Chapter 8
After everyone left, Harper poured herself another glass of wine, wrapped herself in a blanket, and sat outside on the veranda with nothing but the fracas of the nocturnal animals to keep her company. Every so often, the echoes of trucks passing by on the New England Highway reminded her that not everyone was asleep and the world existed beyond the vineyard.
The air was warmer tonight, the cold snap that had presented itself the night before was gone, and the temperature increased slightly, which was great for the vineyard. She’d hate to see a year’s worth of crop disappear just because of a temperature drop. It happened on more than one occasion, and for a small vineyard, it could prove disastrous.
A vineyard.
The idea that she owned a vineyard and an inn with Brookes seemed surreal, like the announcement at dinner had been a dream. What in the hell had Hugh Mathers been thinking leaving it to them? Her and Brookes weren’t even together. Hugh had to have made a mistake. Harper’s life was in the city, not here, in wine country. She couldn’t just drop everything and come back. She had a career to go back to, an apartment, and…and what? Friends, lovers. The more she thought about it, the more she started to question her entire existence. There was a job and an empty apartment with the bare minimum of decor. Had she been living or just purely existing?
‘Thought you’d be asleep by now,’ Leo said, walking up the steps.
‘After that announcement?’
‘It was a little unexpected,’ he said, taking a seat in the spare chair beside her.
‘A little? Georgia has known about this for almost a year and only now we find out.’
‘You heard her. They had to investigate first. Ensure that no one was going to contest it,’ he said. ‘So, are you still planning on leaving tomorrow?’
She sighed and took a sip of the wine. She thought she saw movement in the vineyard, then a shadow bounced towards the road. A wallaby or kangaroo. This was their home, too.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Do you have to be back at work?’
‘I can rearrange a few things.’
‘Do that,’ he said. ‘And talk to Brookes. You owe him at least that.’ Leo got up. ‘It’s getting late, and we have an early start tomorrow.’
‘What’s happening tomorrow?’
‘Be up at dawn and you’ll find out.’
He went back in the house while she remained outside, staring at the vines in the distance, more confused now than she had been when she first arrived. The trip here was supposed to be quick. Get in and get out without fuss, then return to her life. How was she supposed to deal with an inheritance? It complicated everything.
Harper finished the wine and retreated inside. She washed up, gave the benches another wipe, then walked through the house, making sure the doors and windows were locked, before stopping in the sitting room when she noticed an old photo album sitting on the side table. She picked it up and sat down in the reading chair and turned the first page. Her gaze paused on each image; memories came rushing back. It was incredible how a single image could trigger a memory thought to have disappeared for good. Harper smiled as she found a picture of her and her siblings sitting on the back of a tractor. She couldn’t see the driver in the image, but she remembered it was her father. Probably the last time he drove them in it. It had been the end of the spring holidays; she remembered, because it was her last term of primary school. They were celebrating the crop that had survived a harsh winter and looked promising for the harvest. A few weeks later, on their way back from the city, they never made it home. Georgia had raised them ever since.
Flicking through the pages, she found more recent photos from high school and during her breaks from university. They should not have been surprised she’d left. She hadn’t studied business to stay in a country town. Harper wanted something more. She wanted an adventure, a life away from a twenty-four-hour a day job that one year could be a success and the next a disaster, each season like a lottery. She wanted a bit more certainty than that, a bit more control. Did she have that, though? Harper wasn’t so sure anymore. But Leo was right, she should talk to Brookes, and now she didn’t really have a choice.
The last page of the photo album made her stop. There were two images. A photo of her and her siblings all together around the table, sipping wine. They all looked so much younger, so full of life and energy, without the woes of the world on their shoulders. The second photo was of her and Brookes, arms around each other, smiling as if nothing else mattered in the world but them. Not long after that photo was taken, everything had changed, and then she’d left. Now, she wondered if she’d made the right decision.