Chapter 5
FIVE
ANNIE
Annie didn’t even know what made her say yes when Leah Whitaker texted her during the first week of December, letting her know that their group of girls from high school was getting together for a little Christmas wine tasting at Norwich Vineyard and would love to see her if she was free.
Well, Annie was free, so here she was sitting in the parking lot of the vineyards killing time on her phone.
She wasn’t nervous about seeing her friends—they had all known each other since diapers—it was just that she wasn’t really sure if they were truly friends anymore, beyond having a shared childhood.
When college came, they had all spread out in different directions.
Annie headed off to DC to attend Georgetown, Leah and Fran roomed together at NYU, Nikki went to college in Florida, Becca stayed local, and Rachel said fuck it all and took the money her parents had given her for college and started a successful baby gear rental service.
But like clockwork, each of her friends had one-by-one moved back to Wellington Point with a husband and a baby or two in tow to settle down and raise a family, and for the life of her, Annie couldn’t understand why. It was Wellington Point—the one place she always couldn’t wait to leave.
Annie scanned the tasting room as she pushed her way through the doors, looking for familiar faces and finding none. She took a breath, centering herself before walking up to the bar where a brunette was crouched down, rummaging in a fridge below the counter’s surface.
“Hi, welcome to Norwich Winery,” she said, standing up and straightening her posture, but as she did, a smile was already waiting on Annie’s lips.
“You’re everywhere, aren’t you?” Annie said with a smirk as she looked directly at that familiar freckled face.
It was Max. Max, who was everywhere Annie seemed to be these days.
“I could say the same about you.” Max grinned.
A tiny twinge pulled somewhere deep inside Annie, one that she hadn’t felt in years. Whatever it was, she stuffed the feeling away. “You work here too?” she asked, confusion attaching itself to her question.
“No, I just really love coming here on a Saturday to stand behind the bar,” Max said, sarcasm practically falling off her words.
“Who am I to ruin your fun then?” Annie offered back, returning Max’s playful smile.
“You? Ruin it? Never.” A long pause passed in the space between them, filled only by the expanse of the mahogany bar top. “So, tasting?”
Annie laughed, genuinely enjoying Max’s quickness and snark. “Yeah, actually, I’m meeting some friends. I think there’s a table saved for us. It should be under Leah Whitaker.”
“So you’re the special VIP table. Who knew you were so well-connected?”
Annie blinked because there it was again, that tone.
The one that was a little too playful to be considered just polite, but not suggestive enough to be considered full-blown flirting.
Was that what was happening here? Was Max flirting with her?
Annie couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be flirted with by anyone other than Caroline.
And if this was flirting, Annie liked it.
Heat rose in her cheeks as she glanced around. “Oh yes, extremely well connected,” she said awkwardly, drumming her fingers on the countertop before meeting Max’s gaze.
Max tilted her head slightly, her dark hair moving in a fluid sheet. She grabbed a few glasses and walked out from behind the bar. “You can come with me.” She nodded in the direction of a high-top table set up close to the end of the bar.
Annie followed—sneaking the quickest glance at Max’s ass in tight black jeans which looked even more perfect than the other day at Mae’s Tavern—but a squeal of delight drew her attention away.
“Annie Banannie!” Leah flung her arms around her, catching Annie completely off guard. She glanced at Max, who smiled, mouthing Annie Banannie at her. Annie rolled her eyes.
“Hey, Leah,” she said, taking a step back.
Leah had always been their group’s social butterfly.
She planned all the get-togethers, reunions, and holiday meet-ups post-college.
Still, when Annie had started building her life with Caroline in DC, those invitations began to drop off, even around the holidays.
Actually, Annie couldn’t think of the last time she had received a text from Leah.
Max quietly disappeared into the hustle and bustle of the tasting room, busy with the holiday rush no doubt, as Annie and Leah each slid onto stools around the hightop table.
One by one, her friends arrived, with Fran last. Annie was glad to know that at least some things never changed.
With each delighted, “Oh my God, how are you, it’s been too long,” Annie couldn’t help but glance at Max, who always happened to be looking her way at those very moments, causing that heat in her cheeks to rise even more.
Max appeared with the first bottle for the tasting.
“Alright, ladies,” she said with a smile, her voice sounding more chipper than Annie had ever heard it, which only intrigued her more.
“We’re starting with our award-winning sauvignon blanc.
” She tilted the bottle in her hands, pouring the pale yellow, almost clear liquid into the glasses on the table.
Annie reached for her glass, swirling it slightly, bringing it to her nose and inhaling deeply, the scent of honeysuckle and citrus—grapefruit if she had to guess—filling her nostrils.
Tilting her head back, she took a small sip, the sharp crispness of the wine cold on her tongue. Yup, definitely grapefruit.
“As you sip, pay attention to the notes you’re getting. Any guesses?”
“Stone fruit,” Leah said. Max shook her head no.
“Honeydew? That’s always in white wines, right?” Becca giggled.
Again, Max shook her head no.
“Grapefruit,” Annie said, taking another sip to be sure. “And citrus, lemon probably, and honeysuckle.”
Max beamed, and Annie felt like she was glowing under that smile. “We have a winner. Yes, our award-winning sauvignon blanc is aged in stainless steel barrels until it reaches that perfect dryness that it’s known for.”
“When did you learn so much about wine, Annie?” Fran teased.
Annie shrugged, looking at Max once more. “Lucky guess.”
Max left the group to work through their tasting pours before returning with another bottle when each of their glasses was empty. At the end of the tasting, Annie ordered herself a glass of the chenin blanc, a surprise favorite of hers, considering she was usually a red wine drinker.
“Great choice,” Max whispered above her shoulder as she reached around Annie, setting the glass on the table, moving on to hand Rachel her dessert wine.
“So Annie, now that you’re back in Wellington Point, think you’ll be sticking around for a while?” Fran asked, lifting her glass of sparkling wine to her lips.
Annie fought the urge to respond with an emphatic fuck no, but she stopped herself.
“I’m not really sure yet. Technically, I still work out of DC.
I’m working remotely right now, but that’s only through the end of the year,” she answered, aware that Max was lingering at the table as their eyes met once again.
“What do you do again? Something with numbers, yeah? You were always so good at math,” Nikki said.
“Accounting,” Annie answered, slightly annoyed because this wasn’t new information to the group. She had been an accountant since she graduated from undergrad. “You know me. I’ve always loved numbers.”
“Are you and Caroline finally going to settle down and pop out some kids?” Rachel asked, a delighted look spreading across her face. “You two would make the cutest babies. Your genes would mix really well.”
Rachel’s comment hit in layers. First, the incorrect assumption that the move here had been a co-decision between her and Caroline.
Second, the absolutely laughable understanding of how babies were created—astounding considering she had two; and third, the fact that Annie’s reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
A heat flared in her chest, but she extinguished it just as fast. She had no right to be annoyed that her friends didn’t know about the breakup. She had never bothered to take the time to tell them. No text, no calls, no “oh hey, heads up.”
Instead, she had acted like a child, relying on her mom to relay that information through her whisper network of connections around town. Well, time to set the record straight.
“Caroline and I moved back here independently of each other. I broke up with her a few months ago,” she said, leaving it at that with no additional elaboration.
“That’s not what your mom told my mom,” Leah rushed to say. “She said you two were figuring things out and that she’d be surprised if you weren’t back together by Christmas.”
Annie glared at Leah over the rim of her glass because, really—what were they, five?! “Well, my mother is incorrect,” she said flatly, taking a sip of her wine.
“Does anyone need another glass?” Max’s voice chimed in over Annie’s shoulder, making her jump as she coughed on the sip she had unfortunately just tried to swallow.
“I’ll take another glass of chenin blanc, please.” She handed her glass to Max, who took it, their fingertips brushing with the slightest whisper of skin against skin. Annie inhaled sharply, retracting her hand only when she was sure the glass was securely in Max’s grip.
“You got it,” Max confirmed with a smile.
Stop it. Max is not flirting with you. Why would she be flirting with you? You’re a hot mess.
Max collected the empty glasses, returning to the bar area where Annie’s gaze followed her, watching her float around with the confidence of someone who was completely in their element.
By the time she shifted her attention back to the conversation playing out at the table, the topic had changed drastically, causing her to take a moment to catch up.