Chapter Sixteen
When Reaves arrived at the estate on Thursday morning, he hesitated at the sound of laughter drifting from the terrace out back.
He headed around there instead of going up the front steps, smiling as he passed the sunflowers along the side of the house.
He'd always vaguely known that his dad planted them for his mom, but he didn't know the story.
He didn't really remember his mom. He imagined she must have been a wonderful woman for his dad to have loved her, to still love her, the way he did.
But if he were honest, he'd come to associate the sunflowers more with Zia than with his mom.
That kid really was a little ray of sunshine.
He hurried around the back of the house to discover what all the laughter was about and came out onto the terrace into full morning sun.
The stone was already warm underfoot. Beyond the balustrade, the vines ran away downhill in long green rows, still holding the last of the mist in the low ground, and the hills beyond them had that soft, bleached look they got before the heat really set itn.
The sight of the four of them sitting around the table under the big umbrella made something loosen in his chest. His dad was buttering a piece of toast for Zia. Alara and Faye were giggling like schoolgirls. He hurried to them, desperate to know what that was about.
"Prince Daddy!"
Zia got down from her chair and ran to greet him. He squatted down to scoop her up, and she greeted him with her customary kiss on the cheek.
"You're here in time for breakfast. It's very good breakfast. Mrs. Faye made sure it is, and it's all good for Mom." She glanced back at the table before lowering her voice. "I think Mrs. Faye might be magic, you know."
He chuckled. "I think you might be right. She's like some kind of fairy godmother, isn't she?"
Zia's eyes lit up at that, and she nodded solemnly. "She is." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Do you think she might be one? I think she might."
"It wouldn't surprise me," he told her honestly.
He knew exactly how she felt. With his mom having died when he was so young, Faye had been a central figure in his life. He couldn't think about home without thinking about her.
"Come sit down and join us," called his dad. "There's more than enough to go around."
He took a seat next to Alara, who greeted him with a smile and a mumbled, "Morning."
"Morning." The sun was full on his back already, and the table was a mess of good things—platters, and a coffee pot, and a pitcher of orange juice sweating in the light. He eyed the spare plate in the center, and Faye nodded.
"I didn't set you a place because I wasn't sure that you'd be here, but I brought everything out in case you were."
"Thanks, Faye. You're the best."
He smiled at the way Zia nodded. She was watching Faye carefully now, as if trying to assess whether she really might be a fairy godmother.
He loaded up his plate and laughed when his dad gave him a stern look.
"Don't take everything." He turned to Alara. "You should get some more steak before he eats it all."
"Thanks, but I couldn't. I've eaten so much already."
"And you need to," said Faye. "Steak will give you iron. So will the spinach. Do you want another glass of orange juice? And there's cheese in the eggs."
Reaves winked at Alara as he loaded steak and eggs onto his plate, not feeling guilty in the least. There'd still be food left over even if another three people joined them.
Zia held up a pancake. "Have you ever met a green pancake before?" she asked.
He risked a look at Faye, who narrowed her eyes at him, saying, "You can't taste the spinach."
He chuckled. "No, Z. I've never met a green pancake before, but I'm going to have one as soon as I've eaten all this."
"And you should eat yours, Zia," said Alara. "Don't play with it, eat it."
Zia set her pancake back down and picked up the little plastic bear full of honey. "Does honey have good things in it?" she asked Faye.
"It does," Faye said with great authority, looking as though she was daring Reaves or his dad to challenge her. "It might be sweet, but it has more going for it than plain sugar. And those little bees work so hard and put all kinds of flower goodness into their honey."
As if to prove her point, a bee bumbled past the table on its way to the lavender at the foot of the steps.
Zia grinned and proceeded to drown her pancake in the stuff.
"That's enough, Z," Alara warned.
Zia set the bear back down. "I'll eat it all, Mom, I promise."
Alara laughed. "That's what I'm worried about."
His dad set his napkin down on the table and leaned back in his chair.
"That was wonderful, thank you, Faye." Reaves loved the way he winked at Alara.
"Of course, I don't love that you need it.
But I am very glad that your diet requires so much good food.
" He leaned closer to Zia. "It'd be too bad if we all had to eat liver and onions every day. "
Zia paused with her fork halfway to her mouth, honey dripping off the pancake and onto the tablecloth. She looked thoughtful for a few moments before she said, "It wouldn't be nice. But we'd eat it with her, wouldn't we?" She looked at Alara. "We'd do anything to make you better."
Alara looked so stricken that Reaves couldn't help it. He reached for her hand under the tablecloth and gave it a squeeze.
She took a breath before smiling at Zia. "I know you would. But I'm just as glad as you are that we don't have to." She turned to Faye. "And I'm so grateful to you. This is…" She shook her head, looking at the spread on the table. "You don't have to do this, you know. It's… I can…"
Faye waved a hand at her. "Of course I don't have to. You can ask either of these two how things go when someone tries to tell me I have to do something I don't want to."
His dad chuckled. "I'm going to plead the Fifth on that one."
"And well you should," Faye told him with a smile.
"My point is, Alara, we've all been so worried about you ever since you arrived.
You have to think about us too, you know.
It's a relief to know…" She glanced at Zia.
"That you're going to get better, and that we can help you do it.
I'm glad that I have something concrete I can focus on now.
I'll make sure that you get all the nutrition you need. "
Reaves nodded. "And I'm going to make sure that you get to every appointment you need to go to."
His dad smiled. "And that works out well, because I was already intending to appoint myself as the enforcer of rest."
Reaves almost felt bad at the way Alara gripped his hand tighter and tighter as they all spoke.
It was Zia who released some of the pressure by grinning. "I can just play with you, Mom. And I'll take naps with you if you want me to. I have these guys to help look after you now."
Reaves held his expression neutral, even though Alara's fingernails were digging in so hard they broke his skin.
He could understand it, and he felt bad for her.
He knew Zia had been scared, but he hadn't realized until now just how much weight that little girl felt as though she'd been carrying all by herself.
Nobody said anything. Somewhere out past the terrace, a bird was going through its whole repertoire, and the sound of it only made the quiet at the table louder.
"And what does your day hold, Reaves?" His dad made a clumsy but welcome attempt to break through the awkward silence that had fallen.
Reaves jumped at it. "Whatever any of you guys want. I'm here for the day. In fact, I'm here until Monday."
His dad's eyebrows drew together.
"I mean, every day until Monday," he corrected himself. "I have to go into work for a couple of hours on Monday for the planning meeting and a few other things. But other than that, I'll be around."
"You're not flying at all?" Faye asked with a puzzled look. "Are things quiet at the DuPont place?"
He didn't want to lie. Flights were starting to stack up on the schedule. But while Elliott was free for the next little while, he'd offered to cover for Reaves as much as he could.
Rather than answer, he just gave Faye a shrug and said the truest thing he could. "Things are kind of up in the air at the moment."
He looked past her while he said it, down the side of the house, where the sunflowers stood in a ragged golden line with their heads all turned the same way.
~ ~ ~
Alara made a conscious effort to relax as she sat on the wicker sofa. She was here on the terrace alone now.
Charles had gone about his day. He might not know much about the broader business side of things, but it seemed to her that he definitely knew how to run a winery.
The men and women she'd seen working the vines, and the crew down at the cellar, all seemed to have great respect for him, and he went out to check with them every day.
Faye had returned to the kitchen. She seemed intent on researching and preparing highly nutritious foods loaded with iron and B.
Alara had finally switched from trying to insist that she didn't need to go to all that trouble, to thanking her profusely—although she already knew that was wearing thin on Faye.
At some point she'd have to just get used to it and accept graciously.
Zia and Reaves had run around the lawn for a while, chasing each other, but now they'd gone off to water the sunflowers.
Reaves had told her that his dad planted them in memory of his mom, and she loved that, without knowing, Zia had become a part of that.
She didn't think Reaves was aware, but they were both children who only had one living parent.