CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Naomi
It was Thursday afternoon, and we had two days until opening day.
While we didn’t open the tasting room every day of the week until late June, we still had a lot to take care of before Saturday.
However, we also needed to train new staff on what we required of them when the tasting room wasn’t open.
Typically, staff were scheduled to help with the bottling process in the barn, roam the rows of vines to check on growth, make sure there wasn’t any rot or fungus growing on the grapes, and help package up cases of wine to ship to the mainland.
Today though, I was busy teaching Brittany how to get the siphon going from the demi to the bottles while Damon—who had finished all his school work—was teaching Corbin how to use the corker, and Amy was showing Tova how to wash bottles with the special bottle washer in the industrial sink, when two voices coming toward the open barn door pulled my attention.
Even though I hadn’t seen or heard from Lennox since that awkwardness in the driveway on Monday night, my heart did a happy little pitter-patter in my chest when I realized it was him and Mabel.
I was determined not to let the awkwardness bleed into today, and approached him with a big smile.
“Hey, stranger.” I nodded at Brittany, who seemed to get the siphoning process and proceeded to start filling the bottles.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked toward him and Mabel, but it definitely wasn’t him instantly wrapping an arm around my waist and going in for a kiss.
I was lightheaded immediately.
“What brings you two by?” I glanced at my watch. “Oh, wow. Is it four o’clock already?”
“Actually,” Lennox said, glancing at his daughter. “It was Mabel’s idea.”
“Oh?” I turned to Mabel, who seemed to have laser-focus on Damon. She left her dad’s side and marched up to him.
“Hello, Damon,” she said.
Damon’s gray-blue eyes narrowed. “Uh … hey.”
“Would you like to go birdwatching with me tomorrow?” she asked.
I glanced at Lennox and he wore a cute little smirk on his face.
“B-birdwatching?” Damon asked. “Like, watching birds?”
“Yes.” She had her hands clasped behind her back and her shoulders straight. “That is the definition of birdwatching. I enjoy birdwatching and I would like to know if you would like to join me.”
“Uh …”
Lennox smothered his snort with a cough and his fist. I elbowed him.
“What do you like to do when you go birdwatching?” Damon asked, which was a fair question. At this point, everyone in the barn was watching this adorable teenage tête-à-tête.
“You watch birds,” Mabel said slowly, like she was speaking to a child.
“But, like, do you talk?”
“No. That startles the birds. I sit very still and very quiet, and observe them, and I also sketch them.”
“Do I have to sketch them?”
“Only if you want to.”
“Could I bring a book and read, or play on my phone?”
“As long as you’re quiet.”
“Uh …”
Mabel sighed. “We are about the same age. We are both homeschooled. Which makes it very difficult to socialize with people our own age. This is why I am asking you if you would like to socialize with me. It also makes sense since your aunt—who is not actually your aunt, but in fact your first cousin once removed—is in a relationship with my father. We will be around each other, so we may as well see if we have anything in common and have the potential to become friends. Apparently, I need a friend.”
Damon’s mouth hung open like a confused codfish. “Okay.”
Mabel nodded again. “I will have my dad drop me off here in the morning on his way to school. We could do our schoolwork together, then go bird watching. Goodbye.”
“Bye?” Damon gave a half-hearted wave as Mabel turned around and walked toward Lennox and me.
“I’ll be in the truck,” she said to Lennox, her gaze forward, hands now at her sides, but her fingers doing their twitchy stimming thing.
“Did you know she was going to do that?” I asked him in a hushed voice.
He nodded. “It was all her idea. Surprised the shit out of me too. But I did what you said and mentioned to her about maybe finding some friends. She took it seriously and decided Damon made the most sense since they’re about the same age, both homeschooled, and she knows his family.”
“Very practical of her.”
“Yeah, and she didn’t even have any nerves or anxiety about it on the drive over. She was rehearsing what she would say, but seemed hellbent on seeing if he’d like to go birdwatching with her.”
I smiled. “I think it’s really sweet.”
“He’ll probably be bored out of his skull, but hopefully he humors her a little.”
“The kid’s getting pasty. The sun will be good for him.”
His throat moved on a swallow and he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. “Listen … about Monday …”
“It’s fine,” I said quickly. “After some reflection, I probably should have called you—”
“No. You handled it all correctly. While, yes, she is my kid and I would do anything for her, she also needs to learn how to let other people help her, as well as treat her own panic attacks. I’m sorry if I made it seem like I didn’t approve of how you did things.”
I glanced down at the ground. “It’s okay.”
“I’m also sorry I haven’t been in touch all week. The last three days have just whipped by and I feel like such an ass for not reaching out sooner.” He grabbed my hand and ran his thumb over my knuckles. “What are you up to tonight?”
I lifted one brow. “Making dinner for my kids, putting on my lounge pants with the elastic waistband, and reading until I fall asleep and my book falls on my face.”
That made him chuckle. “Can I tempt you with something else?”
“I dunno, bro. Didn’t you just hear how epic my plans are?”
“I’d like to take you on a proper date. I was thinking I could pack a picnic and we could go sit in the back of my truck, maybe back at that Heaven’s Leap or something?
Look at the stars, eat, talk, and just be together.
What do you think? I could pack some blankets and pillows, set up a little nest in the back so we stay warm. ”
The idea of being cuddled up with Lennox in the back of his truck sounded all kinds of idyllic to me, but I had to keep myself in check. I had subordinates behind me, and even though I couldn’t see them, I knew they were being nosy because none of them had said a word in quite a while.
Slowly, I nodded. “That sounds like a nice evening. I think I can rearrange my calendar to accommodate such a last-minute invitation.”
His smirk turned into a wide, captivating grin, and the corners of his eyes crinkled. “Thank you for making adjustments to your day planner to accommodate me.”
My cheeks were warm, and I broke eye contact and glanced down at the ground again.
He still had hold of my hand and tugged me toward him. “I’ll see you tonight then.”
I nodded and met his gaze. “Can’t wait.”
His smile turned spicy, and he bobbed his eyebrows up and down. Then he swooped in for a quick peck and was gone.
Only once the truck engine started and we heard the crunch of gravel under tires did anyone make any noise.
“Damon’s got a date!” Corbin exclaimed. “Right on, dude. She’s a little weird though. Never been on a birdwatching date before.”
I went up to my nephew. “You okay?” I asked him gently.
He was still in a confused, and perhaps now-stunned, codfish-mode. “Do I have a date?”
I looped my arm around his shoulder and pulled him in for a side hug. “Maybe. She’s a great kid, and so are you. Just be friends. You both need a few, hmm?”
He made a noise of half-hearted agreement in his throat before snapping out of his fog and getting back to work.
“What the hell do you wear on a birdwatching date?” he muttered mostly to himself but also to Corbin as he went back to demonstrating the corker.
“Khaki?” Corbin suggested. “Or a bird costume so you blend in?”
Amy, Tova, and Brittany all snorted.
“You can’t wear overalls on a date,” Gabrielle said emphatically as my cousins sat on her bed while I zipped and unzipped different outfits in front of them. “I simply won’t allow it.”
My head popped through the neck hole of a satiny, peach-colored top, and I glared at her. “You don’t have a say.”
Danica and Raina both chuckled behind their hands.
“See, it may seem like we’re all autonomous creatures, but ultimately, we do defer to our matriarch. And if Gabrielle told me I couldn’t wear overalls on a date—”
“You never would though,” Danica said to Raina. “None of us would, besides Nay.”
Raina shrugged. “Either way, if Gabrielle told me not to, I’d listen. Because I’m a good girl.”
“You’re a brat,” I shot back at her, turning around to check myself out in the full-length mirror. I made a face of discontent. “I don’t think pastels are my color.”
“They’re not,” Gabrielle said quickly. “Take it off. It’s washing you out.”
“Can I make a suggestion?” Danica asked, getting up from the bed.
She went to the pile of clothes that they’d all brought from their closets for me to try on and sifted through until she brought out a pair of cute, wide-legged jeans and a black crop top T-shirt.
“What about something like this? It’s cute, it’s casual, it’s sexy.
You’re not going to some shmancy restaurant for dinner.
You’re going to sit in the dark in the back of his truck.
To me, this outfit is perfectly appropriate for a date like that. ”
Gabrielle’s brows narrowed like she didn’t approve, but I was already unbuttoning the dark-gray dress slacks she’d insisted I try on, and shimmying out of them.
I tugged on the jeans and they fit perfectly since Danica and I were the same size. Gabrielle was on the slimmer side. So was Raina. So they tended to be able to share pants more often. Danica and I both had voluptuous booties that required a bit more space in the back of our pants.