Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
“And how is our little consultant doing?”
Winnie grimaced. She’d been dreading this moment for days now, talking to her family about being schlepped with a mediocre faire instead of a grand estate. They’d be embarrassed. Dad would be ashamed. It’d be a whole big thing.
She may as well get this over with.
“Oh, I’m doing great, Dad. Thanks.” Huh. She hadn’t shared as much as she was planning on. Oh, well.
Taking advantage of her day off, Winnie had gone to church that morning, then wandered around Grassington—the gorgeous village near Foxwood—where she’d ultimately found a nearby park to enjoy. There, she sat outside on a bench in the middle of the large, grassy fields, enjoying the first sunshine she’d felt since arriving in Yorkshire.
She didn’t mind rain or clouds, or the hush they brought over the land. But she couldn’t deny how incredible a good, English sunshine felt on her cooled skin.
The fields around her were filled with soccer players kicking balls in the air, dogs chasing after sticks, and families seated on picnic blankets with their lunches spread about them. Did these people know how lucky they were to live in such a location? It was so different from New York. So quaint. So peaceful. So perfect .
“Are you taking charge and making changes?” Dad pressed, his voice glitching on the video call.
“Yep,” Winnie responded simply again, adjusting the earbuds in her ears.
Maybe if she only gave short answers, he’d take the hint and focus on someone else.
Fat chance.
Every Sunday, the Knoxes gathered via the web to chat together as a family from all over the world. North America, Europe, Asia. Then, they would each take turns giving a list of updates on their accomplishments from oldest to youngest.
Mom and Dad had already shared the progress they’d made in their latest trials. Scott had given his spiel as an anesthesiologist at the most prominent hospital in Oregon. Samantha had told them all about her latest build as an architect in Germany. Spencer, the pilot, had no shame in showing off photos of him, his wife, and their new two-month-old baby girl riding elephants and exploring the floating markets during their trip to Thailand. And Sarah had spoken about the progress she’d made at her start-up company as a software engineer in California.
And then…there was Winnie. Win-Win-Winnie who had yet to be impressive to anyone.
“So what changes have you made so far?” Dad asked, clearly not letting her go until he received more info. He had to be desperate to discover something worth praising in her. “And how are the Wintours feeling about it all?”
“Oh, they’re just fine. Pretty open to things.” Minus one of them. “I’m still working through some of the changes, though.”
“What’s the estate like?” Mom asked, her eyes aglow, no doubt desiring to see it for herself.
Mom was just as driven as Dad was, though she was less involved in her kids’ lives. Too busy planning parties and creating charities. Even still, Winnie preferred Mom’s hands-off parenting approach to Dad’s meddling fingers.
Taking the opportunity to distract him from her job, Winnie explained what Foxwood was like, the décor, the size, the drive.
“It’s really opulent,” she said. “Super impressive.”
“Sounds like my kind of house,” Samantha, the architect, joked.
“Wait,” Dad said, and Winnie’s stomach tightened. “So why do they need your help at Foxwood, then, if they’re still so well-off?”
Winnie had walked right into that one. She raced to find a response that Dad would actually believe, glancing around to ensure no one was close to her. She wouldn’t want anyone who might know the Wintours to overhear her words. “So the estate is in really good shape, but Mr. Wintour wants me to help prevent anything that might injure it in the future.”
Dad still appeared hesitant, though he nodded all the same.
Say it now, Winnie. Before your chance is lost.
“And, uh…” She swallowed. “My first job is to improve the faire they have going on here. After that, I’ll be onto something else.”
There. She’d said it. No big deal. Everyone was fine. No one had died. They were all still breathing.
Although, the silence was deafening.
“A fair?” her oldest brother Scott asked. “As in, like, the county fairs they hold with rodeos and fried Twinkies and funnel cakes?”
There was some curiosity in his tone, but a marked judgment sounded louder. “No, it’s not like a county fair,” she rushed to explain. “It’s a renaissance faire more than anything.”
A greater silence than even before met her. She could hear their thoughts as if they all spoke them aloud.
“Wow, Winnie. What a prestigious gig.”
“You didn’t tell anyone you’re a Knox, right?”
“Are you sure you can manage such a strenuous job? ”
What was worse than all of that was the look on Dad’s face—that same old expression he seemed to always wear when speaking with Winnie.
Disappointment.
She wished she was imagining it, but she knew him too well to ever be so hopeful.
“What did you do, Winnie?” he asked.
Winnie frowned. “I didn’t do anything, Dad. It was Mr. Wintour’s suggestion.”
“But that wasn’t what you and he originally agreed on,” he stated, obviously annoyed.
“I know,” Winnie said. “But it’ll be super easy and super quick. Plus, it has the potential to be a big moneymaker, and I have a fairly large budget to manage, so I didn’t see the harm in changing the plan for a few weeks.”
Money always made Dad more accepting of something.
Sure enough, his frown lessened. “Still,” he continued, “that was hardly fair of Arthur. Maybe I should talk to him.”
“No, Dad,” Winnie protested at once, leaning forward on the bench and peering intently into her phone screen. “Really, it’s fine. I can handle it. Plus, it’s giving me extra time and insight into what the estate needs, so it’s killing two birds with one stone.”
To her relief, Dad seemed to relent, though she knew this would not be the last she heard about it.
“So what exactly is at a faire, then?” Mom asked, her eyes straying down to her lap, no doubt where her phone lay. She’d never had a very good attention span.
Winnie shrugged. “It’s just an event that has medieval activities and food and stuff like that. There’s not much to write home about now, but I have big plans for it. Apparently, it’s super important to the Wintours’ son.”
Mom nodded absentmindedly.
“So does it have rides and stuff?” Sarah, Winnie’s closest sibling in age, asked.
“No, but I’m planning on bringing them in,” Winnie said .
“That’s the only way to entertain kids,” Scott piped in. His wife next to him nodded vigorously. “That and food.”
Winnie logged the information away.
“So if they don’t have rides, what do they have?” Dad asked, still skeptical.
“Um…” she winced inwardly, knowing what would happen the moment she continued. “Jousting is their main event.”
Sure enough, a few of her siblings laughed.
“Wait,” Spencer said, holding his newborn over his shoulder, gently patting his back as he bounced up and down. “Like, what they did in high school, LARPing and stuff?”
“Yep. In full armor and everything.”
Spencer laughed. “Those kids were so weird.”
“Seriously though,” Samantha agreed.
Winnie looked away, frowning at her family’s lack of decorum. She’d seen those kids in high school cosplaying and LARPing to their hearts’ content. They weren’t weird. Just different.
And what was so bad about being different? She couldn’t help but envy those kids who’d been able to throw social norms to the wind and do what they’d wanted. They had been some of the happiest, most genuine, most kind people at the school.
Of course, she couldn’t say the same thing about Matthew, as he was bordering on being the rudest person she’d ever met. But she would never stoop to calling him weird for following a passion that brought him joy.
And yet, hadn’t she called him that very thing when he’d ridden toward her in the rain in full armor the night they’d met? Her exact words used to describe him had been “crazy-pants,” had they not?
She groaned inwardly at her cruelty. It was time to make up for it, even if no one knew what she’d done but herself.
“Actually,” she began, interrupting her family’s laughter, “it’s pretty cool what these knights do. They ride toward each other with these huge lances and try to knock each other off their horses. It’s pretty crazy.”
“Crazy is right,” Spencer said, shaking his head again.
Winnie frowned. She’d meant crazy-cool, not crazy-weird.
“Yeah, good luck dealing with that, Winnie,” Scott said next.
“And good luck trying to make the event actually worth seeing,” Spencer joked.
Winnie clamped her mouth shut. This was only making things worse, as was evident by Dad’s face. With each new joke from his sons’ mouths, he’d frowned deeper and deeper.
“But, hey,” Spencer continued, “maybe if you finally come out on top with this one, you’ll have enough experience so Dad doesn’t have to get you your jobs anymore.”
That was a low blow. But then, it was true, which was why no one came to her defense.
Winnie had tried to be herself around her family, but she had always been the odd one out. The one who’d failed out of medical school due to the smell of cadavers. The one who’d failed to become a chef due to not knowing the difference between baking powder and baking soda. The one who couldn’t be a dental hygienist, a teacher, a computer programmer, or a thousand other things under the sun, all for one weird reason after another.
And the one thing she’d actually been good at—the one thing she’d actually wanted to pursue? That hadn’t been good enough for a Knox.
But hey, she was a successful consultant. Of course, she was still bearing the brunt of her family’s jokes. Never mind that her feelings were hurt continuously. At least the rest of them fit in, right?
To her relief, the conversation soon shifted away from her, and she lost interest as Dad spoke again, recounting their latest court win. Her eyes wandered away from the screen as she mentally listed pleasant things around her to bring back the peace she’d felt before.
The sunshine on her cheeks. Brown and blue birds flying overhead, chasing each other across clear skies. A couple smiling at each other as they walked their creamy-colored dog that sniffed along the dirt path. A family playing in the grass beyond her with a soccer ball, two girls giggling as they ran across the grass.
“No hands!” shouted the father in the fields, his back to Winnie as he propped his hands on his hips.
His daughters, who had to be younger than six, ran toward the ball he’d just kicked, then picked it up again with their hands.
“I said, no hands, munchkins!” the father shouted again.
His voice was loud, but the exaggeration to his gruff tone and the laughter from the girls revealed this was part of the game as much as kicking the ball was.
The dad chased after them, and Winnie smiled as the girls ran away with delighted squeals.
A buzz in her hand drew her attention back to her phone and the conversation occurring in her earbuds—Mom speaking of the upcoming family reunion that year skiing in Park City.
Winnie hardly heard, her eye catching on the text message that popped down from the top of her screen instead.
Still on the call, she read the message from her older sister.
Sarah
You okay?
Good, ole Sarah. Winnie should’ve known she’d reach out.
Winnie loved all of her siblings, but she’d always liked Sarah the best. She had been the most inclusive of Winnie’s different sensibilities. She didn’t judge her for not being married, not having children, not knowing what she wanted to do in life.
Mostly, in part, because Sarah was the same way. Childless. Husbandless. She’d only fallen into becoming a software engineer in the last few years, but it had bumped her up in Dad’s estimations instantly. Winnie had always believed the real reason Sarah remained single was because it was easier to have Dad’s approval for her success as an engineer than it was to find his approval for marrying someone.
Winnie tapped out a quick response.
Winnie
Yeah, I’m fine.
Sarah
I just wanted to check after Spencer’s jerk comments. So typical of him to be so stuck-up.
Winnie looked back to the video call. Mom still rattled on about all the skiing trips she’d taken over the years and which one was her favorite and how this year would trump them all.
Winnie
Sadly enough, I’m used to his being a butthead. Thanks for checking, though.
Sarah laughed at Winnie’s text, no doubt with her use of the insult “butthead,” which had fallen out of existence in the last twenty or so years.
She moved back to the video chat, noting Sarah’s eyes averted as she texted instead of listened, too.
Dad was now correcting Mom, saying trips to the Caribbean in the winter were better than skiing.
Being trapped on a ship with her family wasn’t Winnie’s ideal vacation either. In truth, she preferred to stay at home. And by home, she meant anywhere she felt at home with anyone who felt like family—particularly ones who didn’t insult her.
But when was the last time she’d felt that way?
“Now, listen here. No hands this time.”
Winnie glanced back up to the dad’s voice across the field. His back still faced her, the little girls still giggling behind their hands as he pointed at them.
Winnie paused, narrowing her eyes. There was something familiar about the voice. She strained to see across the field of grass, taking in the man’s tall stance and broad shoulders.
Broad shoulders? Her heart thumped .
She focused harder on him, only now seeing the dark, blond curls pulled up in a man bun at the crown of his head.
That hair. She hadn’t known it was long enough to be pulled back, but she could recognize it anywhere.
Matthew.
Sure enough, in the next moment, he kicked the ball to the side and watched as the girls ran after it, his profile finally being revealed to Winnie. He smiled after the girls, and Winnie’s heart skipped a beat.
She thought she’d been admiring a dad playing with his kids in a way she’d never experienced herself before, in a way she’d always wanted as a child. Now, to discover that Matthew—uptight, obsessed with historical accuracy Matthew—was the guy who was lax on the rules? She was reminded again of the first moments after they’d met, how he’d smiled and winked and teased her, and her heart pinched.
She hated this part of being a consultant. Seeing people as their true, happy selves away from her, only to be treated with disdain and anger by them merely because she was doing her job. Honestly, she and Matthew would probably get along were it not for her work. But then, how true had that been for every relationship—professional or friendly—that she’d attempted to make in the last few years?
More laughter sounded as Matthew chased after the two girls running away from him, and her thoughts shifted.
Whose were they, the little girls? His friend’s children? Godchildren? His…his own children?
An unsettled feeling hunkered down in her belly. He wasn’t married. He didn’t wear a ring. Unless, of course, he was just one of those guys who didn’t like wearing them.
Images of her time with him flashed through her vision, the connection they’d shared the day before, the arguments, the battles, then that final moment when his hand had lingered on her wrist.
She frowned. He couldn’t be married. She was…thirty percent sure. Divorced, maybe? Or were these his girlfriend’s kids?
She glanced around, a few seconds later finding a woman who looked a couple years younger than Winnie sitting on a blanket. The woman watched the girls and Matthew with a smile on her face and large sunglasses blocking her eyes. Her hair was dark and long, pulled in a low ponytail.
The wife. The sister. The girlfriend. The friend. Who was she?
Another buzz stole Winnie’s attention.
Sarah
So I doubt you were able to answer honestly with everyone on the chat. Especially Dad. But how is it there, really? And how do you feel about the faire?
Winnie’s mind swirled, attempting to balance her conversation between Sarah and her family—and now the possible discovery about Matthew. She hadn’t done anything inappropriate with him, but she nearly groaned at the mere notion of having been so attracted to an unavailable man.
Winnie
I’m actually kinda excited about it. If it weren’t for Dad’s judgments, I think I’d have fun. There’s a boatload to improve with the faire, but I’m up to the challenge.
The video chat continued, the argument carrying on about where they really should spend their family reunion. But Winnie was hardly following right now.
Matthew had just turned around, heading toward the girl on the blanket. A broad smile was on his face—something she’d never seen before.
It was striking. Distracting. Just like that hair on him. He looked like Thor with a man bun .
Her heart fluttered, but she chastised herself immediately. She wouldn’t admire him again until she was sure what his relationship status was.
Moving benches would probably make things easier for herself. But then, surely it was safer to know where he was, so she knew where to avoid looking.
Sarah
That’s awesome! I’m so glad you’re excited about it. You’re going to rock it, as usual. And don’t let Dad or the others get you down. If this is what you want to do, I say go for it.
Sarah always knew how to make Winnie feel better.
Winnie
Thank you! You’re the best. The jousting isn’t as weird as Spencer was saying, either. It’s actually really fun. The knights are awesome to see, too.
The knights . Plural. Not just one in particular.
Sarah
So there really are full blown knights there?
Winnie
Yeah. It’s pretty cool.
Sarah
And are they as knightly as the movies make them out to be?
Winnie smiled, then hesitated. She chewed on her lower lip before sending the next text. She could tell what happened to her, all the while omitting that she found the man attractive. That was definitely okay.
Winnie
Kinda. One actually rescued me the other day.
Three dots instantly pulled up.
Sarah
Wait, what?
Winnie
My car got stuck in the mud at the estate, and a knight appeared and pushed the car out of the mud for me.
Sarah
OH MY GOSH. That is the most legit thing I’ve ever heard in my life. You were literally saved by a knight in shining armor. Please tell me he’s hot.
Winnie smiled, then glanced up at Matthew, who now sat next to the woman. They weren’t close to each other. They weren’t even touching. And both their eyes were focused on the girls. That seemed more like a sibling relationship than anything. And Dad had mentioned the Wintours having a son and a daughter.
Or was she just being hopeful? Either way, she couldn’t be sure. And she wouldn’t risk being disrespectful to him or the woman he sat beside. Just in case.
“Winnie?”
Winnie almost jumped, looking back down to her phone where her mom had spoken to her on the call.
“Sorry, the connection is super glitchy,” Winnie lied.
“I was just asking where you’d choose to have Christmas this year,” Mom repeated. “Everyone’s opinion needs to be taken into account.”
Winnie had heard that before, but being in the minority, her opinion never mattered. “I’m good wherever,” she stated, just like always .
Then she glanced back to where Matthew sat. Her heart lurched as their eyes caught.
Matthew swiftly darted his gaze away, but not before Winnie recognized the truth. He had been staring at her.
And her heart jumped again.