Bluestone & Vine Read online

  “Oh,” Pippa said, suddenly concerned. “I forgot to ask Maggie if they’ll be needing it back now. For her sons to drive?” She looked at Noah. “Maybe you should just give me directions and I’ll go get a rental while I’m down here in town.”

  Seth shook his head. “They’ve got their own wheels. Don’t worry. We’ll shift things around later if needed.”

  “Unless you’d rather be driving something a bit spiffier,” Noah said. “She’s a classic, but you’re probably used to something with a bit more giddyup.”

  She watched as both men glanced at the old Chevy, clear longing in their eyes. “Bluebell and I have become pretty well acquainted on our jaunt through the hills. If they don’t need her back, I’ll hold on to her. I offered to run errands for Mabry in exchange for the loan. I’ll keep my word on that and talk to Maggie, see what I can do.”

  Noah grinned and nodded. “See? You’re part of the community already.”

  “Bluebell?” This from Seth.

  She looked at him. “There’s a little brass plate screwed into the dashboard with Bluebell engraved in it. It’s been there a long time by the looks of it. I figured that was the truck’s name.”

  “If not, it is now,” Noah said with a grin.

  “You still have some things up at the house,” Seth mentioned.

  “I know.” Pippa looked from Noah to Seth, and the words were out before she could think better of them. “Would it be okay to come by tomorrow? I could get my things, maybe give Dex a little grooming session. I’d be happy to help the kids with the sheep and the goats if they’re coming by. I wouldn’t be in your way.”

  Seth held her gaze again, in that way he did, so penetrating. He was probably weighing the pros and cons of their being in close quarters again. With that lovely chalet right there, and several beds nearby. Offering them complete privacy from any prying eyes. Heck, the old door he used as a desktop out in the barn might be at risk, if the way he was looking at her right now was any indication. Pippa tried not to shift her weight as her body responded with a very enthusiastic Yes, please!

  Pippa could feel Noah’s gaze on her, and knew it was probably on Seth as well. She’d just met Noah, but he struck her as being a pretty sharp guy. No doubt he was reading all kinds of things into the sudden, stacked-with-tension silence between her and Seth. All of those conclusions likely being correct.

  “That’s okay—” she began, wishing she’d kept her mouth closed.

  “I just saw Bailey and Jake at the mill when I was by earlier,” Noah said at the same time, an oh so helpful smile plastered all over his handsome face. “They were home last week on snow days, so I think Addie Pearl was about done having Bailey stuck in the nest. Bailey, too,” Noah added with a laugh. “I heard her say she was going to pick up Jake and bring both kids up to your place tomorrow to burn off some energy.”

  Pippa glanced at Noah and saw the way he was smiling at her and Seth. Oh yeah, he knew. Oh, boy.

  To her, Noah added, “I’ll draw you a little map of how to get from the cabin to the vineyard, and down into the Falls. It’s easy.”

  “When you know where to turn,” she said on a laugh.

  “That does help, yes.” Noah turned to Seth, as if it had all been decided. “Do you need help with those bags?”

  Seth looked at Pippa, then to Noah, then shook his head. “I’ve got it.”

  Pippa watched him as he walked off toward his truck without saying anything further. She hadn’t missed the part where he hadn’t answered her question. Which is answer enough, isn’t it?

  “So,” Noah said when she finally looked back at him. His eyes were on full twinkle now and his grin was as wide as was humanly possible. “That’s interesting.”

  Pippa could have played coy, or pretended she had no idea what Noah could possibly be referring to. But perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to have someone on her side where Seth was concerned. She glanced at Seth, who was doing his Viking bellman impression again with her luggage, then back at Noah. “It has definitely been that,” she said, and shot him a direct smile.

  Noah’s eyes widened in delighted surprise. “Well, well. Miss Pippa MacMillan, I think I like you.”

  “Good to hear,” she said, then grinned and leaned her folded arms on the bottom edge of his open window. “Because it’s quite probable I’m going to need some advice before this adventure is all said and done, and you’ve just been nominated to the position.”

  Chapter Eight

  Seth slogged through the mud to the last row of vines and continued clipping. It was a gamble, knowing which parts to cut off, which buds to leave, hoping for the right end result. Cut too much, no grapes. Leave too many, not enough nutrients to produce a full grape bunch. Have a late frost in the spring, or an early one in the fall, lose too much of your crop and you’d wish you’d left a few more buds as backup.

  He glanced upward to the clear, vibrantly blue sky and wiped the sweat from the back of his neck. Even at 2,700-feet elevation, it was seventy-four in the shade, and hot as blazes out in the sun. Which was now making his job like one long, continuous mud-wrestling match. He wasn’t sure which was worse, trying not to fall on his ass every other minute—and not being entirely successful—or having to clear away two feet of snow from each and every vine so he could see what to cut, as he’d had to do all the week before.

  He crouched back down and continued working. “It would be helpful if you’d hold steady for, oh, a week at a time there, Mom Nature,” he grumbled. Seth had been having an ongoing conversation with her all winter, and now into the spring. Clearly, she wasn’t listening. He suspected they’d be having many more conversations just like it.

  The sound of someone shouting “Mr. B! Mr. B!” had Seth straightening and walking to the end of the row. He looked down the slope toward the round barn and spied Jacob McCall racing up the hill. And not slipping around at all, Seth noted. “Ah, the agility of youth,” he said under his breath, feeling twice his thirty-two years at the moment. “Slow down, slow down,” Seth called out as the out-of-breath thirteen-year-old reached the edge of the field at a dead run.

  Jake skidded to a stop a few yards away and walked the final few steps, breathing in big gulps of air. The smile splitting the boy’s face was on par with the excitement Seth had heard in Jake’s voice, which was a good thing. Seth didn’t think he could handle anything traumatic at the moment. Mabry’s accident was still haunting him.

  “Do you know—” Jake began, still sucking in air, then pausing to brace his hands on his bony knees to catch his breath. His grin never abated. “Do you know who is in the stone barn? Right now?”

  Seth cast his gaze toward the house, then to the stone barn, then down the hill to the round barn. He didn’t think he’d been so deep in thought he’d have missed the sound of a car or truck driving up, and since all he saw was his truck and the old blue and white Chevy, clearly, he hadn’t. Addie had left after dropping Jake and Bailey off a few hours ago. Pippa had decided to take his non-answer the day before as a yes and had shown up not long after Addie. Seth didn’t have any pregnant goats or sheep at the moment—praise the Lord—so he wasn’t quite sure what Jake was so wound up about. “I guess I don’t,” he said. “Why don’t you tell me?”

  “None other than the best fiddle player ever put on God’s green earth. And that’s a direct quote from Miss Addie Pearl. But I second it. And third it.” The normally quiet, shy young man was literally bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Right in your barn,” he said, enunciating each word.

  Seth felt silly for not knowing immediately whom Jacob was so excited about. It was just, he thought of her as Pippa. Not as Pippa MacMillan, the best fiddle player ever put on God’s green earth. “You’ve met Pippa, then. I told you she’d be here.”

  “You said a ‘friend of your sister,’” he said, making air quotes to accompany that last part. “Your sister knows Pippa MacMillan? And you never said anything? I’ve been out with the sheep moving
them to the upper field. And all that time, she was right here.” He said the last two words like they were individual sentences.

  Seth chuckled then. Jacob McCall was, by nature, a quiet, reflective kid. Newly a teenager just a month ago, he was tall for his age but not all that awkward. He had a thick thatch of dark hair sprouting off his head this way and that, with more cowlicks than waves, serious green eyes like his dad, and a work ethic every bit as etched into his DNA as it was in his father’s. Jake got his quiet and calm from his father, Wilson, who was as good a man as there was. Maybe Jake was even more taciturn by nature. All of which made this exuberant display that much more amusing.

  “Actually, my sister was college roommates with Pippa’s sister, Katie.”

  “Still, that’s like only one degree of separation.” Jake raked his hand through his hair, making it stand up on end even more. “I got done and walked into the stone barn just now and there she was, sitting on a stool, brushing Dexter’s fur. Like a regular person. And he lets her!”

  Seth laughed. “She is a regular person. And those two formed some kind of bond right off. Which is a good thing,” he told Jake. “Dex can make goo-goo eyes at her now. Everyone wins.”

  Jake let out a laugh that was half boyish giggle, half new-teen croak. His voice was changing, which charmed all of the adults, and routinely mortified Jake. “I didn’t say anything or interfere, I swear. I just stood there staring. She didn’t see me.”

  “Go on and introduce yourself. She’s a very nice person. She’ll enjoy meeting you.”

  Jake blushed bright pink at that, which was when Seth realized what else was going on here. He didn’t tease Jake about it though. Seth remembered his first crush all too clearly, and how much glee his older siblings took in torturing him with the knowledge. He could still hear their good-natured mocking to this day.

  “Do you know her music is pretty much the only fiddle playing my dad still listens to?” Jake said.

  Seth had become good friends with Wilson and admired him and his son a great deal. But even though Seth knew he could count on Will for pretty much anything, Seth couldn’t say he knew much about the man personally. “Does he, now?” Will was also a military vet, but he hadn’t served with Sawyer and Seth. In fact, he never talked about his time in the service, and Seth and Sawyer respected that. Seth knew Will had lost his wife when Jake was little, and that Will’s mom had helped to raise Jake after that, while Will remained in the service. When she passed, Will had processed out and moved to the Falls full time. Seth only knew this because of Addie Pearl’s close relationship with Will’s mom. Will never spoke of it. “Is he thinking about taking up the fiddle again?” Seth asked, trying to keep the question light, but quite curious despite himself.

  According to Addie Pearl, Will not only was an amazing fiddle player, but at one time, he’d made his own instruments and was quite the craftsman. Given the beautiful work Seth had seen Will do as a stonemason, he didn’t doubt it. But he would never have known about that, either, if Addie hadn’t told him. Seth thought it had something to do with Will’s time in the service. Sawyer thought it had to do with Will losing his wife. Probably they’d never know for sure. If Will hadn’t talked about it by this time, it wasn’t likely he ever would. So, this bit of insight was very interesting news, indeed.

  “I don’t know,” Jake said, quietly now, back to his normal, more subdued self. “He’s never said anything about it.” Jake glanced over to the stone barn, then down at his feet. “I saw Pippa and I thought . . .” He broke off, looking away from Seth and the stone barn.

  “You thought maybe if your dad knew she was here, he’d want to play?”

  Jake still kept his gaze averted. “Maybe.”

  Seth put a hand on Jake’s shoulder, gave it a comforting squeeze, then let go when the young boy finally looked up at him again. “It’s good that you’re thinking about your dad like that. He’d be proud of you.”

  Jake let out a brief snort. “I don’t know about that.”

  “Caring about people who matter to you is always positive. Wanting to do things that will make them feel good, also positive.”

  Jake’s expression cleared, and some of the excitement returned. “I just think if he knew she was here, maybe . . .”

  “Maybe,” Seth conceded, “but I have to be honest and tell you she’s not here to play or sing, Jake. At least, that’s what she told me. She’s taking some time off.”

  “Because of her surgery,” Jake said. When that earned him a surprised look, Jake said, “Everybody knows what happened.” He gave a little shudder.

  “You mean about her injuring her vocal cords?”

  “They weren’t just injured—they totally ruptured,” Jake told him. “Right in the middle of singing ‘Call Down Your Heart.’ That’s her biggest hit. It was the third encore on her last tour stop in London.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “There’s a video of the whole thing on YouTube. I only watched it once.” Jake made another face and shuddered again. “It’s pretty freaky.”

  Stunned, Seth said, “There’s a video? Why would they leave that up there? Someone should report it.”

  Jake just rolled his eyes. “It wouldn’t matter. It was a huge concert. Tons of people recorded it on their cell phones. No way could anyone keep that from going viral. It was—” He made a face, like he’d just tasted something sour. “It was a long time ago, like a year almost. I guess she’s better now. But she hasn’t put out any new music since it happened.”

  Seth smiled again, even while part of his brain was still processing all of that information. He remembered telling Pippa more than once that anytime something life-changing happened to a person it was a big deal, no matter the cause, and he’d meant it. But knowing this definitely altered his perception about what she must have gone through. “You really must like her music,” he told Jake. “You follow her pretty closely.”

  Jake let out a short laugh. “I like her music a lot, but I don’t have to ‘follow her’ or anything to know all that,” he said, making air quotes again. He looked up at Seth, propping his hand on his forehead to shield his eyes from the sun. “You know she’s a pretty big deal, right? Like—”

  “The Bono of folk music,” Seth answered, remembering Moira’s description.

  “I guess,” Jake said, scrunching up his face. “He’s kind of an old guy. I was going to say more like Katy Perry. Or Beyoncé. Okay, maybe not as big as her,” he conceded. “But definitely pretty big.”

  Seth supposed he should count himself lucky that he at least knew the stars Jake was referring to, so he didn’t have one foot in the grave quite yet.

  “So, go on over and introduce yourself to her,” Seth urged. “But no sharing on social media, okay?”

  “I know. Noah told me she was here on the down low. I won’t blow her cover. I’d never do that.”

  Seth smiled, knowing Pippa had yet another white knight looking out for her. First Noah, now Jake. She seemed to recruit them without even trying. Like she did with you? He ignored that, or tried to. “I really appreciate that.” He glanced down to the round barn. “Why don’t you go grab Bailey? She might like to meet Pippa, too.” And Seth thought that might help break the ice a little for Jake, who was clearly as crush-struck as he was starstruck.

  Jake rolled his eyes. “Nah, she’s hosing down the sheep. She didn’t even know who Pippa was.” He said it in a tone that made it clear how incredible that was. “Bailey doesn’t listen to current music. At all. She likes old stuff. She talks all the time about some seriously old dude named B.B. King, who died a few years ago. And another one, Miles somebody.”

  “Miles Davis,” Seth said and grinned. “I knew I liked that kid.”

  Despite the gap in their ages, it hadn’t taken long after Bailey’s arrival for her and Jake to strike up a friendship. There weren’t too many kids in Blue Hollow Falls. But theirs wasn’t just a friendship of convenience. Addie said the two were thick
as thieves when Jake was over there helping Bailey with her own sheep, whispering and laughing one minute, squabbling like family the next. Seth thought both kids had benefited from forging a bond. Bailey’s life up to very recently had been spent mostly in foster care and Jake, of course, was growing up without his mother, and now his grandmother was gone as well. Addie Pearl had been a blessing for him, too.

  “I know she’d like Pippa’s music,” Jake went on, “if I could just get her to listen to it. I wish my dad was picking us up today, but he’s working on a stone chimney over in Buck’s Pass. He’ll be blown away to hear Pippa MacMillan is here.”

  “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind meeting him, too, if you think he’d like to,” Seth said, wondering if Jake was right, or if it was wishful thinking. “She’ll be staying in the area for a little while.”

  “Thanks, I’ll ask him,” Jake said. He looked over at the stone barn, then down to the round barn. “Well, I should go help Bailey finish with the sheep. We’ve got to go to the stone barn after, to feed the goats. If Pippa’s still there, I’ll get to meet her then.”

  Seth hid his amused smile. Jake was clearly nervous. It was very charming, and though Seth had no doubt Pippa would put the smitten young teen instantly at ease, Jake didn’t know that.

  “If you’ll help me with this last row,” he told Jake, “I’ll walk down to the round barn with you. I’m going to move the sheep to a different field tomorrow because their regular one is a mud pit. So I wanted to talk to both of you about that anyway. Then, if you like, I’ll introduce you to Pippa.”

  Jake’s relief was palpable, and his grin swift. “That’d be great.” He turned to the vines. “I didn’t bring my snips with me.”

  “I’ve got an extra pair in the bucket over there. Snip low, leave high on that row.”

  Jake nodded and set straight off, not needing more guidance than that. Seth nodded in approval. Jake had shown an interest in the vines from the first time he’d come up to help with the sheep and Bailey’s goats. Seth had shown him a few things, talked to him a little about it, thinking Jake was just being polite. But the boy’s interest was sincere. More than that, he picked up on what he was shown as if it were second nature. Jake had helped Seth with his first harvest, and Seth let him keep his hand in whenever possible, after his other work with the livestock was done.