Chapter 6 #2
I shrugged. “As much as I could. I assumed someone would be around to help.” With all the different sections of running a successful vineyard and tasting room, we were never short of people.
“Don’t assume next time. Come straight to me. I’m more than happy to help you. Besides, it’s my job to do just that.”
“I know,” I said and took a deep breath, finding the courage to be honest. “But I’ve been avoiding you.”
“I’m happy you can finally admit that.”
“Honestly, I’m not even sure I realized it until you called me out on it.”
“I wonder why that is.”
He looked at me as if he knew the answer. I waited for him to clue me in on his theory, but before he could say anything, Lainey’s voice echoed through the warehouse.
“You in here?”
Ben didn’t break our gaze, and I refused to be the first to turn away. “I’m in here,” I called out.
Lainey’s footsteps grew louder, stronger as she made her way toward my voice. “The cakepops are in the tasting room, do you need me for—” Lainey’s words cut off. “Oh. Hi Ben.” Her tone was far too cheery for this gloomy day.
“Hi Lainey,” he said.
“I’m sorry. Did I interrupt something?”
“Not at all,” Ben said, finally breaking eye contact and smiling that charming smirk toward Lainey. “We were just figuring out how many extra chairs Sherry will need today. She said eight, I said ten. You can never go wrong with too many when even one short can cause an issue.”
“He’s got a point, Sher,” Lainey said while I couldn’t figure out how he so easily came up with that line of bullshit.
“Fine. Go with ten,” I agreed to this fake scenario, though now I would wind up with two extra chairs I wasn’t expecting to have. But Ben was right. Damn him. It was better to have extra than be short.
“I’ll go get those chairs.” Ben headed toward the room where all the extra chairs and tables were stored.
As soon as he was out of view, Lainey’s eagle-eyed stare landed on me. The longer I said nothing, the wider her blue eyes grew, impatiently waiting for me to spill.
“What?” I finally asked.
“You two weren’t arguing about chairs.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’ve been my best friend since before I had these lovely ladies.” She motioned to her 34Gs and smiled. “And since before we even liked boys. I’m also very schooled on sexual tension, thanks to your brother.”
I let out a gagging noise as if we were still twelve.
“And what I just walked in on?” She fanned her face, her lips forming an O. “I almost went and got my cake knife. That tension was thicker than my thighs.”
“I get it.”
“Why not sleep with him already and get it out of your system?”
I’d been lying to my best friend in the whole damn world since Halloween. It was about damn time I tell her. My teeth slid over my bottom lip, and guilt rushed up my spine and into my cheeks like my pants were on fire.
“ When ?” she exclaimed.
“Shh!” I grabbed her arm and spun her away from the doorway and farther into the room, hoping the storage bins would muffle our voices.
Lainey’s eyes widened in the way they did when she was silently trying to get me to speak.
“I slept with him on Halloween.”
“ Halloween ?” Lainey’s voice bounced off the walls, and I slammed my free hand to her mouth. The brat licked my hand, and I dropped it, swiping the wetness onto my pant leg.
“Ew!”
“Don’t you ew me. You’ve been lying to me since Halloween?
” The lilt on Halloween was like a slap to the face.
I told Lainey everything. Always had. It wasn’t just that I wanted to keep Ben a secret, but ever since Lainey had started dating Nero, she wasn’t around like she once was.
I was so happy for her, but I was mourning the friendship we had.
“I wasn’t lying. I was selectively withholding.”
“Clearly you weren’t withholding from Mr. Ben over there.”
Even when she was annoyed at me, she couldn’t help but be her usual witty self. “Okay, I deserved that, but since I’m being honest.”
Her eyebrow lifted, nearly touching the blonde strands of her hairline.
“I slept with him on New Year’s, too.”
“Is that where you disappeared to?” She swatted at my arm. “I told Nero it wasn’t like you to vanish before the last guest left.”
“It went longer than I expected.”
“Did it now?”
“Babe, do you need me?” Nero’s voice boomed through the warehouse. Lainey stormed away from me and poked her head out of the doorway.
“Go away,” she said.
“Are you serious?” Nero called back. “I just climbed a ladder to hang that stupid ‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow’ sign you insisted on, and I almost fell into a crate of wine.
“You didn’t break anything, did you?” I hurried to the doorway to see his face and make sure he wasn’t trying to charm his way free.
“Sher, no, I didn’t.” He held his arms up, then ran a hand down his shirt. “Thanks for caring.”
“I wasn’t asking about you. I was asking about the wine.”
Nero let out a huff, and Lainey giggled beside me.
“Ben is getting chairs. Go help him,” I said, hitching a thumb over my shoulder.
“And what are you two doing?”
“None of your business,” Lainey said, blowing him a kiss before grabbing my arm and yanking me into the far corner of the room.
“Where were we? Oh yes, you slept with Ben not once, but twice. And now I’m catching you two eye-to-eye in the warehouse like you want to strip each other’s close off but won’t. Do I have that about right?”
“That’s about right.”
“So why not?”
“Why not what?”
“Sherry Elizabeth Grasso, don’t play dumb with me. You like him. Like you… like him.”
I shrugged and sipped my latte. “I guess.”
“You guess?” Lainey plucked the latte from my hand and took a sip. Her eyes pinched shut, and her mouth dropped open, tongue sticking out. “My God, that is sweet.”
“It’s delicious. You’re the only cake maker I know who doesn’t like sweet coffee.”
“I prefer to eat my sweets, not drink them.”
“I prefer both.” I snatched the latte out of her hand and brought it to my lips.
Lainey opened and closed her mouth a few times, like she was savoring a piece of chocolate cake. “Is that peach cobbler?”
“Sure is.”
“Once I got over the initial sweet assault, it’s actually quite good.”
She reached for it, but I pulled it away from her. “Get your own,” I said with a laugh.
“You lie to me, and now you’re withholding caffeine? It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.”
I handed her the cup and smiled, trying to hide the sadness that rolled through me.
Lainey took a sip, and as she returned the cup to me, her eyes narrowed. “What’s the matter?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Is lying to me the new norm?” she asked.
I deflated, leaning against the wall. “I’m sorry. I just… I’m so happy you’re happy. It’s just…”
“You miss me?”
My chin lifted, and I met her blue eyes that had been a constant in my life for as long as I could remember. The one person who was always there for me. “Yeah. I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.” Without warning, she wrapped up my five-foot-three frame in her five-foot-one. “I’ve been a terrible friend.”
“You haven’t. I’m just being needy.”
She pulled back, resting her hands on my arms. “No, you’re just being someone who needs a friend, and I’ve been failing in that department.”
“You haven’t.”
“If I hadn’t, I would have realized what happened with you and Ben months ago. I’m sorry you’ve had no one to talk about this with.”
My lips pressed together as an unexpected wave of emotion slammed into me.
“Tell you what. After your event today, come by the shop. We can have girl talk. You bring the wine, and I’ll bring the cake.”
“What about Nero?”
“What about him?”
“He just hung that sign for you and all, and now you’re going to abandon him?” I laughed.
“He’ll manage for a night.”
“What will I manage?” Nero’s head popped in the doorway as he and Ben walked by with the ten chairs on a pushcart.
“I’m having girls night tonight. You’re on your own.”
“You’re abandoning me?” He grabbed his chest and pretended to fall backward. “Even after I almost died hanging that sign for you.”
“What did I say?” I laughed.
“And I appreciate you didn’t die, but you’ve been hogging my time, and I miss my best friend.”
Nero let out an exaggerated sigh. “That’s okay.” He slapped Ben on the shoulder. “Ben and I have plans.”
“We do?” Ben exclaimed while Lainey and I exclaimed, “You do?” at the same time.
“Dude, go with it,” Nero said with a shake of his head.
“Ugh, we do.”
Nero sighed. “You’re terrible at lying.”
Ben lifted his shoulder, his mouth twitching as his gaze flicked to me.
“You two have fun tonight,” Nero said. “Brady’s tapping a new cask tonight, and I’ve been trying to find out a way to ask you if I could go.”
“Since when do you need permission to do anything?” I stared at Nero, trying to figure out who this man was because he was not my brother.
“Since I am in a committed relationship with the woman I love and want to devote all my time to, and because his past is a bit shady, I’d rather not give my girl the wrong idea.”
Lainey rolled her eyes. “Don’t be an idiot. I trust you. You know that. Go have fun tonight.”
“Am I actually invited?” Ben asked. “Or was I just part of the skit?”
“You’re invited.”
“Great,” Ben said. “Brady makes some awesome whiskey.”
Ben caught my gaze just as before he and Nero pushed the cart around the corner. And that smirk lingered with me far longer than it should have.