Stirred: A Love Story (14 page)

Kenna laughed, and Sage felt the space between them open up like a breath of fresh air.

“I mean come on. What the hell was that? Christmas is over.”

“Okay, forgetting he’s my stupid brother, I will agree. It was a fantasy-like scene but, Sage, this is real for you. No book, no practice. And, I would like to point out you were not being naughty. He approached you, no chapters in place.”

“That is true, but we were talking about the book.”

“Oh, come on, that’s a reach, don’t you think?”

“Probably. I don’t know. None of this was supposed to happen. Things have gotten a little nutty.”

“Nutty?”

“Yeah, I remember this one time I went to the emergency room with kidney stones.”

“Is this the short version?” Kenna asked on a little laugh.

“Shut up. I was in so much pain they gave me this shot of IV Demerol as soon as I arrived. I will never forget it because it raced up my body like it was filling every pore. That’s what it was like in that wine cellar.”

“Like a narcotic?”

Sage nodded and went off to tend to three women at the end of the bar. After two rum and Cokes and one iced tea, she returned to Kenna, who’d been watching her.

“Yes, like a drug. He pulls me into the wine cellar and says he wants to know”—she looked down the bar and leaned in again—“what the fantasy is. He wanted me to tell him. Show him. I mean, I was not prepared, it was so. . .”

“Uh huh.” Kenna shook her head and stood to put her laptop in her bag. “I need to pick Paige up early, dentist appointment.”

“Oh, sure, okay.” Sage felt Kenna quickly close the door on their conversation. She’d admit to being let down that the awkwardness of the man who had recently kissed the crap out of her was her best friend’s brother, preventing her from discussing her mind-blowing hot guy story, but she understood. “See you later.”

“Hey,” Kenna said a few steps away, “so it was a good kiss?”

Sage leaned up against the back bar, hands instinctively going to her heart, and as hard as she tried to be naughty bar girl, she had a feeling her best friend saw nice and getting in too deep all over her face.

Kenna rolled her eyes. “I’ll call you tonight.”

“Okay, but make it early. I have the symphony.”

“Date?” she asked, looking confused.

“Nope, on my own. The season starts tonight.”

“Okay, so before six?”

Sage nodded with relief, grabbed a few mint leaves, and got back to work.

Garrett met his father in the main house a little before noon. Winter brought with it a lull in work. He knew he was supposed to enjoy it, but he often found himself rushing through on his way to the next task. He always wanted to get on with the next plantings, the next harvest. He was fortunate to farm in California where they grew something all year round, but fall and winter weren’t the same as spring and autumn. Those were eighteen-hour days, and he loved them. Well, maybe he didn’t love them because his father always said, “Don’t love things, love people,” but they were familiar and what he knew from the time he was a kid. Long, hard days were comfortable; they’d made him the man he was and held their family together. Grabbing a bottle of water and listening to his father discuss which equipment needed repairs, Garrett’s mind drifted.

Sage was a surprise, and being that he was the one in his family to sneak down and peel open the Christmas presents before the big day, it could be said Garrett didn’t like surprises. That, or he was hell-bent on ruining them.

The need to kiss her again flooded him. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours and he wanted to see her eyes falling closed that moment before their lips met. She had the longest eyelashes he’d ever seen. Maybe they were fake. He’d seen what looked like fake eyelashes in Walgreens, but Garrett was pretty sure Sage wasn’t putting those on her eyes. Maybe she was. It’s not like he knew her that well. Her sweater had been a swirl of color, sort of like last summer when Paige left her crayons outside the barn and they all melted. The sweater was like that, except it hugged every curve of her body, and there were plenty of curves. Garrett knew Sage must exercise because everything on her body was in the right place and clearly happy to be there. It was almost impossible to imagine walking past her now without being distracted and not noticing her. He’d given into wanting her and was already racking his brain for the next step.

It was his business to be certain about the process. His life was about planning and then planning again in case the first one didn’t work. He didn’t rest easy when something wasn’t figured out or couldn’t fit into a schedule or a diagram. Maybe that’s why he’d kissed her. It wasn’t his smartest move, but with everyone else changing things up, maybe he wanted a taste of that too. The bonus was that the woman could kiss like nobody’s business. Full and genuine, it was like the entire kiss said, “I like you.” He knew it sounded juvenile, but there was something incredible about the simplicity of that kind of heat.

“You going to stare out that window forever?” his father asked, bringing Garrett back to what mattered.

“No, sorry. Are we ready to head down?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be. Are you sure you want me to inspect the crops with you? You seem like a one-man show these days.”

“Of course I do. We do this every year.”

“Agreed. But I didn’t know if you wanted to do things differently.”

Garrett was quiet; he’d already done something differently today. He needed normal.

They walked toward the back ten acres, Jack running up ahead.

“You all right?” his father asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“You seem a little distracted.”

“No, I’m good.”

“Feeling weird at all about Logan and Kenna?”

His brow furrowed. “Yeah, I always feel weird about those two.”

His father laughed, familiar green eyes dancing as he fixed his hat and kept pace with Garrett.

“Well, besides that. I was wondering if all the changes were hitting you. All the love.”

Garrett shook his head. “No, Dad, the love isn’t bothering me.”

“Okay, but I wanted to ask. You know Oprah says change is one of the most stressful things to navigate in life or something like that.”

“Does she now?”

“She does. People like what they know—it makes them feel safe. Do you feel safe?”

Garrett stopped. “Maybe I should be asking if
you’re
okay. Dad, you need to lay off the daytime television.”

“I don’t watch daytime television, I watch Oprah. Big difference. I get her magazine now too.”

“Oh, fantastic, exactly what we need. I suppose you’ll start clipping out important lessons for me now.”

“Nah, you seem to know what you’re doing. But I like checking on you every now and again. Make sure you’re okay. It’s what parents do.”

They started walking again. “Yeah, Dad, I’m good.”

The day passed as they walked up and down the rows of plants inspecting a number of things, including viability assessment, on their checklists. Everything was documented after planting and again before harvest. Once they were done, Garrett would transfer the data to the computer so they had their information for years to come. The data they collected allowed for models and predictions. The more he knew, the less he needed to leave to chance.

Maybe he could ask Sage to fill out a questionnaire
, Garrett thought as he drove home.

Chapter Twelve

“Y
ou kissed her,” Kenna said less than two minutes after joining them in their booth for the Rye family meeting. It was Wednesday, not even six-thirty yet. She’d sent Paige to play waitress with Libby, and Kenna was raring to go.

Okay, well, I guess we’re off
, Garrett thought, sipping his coffee.

“Who kissed who?” Logan asked.

Kenna handed out reports and bent as Paige ran back over to have her apron tightened.

Garrett said nothing and started flipping through a financial report he’d never bothered to look at before.

“Uncle kissed Auntie Sage,” Paige whispered, leaning into Logan. The entire table went silent. Garrett smiled at his niece, but Kenna was not smiling.

“Paige, how do you know that?”

“Me and My Travis were spying when you were on the phone last night. You said, ‘Okay, it was one kiss,’ and then you said, ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’” Paige continued in a pretty dead-on impression of her mom. “And then I don’t know what Auntie said, but you said. ‘Oh my God!’” Paige fell into Logan with her hand dramatically placed, palm up, on her forehead.

The whole table, including Garrett, cracked up. He knew the entire weight of his family was about to squeeze him into a bad mood, but at the moment, watching Paige shock everyone was fun. And maybe somewhere, way deep down in a place he didn’t want to recognize, it was sort of fun to be the topic of gossip, the one with a bit of scandal. He’d examine that later.

Kenna caught his eyes again as the laughter died down, hands on her hips now.

“What?” he asked, now feeling restless and trapped in the booth.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“To you?”

“Yes, well, to any of us.” Her hands spread to encompass the booth as she took her seat and Paige went back to working with Libby.

“No.” He poured more syrup on his pancakes.

“No, that’s all you have?” She turned to Logan and her father, hoping for support, but Garrett had the advantage. He knew men, there was no way they discussed this shit, ever. She would corner him later, but she was going lose this time. “Aren’t you guys going to say something?”

Logan put his face in the reports and their father sipped his coffee, gazing out the window.

“He kissed Sage. My best friend Sage. He initiated it. How is that okay?”

“Did she kiss him back?” Herb asked, turning to Kenna.

“I. . . well, yes, I guess.” She was flustered.

He shrugged. “Well, there you go. Probably between the two of them, don’t you think?”

Logan nodded, trying to hold back a smile that said, “you’re it, my man.”

Kenna huffed and pointed at him. “You know what you did.” She cut into her chocolate chip pancakes and shoved a bite into her mouth.

“So where are we at with our order from the seed bank? I’d like to get everything in, cataloged, and over to George and the guys before the end of the month.”

Kenna shook her head but pulled up the order, and the meeting was finally underway. Garrett had kissed her, planned on doing it again if she’d let him, but at the moment, he was more concerned about preparing for the next round of plantings. He realized that probably didn’t make him a romantic guy, and maybe he wasn’t, but romance was like television to him: a time waster with nothing much to show for it.

If he gave it another day or two, maybe one kiss would be enough. It was possible things would go right back to normal, wasn’t it? Sipping his coffee, Garrett wondered why he kept reading the same damn line over and over again on the order confirmation Kenna handed him, and probably more important, why in the middle of a diner, surrounded by his family, he could still hear that little moan Sage let out the minute his lips took hers.
Shit.

After there was nothing left to argue about, Logan and their dad left and Garrett stayed behind while Kenna packed up.

“I’m still working on not having Coke in the morning, so I’m not in the mood for your crap.”

As opposed to any other day
, Garrett thought, standing from the booth.

“So, you put the moves on her, huh?” she asked bluntly.

Garrett wrinkled his brow, ready to pull from his arsenal of sarcasm, but thought better of it. “It was a kiss, Ken. I wanted to kiss her, she was game, so I did. It’s none of your business, you know?” He reached across the table, grabbing her jacket.

Kenna took in a breath. “She’s not what you think she is.”

“And what do I think she is?”

“Like the other women you’ve dated or kissed, I mean. . . come on, Garre, it’s Sage.”

He nodded and leaned against the booth while she finished packing up.

“I’m only saying if this is some kind of sex thing or you’re only looking to. . . do whatever you do, please don’t do it with Sage.”

“Do what I do?”

“Do what I do?” she repeated, mocking his voice. “Yes, ignore her after you get what you want. You know she cares about you. Are you going to give her something in return, be in her life?”

“I
am
giving her something.” He grinned and instantly realized his mistake.

She shook her head in what looked a little like disgust and started toward the counter to pick up Paige. Garrett held her arm.

“Okay, stop. This is stupid. She’s a grown woman. I kissed her. Why are you getting all—”

“Do you know anything about her?”

“She’s pretty damn sexy.”

Kenna pulled free of his hold, hands on her hips again.

“She likes crosswords.”

“I know.”

“Fine. But you should also know that she recently got this book from her sister, but”—she shook her head—“forget it. She is sexy, you’re right. I’ll mind my own business.”

Garrett knew she was letting him off easy and he was a little intrigued that she decided not to share something clearly important about her friend. It was probably something very female he wouldn’t understand anyway.