by Melody Grace
They all paused.
“Is this about Reeve?” Evie asked, looking cautious, but Jules shook her head.
“No. It’s about me.” She’d made too many decisions because she was thinking about some guy, but wouldn’t she be doing the same thing if she packed up and went to Chicago, just to get some distance from all her memories of the two of them together? “I miss him,” she admitted, aching inside. “But this town is more than that to me. I’ve been building a life here, without even realizing it. I want to see that through. I want to stay.”
Evie let out a shriek, and smothered Jules in a hug. “Thank God!” she cried, holding on tightly. “It’s been killing me being all supportive, and telling you to follow your bliss. I don’t want you going anywhere.”
“You could have told me that!” Jules protested, and Evie laughed.
“I was trying to be a good friend!” She paused. “But what about work?”
“I’ll figure it out,” Jules said, determined. “If I can’t find something in social media just yet, I’ll find a gig to tide me over. Working at the bakery, or delivering bouquets. You know me, I’m resourceful.”
“And scrappy,” Evie agreed, hugging her again. “I’m so happy!”
“I am too,” Jules said, smiling widely. She caught a glimpse of that man who looked just like Reeve again; a flash of tousled hair out of the corner of her eye. But she knew this time it was just wishful thinking. Reeve had moved on. Now it was time for her to do the same.
“Who wants another round?” she asked, turning to her friends. “My treat!”
17
Chicago.
Reeve had known Jules would probably be leaving the Cape to take a job soon enough, but he hadn’t thought about it being so far away.
“They just flew her out,” Aunt June gossiped nearby, as he tried not to eavesdrop. “It looks like the trip went well.”
Reeve watched her toasting with her friends across the crowded pub. He didn’t want to ruin the celebration with another painfully awkward encounter, so he slipped out the back door, and texted Wes to let him know they’d have a drink another time.
Tonight, he wanted to be alone.
He drove back to the vineyard, imagining Jules starting over someplace new. A big city, full of buzz and nightlife; she would have no problem diving right in, making new friends. Dating new men. The thought clawed at him from the inside, but what right did he have to feel jealous? He was leaving too, after all. Back to California, just as soon as this business with the vineyard was wrapped up—or, if Frank refused to see sense, maybe even sooner than that.
He pulled up outside the lodge and headed out to the back patio, stopping only to grab a beer from the fridge. The last glow of twilight was fading over the valley, the ocean shifting dark under the clouded skies, but he barely even registered the view.
He missed her.
Reeve stared out at the view, trying to ignore the restless itch in his veins. The whispers of guilt getting louder in his mind. He missed Jules so much it hurt, but what the hell else was he supposed to do? He was the one who’d messed things up.
He was the one who’d let her walk away.
“Feeling sorry for yourself, are you?” Frank wandered out, and took in the scene. Reeve glared.
“You don’t know anything about it.”
“Really? Because I got chatting to Hank at the hardware store, and he filled me in on all the latest details,” Frank said. “What I don’t understand is why you’re just sitting here while she’s about to leave. And you always said I was the stubborn bastard in the family.”
His father snorted and dropped a thick stack of papers on the table. Reeve frowned. “What are these?”
“What you’ve been nagging me about since the day you arrived.”
Reeve drew the stack closer. It was the sales paperwork for the vineyard… And his father had finally gone ahead and signed it over. But it wasn’t Nick’s name on the contract line.
It was Reeve’s.
He looked up, frowning. “I don’t understand.”
Frank settled into a chair and gazed out over the property. “I didn’t want it to be like this,” he said quietly. “I thought that if I could just turn things around, then you would come back, and really make something of the place.” His voice was gruff, and Reeve was shocked to see the emotion written all over his father’s usually stoic face. “I know I screwed things up, and made some bad choices along the way,” Frank continued. “But that’s why I couldn’t just give up and walk away. Not until I had something to pass on. Something to make the last forty years be worth a damn.”
Reeve stared at him, reeling. This was why his father had refused to sell all these years? Because he’d wanted to leave it all to Reeve? “You’re… Giving me the vineyard?” he repeated in disbelief. Frank has always said they would pry it from his cold, dead hands—and now he’d signed it over, just like that?
“You, and your sister,” Frank nodded. “She’s in the contract, too. But she never understood the place like you did. Doesn’t have a passion for the grapes. It’s in your blood. I can see it. Even if you have wasted your gifts on those corporate asses,” he added. Still the same judgmental Frank.
Reeve exhaled a long breath. “I… Don’t know what to say.”
He was speechless. After everything that had happened in the past few days, he didn’t know how to process this. “This better not be a trick,” he said, still not trusting his father an inch as far as the vineyard was concerned. “Some way to get around the debts, and cheat somehow—”
“No tricks,” Frank promised. “It’s yours now. Keep it, leave, it’s up to you. Just promise me one thing, that you’ll give it a shot?” he asked hopefully. “At least before you sell up to that British suit, and let this family’s legacy go down the drain.”
“You took care of that already,” Reeve couldn’t stop himself saying, and Frank gave a rueful nod.
“I guess I deserve that.” He sighed. “Look, I know I made a mess of things, and there’s no going back and changing it. But you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. You got that from your mother,” he added wryly. “You’ve already made more sense of the business than I ever could. You brought people back through the doors, orders coming in, I know it’s not enough yet, but it could be.”
Reeve paused. It was a crazy, foolish plan, taking on the very same property he’d been working like hell to sell, but still, he couldn’t deny the spark of excitement in his bloodstream, taking in the lush vines and rolling hills. A place of his own. Hadn’t he told Jules that was what he really wanted? A piece of land, a small vineyard. Somewhere to put down roots, and really build something.
What if that place was right here all along?
“You want it.” Frank said, breaking into a smile. “I can see it written all over your face.”
Reeve couldn’t deny it. “But what about you?” he asked, still wary. “What would you do?”
Frank paused. “I could stick around, if you’d let me. See to the grapes. Help out. I wouldn’t get in your way.”
Reeve snorted.
“Alright, maybe just a little,” Frank cracked a grin. “But nobody knows this place better than I do.”
He was right. Frank knew how to speak to the soil in a language Reeve was still learning. It was the business side of things that tripped him up, and if Reeve could overhaul that himself…
“There would have to be changes.” Reeve said. “Big changes.”
“I know.” Frank nodded. “I can live with that.”
“And you can’t expect this to make everything OK,” he warned Frank. “Signing a piece of paper doesn’t undo the past twenty years.”
“I know, son,” Frank said, nodding. “But I figure, it’s a start.”
A start…
Reeve could work with that. Because when he imagined building a life here… He wanted it with a fierce hunger that took his breath away. But it wasn’t about the land. Sitting there, pi
cturing the years to come, Reeve knew in his bones that something would always be missing without her.
A part of him would always be incomplete without that teasing smile greeting him in the mornings, and the bright spark in her eyes sending him wild every night.
She was the only thing that would make this worth it. She was the only one he wanted by his side.
Jules.
His father watched him, like he was reading Reeve’s mind. “You know, if you decided to stick around, Jules might reconsider her plans, too,” he said slyly.
But Reeve shook his head. “You don’t know what happened,” he said, hollow.
“I know that I’ve never seen you the way you were with her.” Frank gave him a sad smile, laced with regret. “And I know what it’s like to let someone walk away, and spend every day regretting it for the rest of your life.”
Reeve swallowed hard. All this time, he’d sworn he wouldn’t make his father’s mistakes, and here he was, in the exact same place. “What can I do?” he asked, hollow. “It’s too late. It’s over. She’s leaving.”
And Frank looked at him like the answer was obvious. “So, give her a reason to stay.”
Jules took a bite of one of Summer’s famous sticky buns and tried to figure out the rest of her life.
“That’s kind of a big question,” Evie teased, across the table from her at the bakery the next morning. They were celebrating Jules’ decision to stay in Sweetbriar Cove the only way that mattered: with baked goods and bottomless cups of coffee. “Are you sure you don’t want to think a little smaller to start? I can’t even figure out how to program my sprinkler system.”
Jules grinned. “I’m dreaming big!” she declared, through a mouthful of caramel sauce. “Plus, now I’m sticking around, I need to come up with a plan for what to do with my career. I’m going to need to pay the bills somehow, and no offense,” she added, “I’m so grateful that you’re letting me crash in the shed a while longer, but sooner or later, I’m going to want a real apartment. With an actual kitchen that I don’t have to get fully dressed to use.”
“My guests appreciate your lack of naked refrigerator raids,” Evie said with a smirk. “Any ideas for jobs just yet?”
Jules shook her head, staring at the blank page of her notebook in front of her. “There aren’t many big companies on Cape Cod hiring social media stars. Or, any, to be honest. I don’t suppose you’re looking for someone?” she asked Summer hopefully, as she came to refill their coffee mugs.
“Sorry, but I don’t think I can afford you,” Summer replied.
Jules sighed. “That’s what everyone says.”
Then she paused, an idea suddenly coming to her. “Wait a minute, maybe that’s the answer.”
Evie looked up.
“This town is packed with small businesses,” Jules said, her excitement rising. “The bakery, your inn, the florist, Mackenzie’s pottery shop… None of you have much of a budget for social media promotion, but if I put all of you together? It might just be enough.”
She hadn’t considered freelancing before. She didn’t think she had the contacts, or the experience to strike out on her own, but now, after summer in Sweetbriar Cove, she had a little more of both. Enough to try.
“That’s a great idea,” Evie cheered. “But are you ready to go out on your own?”
“Why not?” Jules asked, already scribbling down ideas. “I’ve been making up my own rules for years now anyway. It’ll be tough going to start,” she admitted, “But if I hustle, and pick up other freelance clients over time… ”
She could make it work—especially staying in the shed a little longer, and operating on a shoestring budget. She would be building an empire—one that was all her own. “I’ve spent too long working to make someone else a success,” Jules declared. “I mean, even if I took that job with Sojourn, they could still turn around and fire me one day, just like Rory did. And then I’d be back at square one again. I’m sick of having someone else decide my life. I want this to be mine.”
“Well, I think you’ll be a huge success,” Evie said, raising her coffee mug and clinking it to Jules’. “I bet you could even get the town to hire you. They have a budget for tourist promotions, right Summer?”
Summer nodded, and Jules added the idea to her list. She already had a dozen names down to target, and she was betting she could find a dozen more. And every minute she spent planning this empire of hers… Well, it was one more minute she could ignore the heartache haunting her, still too raw to heal. She was determined to forget about Reeve the way he’d forgotten about her, but still, when she saw Nick Sterling saunter into the bakery, she couldn’t resist bobbing to her feet. “Want some water?” she asked Evie.
“I can get it—” Summer started to say, but Jules cut her off.
“No need!”
She headed across the room to where the huge jug of iced water sat on the counter—right beside where Nick happened to be waiting in line.
“Well, hello there,” Nick greeted her. “What’s all this I hear about you leaving us for the bright lights of the big city?”
“Someone’s behind on their gossip,” she said, teasing. “That’s old news. I’m sticking around.”
“You are? Excellent,” Nick smiled. “You’ll have to join us for poker night sometime. I’m something of a beginner, but it’s all good fun.”
Jules laughed at his innocent act. “Don’t try that with me. Poppy already told me about your hustle.”
“Drat.” Nick grinned wider. “I was hoping I could pull off a repeat performance.”
“Not with me.” Jules poured two glasses of water, and tried to sound casual as she asked: “How does it feel to be the new owner of the vineyard?”
“I don’t know,” Nick replied. “It’s not me.”
Jules paused. “What do you mean?”
“The deal’s off,” Nick replied with a shrug. “Reeve said it wouldn’t work out. Shame,” he added. “But it’s probably for the best. I love drinking wine, but I’m probably not the man to actually make the stuff.”
“Right.” Jules managed a smile, as the line moved up, and it was Nick’s turn to place his order. She muttered a goodbye, and returned to her table, her head spinning.
What did this mean?
Was Frank still stubbornly refusing to sell? And how must Reeve be feeling, after busting his ass to find a buyer? Her heart twisted in sympathy thinking of what he must be going through—
No. She stopped herself just in time. It was none of her business, not anymore. Reeve had made a choice about what he wanted his life to be, and so would she. No pining, no more wallowing. She was starting over.
Again.
“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” Evie said, as Jules slid back into her seat. “What’s going on?”
Jules shook her head. “Nothing,” she said, determined. “Want to get back to the inn? I need to start doing research… And writing up a business proposal… Ooh, and designing a snazzy new website—for myself!”
She had plenty to keep her busy, Jules decided, and thinking about Reeve wasn’t on the list. She spent the rest of the day holed up on the back porch at the Beachcomber with her laptop and her new plans for social media world domination taking shape. She could do this. Alone. Even if it hurt like hell, and she spent every other moment wondering where he was, and what he was doing. That would fade in time, right?
It had to.
* * *
The sun was sinking lower in the sky when she finally set her work aside and stretched, yawning. Jules wandered inside, and found Evie just hanging up the phone.
“Want to grab dinner?” Jules asked. “I could go pick up some pizza in town.”
“No!” Evie blurted. “I mean, you and I are going out.”
“We are? I thought Noah was coming over tonight.”
“He… had to cancel,” Evie said, looking oddly flustered. “But he got the two of us a table at Sage, a last-minute cancellation.”
“Oh, great, I’ve been wanting to try that place.” Jules said, brightening. “What time?”
“Now.” Evie took Jules’ arm, and began steering her towards the door. “So you should go get changed. It’s fancy. Maybe that black dress of yours? And the cute strappy heels.”
Jules blinked. “Is something going on?” she asked, wondering why her friend was acting so strangely.
“Nope.” Evie gave her a bright smile. “Just hungry. You know me when my blood sugar gets low, haha.” She gave a little giggle. “See you out front in five. Remember, fancy!”
Jules shrugged off the weirdness and headed to the shed to change. A fancy dinner would be fun, and reservations at Sage were like gold dust, she’d been told all summer. She quickly showered and dressed in a slinky black number that had been languishing in the bottom of her suitcase, pinning her hair up in a simple knot and adding a slick of tinted lip gloss. Why not go all out? It was an occasion.
“Wow, you look amazing.” Evie greeted her out front with a wolf-whistle.
“And you look… ” Jules paused, taking in her friend’s casual outfit. “Wait, didn’t you change?”
“Of course I did.” Evie got in her car, and turned on the engine. “I changed my flip-flops for real sandals.”
“Huh.” As they got on the road, Jules studied her, suspicion growing “You’re definitely acting strange,” she said, “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing,” Evie protested, turning on the radio.
Jules turned it off again. “Evie…
“Just relax!” Evie kept driving, so Jules sat back, wondering what she was playing at. The green of the woods slipped past as they drove down the old highway, heading for—
“Wait, isn’t the restaurant in the other direction?” Jules asked, peering around.
Evie didn’t reply.
“If you’re kidnapping me, let me know if there’ll be snacks,” Jules added. “I’m hungry now.”
