Epilogue #2
It had quickly become obvious to both of us that my passion was for the vineyard and winery, while his was for the hospitality end of things.
It made us a good team. We’d agreed just last week on a name for the winery.
I’d had to convince him it wouldn’t be cheesy, and that I wouldn’t have anything too flowery or girly on the labels.
When the design that I’d run by my marketing team had come back, I’d had a few dozen bottles of blueberry wine labeled to show him.
He’d loved it, and I couldn’t wait to show a bottle to Cara today.
I had a couple of bottles chilling in a cooler in the trunk.
Neither Declan nor I could work the vineyard full time.
We were both too busy. I was secretly hoping that some of the younger Hargraves or Whittakers would show an interest and eventually want to come on board with us.
Time would tell. Either way, Dec and I had both hired a lot of people to help get things off the ground and running over the next few years.
It felt like our futures were laid out before us beautifully. Looking back on all that had occurred to bring Cara and me together, it seemed like an impossible dream. But here we were. On the brink of the rest of our lives. I couldn’t be happier.
I pulled my new Land Rover onto the rough gravel drive that marked the private entrance to the vineyards.
Eventually it would be paved, and Declan and I were working with an architect on a huge, trellis-style arch that would greet visitors once his hotel and wedding venue were open for business.
Based on the drawings so far, everything would be both natural and beautiful.
I bumped along the slightly uneven drive, and Cara’s eyes opened.
“Oh, the vineyard,” she said softly, opening her eyes and stretching. I tried, and failed, not to stare at her chest as she arched her back to work out some soreness from her muscles. “I love it here.”
“I’m glad.” After parking, I pulled her to me for a long kiss that was supposed to be somewhat chaste but turned hot quickly. I reluctantly moved out of her embrace, worried that we’d end up fucking in the back seat of the Land Rover. That didn’t exactly seem like a classy lead-up to a proposal.
“Where are you going?” she complained, reaching for me and looking so tempting I almost decided to forget about the plans and just focus on her body for the next few hours.
But I’d worked too hard to get everything together.
“Come on,” I said, winking at her and getting out of the car. She grumbled good-naturedly but followed my lead.
“Do you need me to carry anything?” she asked, eyeing the huge basket looped over one arm and the massive quilt under the other. I carried the small cooler in one hand, too, and I could see why she’d think I’d need help.
“Nope.”
“Okay,” she said doubtfully and then ran on ahead of me. “Are we going to your favorite tree?”
“Of course,” I called out. She’d already gotten pretty far ahead of me.
Sunbeams filtered through the trees and danced over her skin and hair as she jogged along in her leotard, tights, and that little skirt ballet dancers wore.
She looked like some sort of real live fairy flitting through the woods.
I didn’t realize I’d stopped walking to watch her until she reached our destination, turned around, and yelled at me.
“What are you doing? Come on.” She started dancing a little under the massive old oak tree Declan had thought we needed to remove.
I’d balked at the idea. The tree’s huge old branches reached out to form a perfect canopy for anyone sitting under it.
It was so large, several picnickers could have fit underneath. But it was just for Cara and me today.
I reached her, and she helped me unfold the quilt in a perfect shady area on the outskirts of the tree’s canopy. It avoided any lumpy roots and was flat enough for a picnic. When we finished and sat down, she reached for the wicker basket.
“Did Orla make lunch? Please say yes. I love her charcuterie, and I’m starving.” She lifted one side of the basket’s double hinged lid and stared inside.
I had originally planned to eat before proposing, but the knotted pit in my stomach told me that wasn’t happening.
I had to ask first, or I wouldn’t be able to relax enough to enjoy the food and wine.
“Hold up a minute,” I said, opening the cooler.
“I want to show you something.” I pulled out a bottle of the blueberry wine.
“This is the first bottle of wine we made at the winery.” I thought about all the test bottles that had been too sweet, not sweet enough, and so on.
“Well, it’s the first bottle after we decided the wine was good,” I amended.
“How exciting,” her eyes sparkled as she reached for a corkscrew.
“Wait,” I said. She stopped, her eyes shooting up to mine questioningly. “Look at the label,” I urged.
She turned the bottle and stared at it for a moment. Her lips parted a little as she looked back up at me. “Oh my God.” Her hand went to her chest. “I love it. Is this…”
“About you and me? Yes.”
“That’s what you’re calling it? First Love?”
I nodded, looking at the label again. I had gone through about fifty designs before I was satisfied with it.
It was simple, with ‘First Love’ written in a nice, easy-to-read font and surrounded by a grapevine heart.
I’d used shades of black and gray on a cream background.
“It’s First Love Winery from Ashton Orchards at Wixby River Farms. Has a nice sound, huh? ”
“It does, but it’s a mouthful.” She glanced at it again. “Oh, but it looks good.” She ran her perfectly manicured finger over the small script at the very bottom of the label where ‘Ashton Orchards at Wixby River Farms’ was printed.
“Yeah,” I conceded. “I’d imagine people will just call it First Love Winery, but the long one is the official name.”
“It sounds very fancy,” she grinned at me. “Can we get back to the part where that’s about us?”
I looked around the area, thinking of a way to put into words everything I felt for her.
“All of this,” I gestured to the vineyard and winery area, “is a new beginning, or a new chapter at least, in the history of Ashton Orchards.” I looked at her.
“You were my first love so many years ago, and I thought back then that you’d be my only love.
I was right. It just took time and plenty of mistakes before we could start our own new chapter.
So, in a way, this space symbolizes us. It’s a new addition to something old.
Just like meeting up with you again in Charleston and you giving me another chance became a new addition, a fresh start to a love that began when we were fifteen. ”
Her eyes looked shiny now. “I love that.” She looked around and was quiet for a while, a reflective look on her face. “And I think you’re right about all of it.” She grabbed my hand. “I’m honored you named your winery after us.”
“Our winery. I want it to be our winery.” I pulled the ring box out of my pocket, flipped it open, and got on one knee in front of her as she gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
“I want everything I have to be yours. You already have it, especially my heart. You stole it as soon as that frog went down your dress, and I never got it back. It was always yours, even when we were apart.” I looked at her, trying to read the look on her face.
She looked like she was about to cry, but I couldn’t tell if they were happy tears or tears because she was about to let me down easy.
“Please marry me. I love you so damn much, and I always will.”
She was silent for long enough that I started to worry.
Then she threw herself at me and knocked me down.
The two of us collapsed in a heap on the quilt, laughing, and I dropped the ring.
“Yes! Of course I’ll marry you. I’ve always loved you, too, you know.
Even though I tried to forget you, I never could.
I guess I didn’t really want to. I’d love to marry you. ”
I kissed her, and she wrapped her arms around me.
We stayed like that for quite some time, before something painful digging into my back registered in my mind.
“Hold on.” I held her on top of me with one arm, while I dug behind to remove whatever was poking me.
I laughed when I saw what it was and held her ring out to her. “Do you want this?”
She struggled to get off me. “Yes, oh my God. I can’t believe I forgot about the ring. I was so excited,” she breathed. “Let me see.”
I sat up and held it out to her. “Try it on.”
She put it on her finger and gasped. “I love it.” The emerald cut diamond flanked by two emeralds cut in the same style looked perfect on her.
I knew it would fit because I’d taken Livy with me to the jeweler.
I’d had her help me pick it out and try it on since she and Cara had the same size fingers.
“I’m so glad. It looks like it was made just for you.”
“It does. doesn’t it?” She held it, out admiring it. Then her stomach gave a huge, long rumble.
“Hungry?” I grinned at her as her cheeks flushed.
“Clearly.”
We set out the lunch and enjoyed it in a leisurely way as we talked and planned for our future together. We both agreed that we’d like to get married at the winery once the venue Declan was planning was ready. “We can be the first couple to get married here,” she said.
“I like that,” I said, reaching for her.
I couldn’t keep my hands off her, and we ended up making love under the tree.
She’d worried someone might see us, but that ended up just heightening our pleasure and excitement.
She hadn’t been able to stop the loud cry she made when she came, and I didn’t even try to be quiet. I was too gone over her.
Afterwards, we lay on our back on the quilt, staring up through the leaves to catch an occasional peek of the clouds.