Christmas in Wine Country (44 page)

Just as Lila was about to offer something up about the shell, perhaps commenting on the delicate shade of pink or the spiral at its tip, Big Bob spoke once again. “I don’t know how many times I sat at this desk without noticing this shell. It was just decoration.” Turning to Lila, he grasped her arm, looked directly into her eyes and urged her, “Notice the seashells, Lila.”

“OK,” she, deer in headlights, felt compelled to answer. 

“OK!” Jake announced, coming over to lead Lila out of the study. “That went well!” He laughed in the hallway.

The encounter Lila had with Oliver was both less strange and less welcoming. He barely acknowledged her presence while reviewing his travel itinerary with Jake. Oliver’s new role as VP of sales and marketing was going to take him out on the road three out of four weeks each month. In turn, Jake was going to spend more time at the vineyard, managing day-to-day operations.

The rest of the vineyard team seemed more than happy about the power shift and plenty friendly with Lila. Ahanu even gave her a big, stinky hug.

             
             
             
             
             
             
*
             
*
             
*

             
With only five hours before the New Year’s clock struck midnight, Annie and Lila were nowhere near the romantic candlelight dinner for four they’d reserved at a local
restaurant. Instead, sleeves rolled up, they were where they always were as they faced the rapidly approaching opening day: in the café solving problems. It seemed that once one got solved, two more sprouted, Hydra-style. A last-minute stop by the store that afternoon had revealed that the shelving Pete and his crew had erected just a few days ago now appeared to be less than up to the task of supporting the required weight. Looking up at the top shelf buckling, Annie and Lila had pulled over a ladder and were busily involved in taking down what they’d so painstakingly put up so they could then go to Shelving Plan B. Emergency calls put in to both Jake and Pete, along with apologies, the guys had taken care of cancelling their dinner reservations.

             
Lila realized she should know by now that there was no such thing as “just swinging by” the café. Once she’d become a co-owner she’d essentially adopted a child that required round-the-clock care.

             
“It’s our baby,” Annie had agreed, handing Lila a box of Joyce’s heavy duty handmade plates.

             
“Good thing I hadn’t already changed for dinner.” Lila looked down at her old, faded t-shirt and sweatpants, amazed at how filthy they’d become what with sawdust and an unidentified source of black grease.

             
“Kids’ll do that to you. I’m always covered in filth.” Annie handed her a two pound sack of flour. “Good thing is, the minute you have them you lose your sanity so you love then anyway.”

“That must be why I’m enjoying myself,” Lila agreed as she threw her back into the manual labor that had superseded her romantic plans.

             
After climbing down the ladder with a set of three metal mixing bowls under one arm, Annie offered her free hand for a high-five. “Give it up, Team Crazy.” They high-fived and walked a few steps to the counter to survey their future adventure in the form of an empty, freshly painted room. The chairs and tables were scheduled to be delivered in two days. 

             
“I’m so excited!” Lila exclaimed, more able than ever to see it humming with activity.

             
“Me too.” Annie wrapped an arm around Lila’s shoulders and gave her a brief squeeze in a display of affection so rare Lila suddenly found herself choked up. As Annie cleared her throat, she realized she wasn’t the only one. 

With a knock at the door, they saw Jake and Pete standing outside.

“Thank goodness,” Annie exhaled and started toward them. “That was about to get mushy.”

The guys came in with a cold gust of air, cheeks ruddy from the late December chill. Jake wore a wool hat which he pulled off, leaving his unruly hair standing at attention. Just two and a half weeks along into the ability to not only look but touch, Lila hugged him hello and seized the opportunity to run her fingers through his curls.

“Happy New Year!” Pete announced, holding up a bottle of champagne in each hand.

“Got some food, too.” Jake used the hand he didn’t have wrapped around Lila’s waist to tap the large tote bag he had slung on his shoulder. Lila recognized it from Annie’s entryway, where it typically lived. 

“We figured you guys would be here all night working unless we came in to break it up.” As Pete tossed a balled-up tartan plaid blanket into Annie’s arms, she asked him,

“What, no kiss for me?”

“You want some sugar?”

Annie laughed and swatted him away until happily receiving the kiss in question. Taking the bag from Pete, she examined the contents. “All right, a New Year’s Eve picnic.” 

             
Realizing she was starving, Lila took the blanket from Annie. Jake helped her spread it out on the floor. Pete crouched down over a champagne bottle, unwinding the top and popping the cork with a loud thock. Wiping the bubbles that spilled with his finger, he only just then seemed to realize the need for glasses.

“Didn’t bring any?” Annie asked, standing up. “I’ll see what we have.” Emerging back from the kitchen with four heavy blue homemade mugs, courtesy of Joyce, she declared, “These’ll do.”

Jake poured the mugs as Pete made himself comfortable, lying on one side and propping his head up in his hand. Annie and Lila laid out the contents of the bag. “Well, at least we have this,” Annie observed, holding up a Frisbee.

“That was in there from the last time we went to the beach,” Pete explained. Food arranged on the blanket, the snacks heavily featured salty meats. “We have salami and pepperoni,” Pete proudly announced. “Jake and I stopped by the supermarket.”

             
“Thanks you guys,” Lila said, sitting down on the blanket near Jake who promptly pulled her closer.

             
“What, no beef jerky?” Annie teased, taking out a loaf of fresh bread.

             
“Of course I got jerky.” Pete rolled over, reached into the tote and pulled out a bag. Ripping it open, he tossed a strip to Jake. “Hey, you guys decided what you’re going to call this place yet?” he asked, reclining once again. “Was it ‘Out of Time’? Or, ‘Time to Go’?”

             
“No,” Annie called from the kitchen where she was getting a knife and cutting board. “We decided ‘It’s About Time’ was too weird.”

             
Laughing, Lila agreed. “Yeah, we’re just going to call it the Cover to Cover Café.”

             
“It’s basically part of the bookstore, right?” Jake gestured toward the sheets of translucent plastic separating the café from the bookstore. “So that makes sense.” 

             
“It’s alliterative,” Annie explained, joining them on the blanket. “Cover to Cover Café. So Godfrey gave us his approval.”

             
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,
slow
ly
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.”