Chapter One Ashley #2
I have no idea what goes on in that head of hers, but it’s nothing normal, that’s for sure.
The relief I feel walking back into the shop from the bathroom is short-lived when I see Tiff smiling brightly at me.
“Don’t even start. It’s just tea leaves in a cup, not some portal to the future.” I reach down and pick up my bag.
“Say whatever you like, but you can’t stop the universe when it decides it’s your time to shine.” She waves her hands in the air at me. “Big hands that he knows how to use, yeah, baby.”
“You are ridiculous, you know that? But I’m not going to lie, my own hand is getting a little tired of being the only one I get. Now go wash my cup and make sure you use plenty of soap to scrub away whatever spell you cast in it. I’m perfectly happy in my own little place of bliss.”
The bell above the teahouse door rings as I walk outside, and I can’t help but shake my head at what just happened.
I hope the rest of the day is quiet and a lot less crazy than the last twelve hours.
The last thing I need is a man to complicate my life when I’ve finally found the place where I belong.
Which is happily being all on my own.
Jake
I almost made it.
Pulling into the gas station in Rocky Cedars, I’m only twenty minutes from Gran’s house in Abbey Falls, but I remember Gramps always complaining that you can never guarantee old Jed’s garage in town will be open. So, better to be safe than sorry.
Walking to the counter to pay, I see the old guy behind it eyeing me up and down.
“You’re one of Noel and Betty’s grandsons, aren’t you?” he says. “Yeah, I recognize you from the funeral. Noel was a good man. God rest his soul.” And his words stab right into my heart.
It’s been ten days since he passed, and it still feels so raw.
“Yes, I am and thank you.” I indicate that I don’t want to talk about it, but this guy isn’t taking the hint.
I’m stressed, tired, grumpy, and seeing this guy getting ready to wind up into a lengthy discussion about the man I loved unconditionally and who was my ultimate hero .
. . I just don’t think I can do it. Not that I don’t want to hear how Gramps was beloved all over the area, I just can’t bear it today.
Not until I have had some more time for the grief to settle. It’s all just too fresh.
Before he opens his mouth, I cut him off.
“Sorry, buddy, I’m in a hurry to get to Gran’s. She’s waiting for me. Just paying on debit, thanks.” Holding my card near the machine, I cross everything in me that it goes through.
He cracks a crooked smile at me and I feel a little ashamed for using Gran’s name that way. “Well, we can’t have you late to Betty’s place. We all know how that woman runs a tight ship on Heatherbrae Vines, and in Abbey Falls too, for that matter. She may as well be the mayor.”
I tap my card and hold my breath. The word approved shows on the screen and I start breathing again. I know there is money in the account but there’s always that fear of the bank freezing my account.
“What’s the plans for the vineyard now Noel is gone? Guess you’ll be selling.”
It’s a question that really bugs me, but I could hear all the old people at the funeral muttering it among themselves as well.
“Business as usual,” I reply as I grab the receipt from his hand and walk out to my truck.
“Sort of,” I mumble to myself as I head out of the gas station.
My mind wanders back to the morning after the funeral where Gran had us all together, and she was sitting eagerly awaiting the lawyer to start reading out Gramps’s will.
She already knew what it contained but seemed keen for us all to hear it together.
It was the regular stuff—most of it went to Gran and all the kids got some mementos, keepsakes.
Mine was his wood-carving knife he used to whittle little things out of the fallen branches from the big white oak tree on the farm that we buried him under. Something I will treasure forever.
Then he started on a letter that Gramps had left for us boys.
Heatherbrae Vines was bought to be a family legacy for my grandchildren.
My age and health never saw my dreams come to fruition.
Although I know this is a lot to ask, I want my four grandsons, Beckett, Declan, Jake, and Chase to move to Heatherbrae like we always planned and bring it to life.
I wish for them to live with their grandmother for the twelve months following my death.
Build our vision. The one we mapped out so many times when they all visited over the years while sitting around the firepit.
Life always got in the way, but time is a precious thing which can be taken away easily, so now I’m relying on them all to do it without me.
The time for this is now. Once they have completed this task, then their grandmother will sign over the ownership of Heatherbrae Vines to the four of them, with the stipulation that she continues to live in our home until she passes. This is my dying wish.
Shock settled over all of us. It went on to say the girls would inherit a cash equivalent if the letter’s wishes were fulfilled. But more than anything, the four of us boys were suddenly the center of attention.
There was no way I wasn’t packing up my life and moving to Abbey Falls for a year out of respect for the man I idolized.
And the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like perfect timing.
I could do with putting some temporary space between me and my problems, and Heatherbrae’s not what it used to be when Gramps was in his prime.
Only five minutes down the road from the gas station, I cross the county line and see the sign that greets every visitor.
Welcome to Abbey Falls
Population 2902
And that’s when it hits me. Someone better get out here with their paint because there is about to be a change in that number, Gramps may have left this town, but they are about to get four more just like him.
Well, three, because there is no way my brother Beckett is like Gramps.
Far from it. And I’m not even sure if he will show up, unless it’s to be the boss of the remodel.
Beckett deserves an award for being a controlling asshole—just like he aced all his grades in school and business college, it’s something Beckett excels at.
I doubt he’s failed anything in his life.
I swallow down the bitter wish I could say the same.
Rolling down my truck window, I rest my elbow on the door and let my hand fall out with fingers spread and allow the cool air to run through them.
It may be April, but the spring air still has that crispness to it.
Leaning over, I take in a deep breath and the scent of Abbey Falls fills me.
That distinct pine aroma reminds me of all the years I spent here on school break with my cousins.
I can almost feel my shoulder tension releasing as I look toward the hills full of pine and fir trees that border the town. Abbey Falls feels more like home than Sacramento, despite living there for twelve years. That place I’d hoped to build my life, family, and future feels more like a prison.
The roads here are nothing like in the city.
You feel every single bump and pothole, and in some places, the roads aren’t even wide enough for two cars to pass without going off onto the grass on the side.
But the slow pace of living here means that no one is in a rush, and with a smile and the friendly wave of a hand, you both maneuver past each other.
I’m close to Heatherbrae now, and with a grin I press Answer as my phone rings in its holder.
“Hi, Declan,” I say happily.
“Jake, you there yet?” Declan’s voice fills my cabin.
“How did you know? Just driving up to Heatherbrae now.”
“And will be getting a delicious Gran special for dinner, while I’ll probably be grabbing a pizza on my way home from basketball practice.
” Declan groans and I can’t resist a smile, Gran’s cooking really is second to none.
“How has it only been a week since we were all there? I’m already missing her cooking.
I’d forgotten how good it was.” He chuckles to himself.
“Not sure how Gran fed us all, but she never complained and there was always plenty to go round.” It was chaos when my siblings and all my cousins arrived at Heatherbrae for our holiday stay with them. So many of my best memories of my childhood happened on Heatherbrae.
“I know, and sitting around the firepit last week with you boys smoking Gramps’s best cigars really brought home how much we will miss him. He will be sitting up there, looking down on us, chuckling at us sneaking in to get his cigar box like we were kids again.”
We both start laughing.
“Remember when we stole those cigars and climbed that big old white oak and then Chase coughed so hard he fell out the tree and broke his arm in three places?” I can still hear Beckett’s lecture the whole way back to the house, how it was a bad idea and “that’s what we get for doing something we weren’t supposed to.
” My brother has always been old for his age and a controlling know-it-all, even as a kid.
“Yeah and how Gramps covered for us but then spent the next few weeks giving us extra chores as our punishment,” Declan replies, sending me back to those memories of Gramps’s secret smirk as he sent us off to walk the vines and count grapes—which was a useless exercise—or rake the gravel driveway that he would then drive his truck down at speed and fling it all over the place again, and all sorts of random chores that really didn’t need to be done.
I mean, who rakes a gravel driveway on a working farm.