopped, surprised by how husky her voice sounded, and cleared her throat before trying again. “Sorry. That color top looks wonderful on you. It really brings out your eyes.”
Her voice was still too rough, but Bryn forgot to feel self-conscious about it when Anna smiled like she had just given her the best compliment she had ever received and reached out to give her arm a light squeeze. It was impossible to worry about the fact that she suddenly sounded like a pubescent boy when she was much more concerned about the way her heart had seemed to stop beating altogether.
“Thanks.” Anna tilted her head at her car, which she had left idling in the drive. “You ready?”
Bryn nodded, not trusting herself to speak as she jogged down the steps and climbed into Anna’s car. She looked out the windshield as they drove down the hill and past the winery, her mind turning over what had just happened. She could think of no reason why she had reacted so strongly to Anna’s touch so, rather than brood over it, she decided to just let it go. She was excited to spend the afternoon with her new friend, despite the fact that she harbored some trepidation about what, exactly, they would be doing, and she did not want to ruin it by overthinking something that did not make any sense.
Halcyon Road was devoid of traffic as they made their way into Wellington, and Bryn smoothed her hands over her thighs as she asked, “So, now that we are on our way, will you tell me where we’re going?”
“Well,” Anna said, glancing over at Bryn with a lopsided smirk, “I was thinking you could help me paint my front porch.”
Bryn’s eyebrows lifted in surprise as she turned in her seat to stare at Anna. “Really?”
