Bluestone & Vine Page 13

  Seth watched Jake work, nodding in approval as the boy trimmed off the dead and withered, examined the good buds, made his choices, and snipped off the rest. Jake didn’t know it yet, but Seth had been giving Jake the same section to work on during the off season for a reason. He planned to let Jake harvest that section, press his grapes, and see what he could come up with. Not all grape juice had to be fermented into wine. Grape juice in and of itself was a viable product, though it didn’t command the same price. He thought Jake might find it a fun challenge. It was a good place to start, Seth thought, then chuckled to himself. Or is it the blind leading the blind? Either way, they’d both enjoy themselves.

  A half hour later, they were walking up the sodden strip of grass that lined the center space between the rows of vines, with Jake alternately chattering on and on about how amazing Pippa’s music was, and flaming beet red at the thought of actually talking to her. Jake said more in the time it took them to get to the end of the row than he had said to Seth in the entire time he’d known the boy. The power of a pretty, talented woman, Seth thought. Made even the young ones lose their cool.

  They’d just stepped from the end of the row, both of them looking like the creatures from the mud lagoon at this point, when they heard Bailey’s laughter echoing from the open doors to the stone barn. “Looks like we won’t have to worry about introducing Bailey to Pippa,” Seth said. A short glance at Jake showed the teenager looking suddenly vulnerable and uncertain. Seth put a hand on Jake’s shoulder, gently squeezed. “You’ll be fast friends in the blink of an eye. I can guarantee it. She’s just like you and me, just another person. I grow grapes, she sings songs. We’re all the same, Jake.”

  “Maybe,” Jake said, sounding entirely unconvinced. Jake set the tool bucket down and helped Seth with the pull tarp he’d dragged along behind them with some of the chunkier bits they’d trimmed from the vines. It would all go into the burn pile. Then Jake glanced down at his hands, and his muddy pants, and Seth suspected Jake knew he had just as much of the stuff on his face and in his hair, which was true.

  “Go on up and shower,” Seth told him.

  “But we still have to feed the goats.”

  “I’ll help with that, or Pippa will help. She grew up on a farm.” If Seth had thought Jake’s hero worship where Pippa was concerned had reached its zenith, he’d just been proven wrong.

  “That’s awesome,” he said and Seth couldn’t help it, he chuckled.

  “We’ll take care of that, then I know Bailey’s going to want to shower off, so go get yours out of the way. Then she can jump in while you’re talking to Pippa.”

  Seth had built a big outdoor shower off the back of the house right after moving in and used it year-round to wash off the muck of the fields before heading into the house. It was paneled on three sides with tall cedar planking and had a bench and row of hooks in addition to the shower stall itself. All private, it had an entrance directly into the bathroom at the back of the house. Jake and Bailey always brought a duffel with a spare set of clothes so they could get home without trashing Addie or Will’s vehicles with their mucky, stinky clothes after an afternoon or full day playing with livestock or out in the vines.

  “Okay, thanks.” Jake glanced to the stone barn again, all nerves and anticipation, but Seth could also see he was relieved that Seth had arranged it so Bailey wasn’t there when Jake met his idol. Seth understood that, too. It wasn’t so much that Jake wanted to have Pippa and her friendship all to himself. Jake wasn’t like that. It was that he was probably certain he was about to totally geek out and make an utter fool of himself in the presence of someone he’d admired for so long, and he’d rather his best friend not be a witness. What Bailey didn’t see, she couldn’t tease him about for years to come.

  “Just put the tools on the bench. I’ll get them later.” Seth waved Jake off toward the house and dragged the tarp over to the burn pit, which was in an open space halfway between the vines and the stone barn.

  Bailey’s laughter echoed out from the open door of the barn again, mixed with Pippa’s giggles this time. He smiled, thinking how much Bailey had changed since coming to Blue Hollow Falls. She’d been a pretty stoic young lady herself, but in a far different way from Jake. Wise far beyond her years from a life that demanded she grow up way too fast. Since Addie had taken her under her wing, Bailey wasn’t any less wise, but the child in her had truly blossomed.

  Seth paused outside the open doors, then took a slow turn and looked out over his operation, his farm, at the view beyond it, which he never tired of seeing. He let it sink in, settle inside him, something he made a habit of doing every day. His smile grew as the sounds of Bailey and Pippa, chattering like magpies, filtered through and blended with the rest. He felt ... happy. Sincerely, down-to-the-bone happy. Sure, his business wasn’t off the ground yet, and there were a myriad of stresses facing him on a daily basis as he moved closer to that make-it-or-break-it moment. None of that was the point though.

  It struck him, in that moment, that perhaps serenity and inner peace came in a variety of forms. That what he’d needed to soothe his soul, and his psyche, after leaving the Army, wasn’t so much having utter solitude or getting away from the frenetic pace of city life. Maybe it was simply a matter of finding exactly the right spot in which to plant himself.

  Who knew that keeping the company of sheep, goats, chickens, and a lovestruck llama would go hand in hand with tending endless rows of vines and more vines. It wasn’t how he’d seen it all coming together while walking those endless rows of vines in a distant country, what felt like light years ago now. Far from. But it was turning out to be perfect for him.

  “Penny for your thoughts.”

  Seth turned to find Pippa standing in the open doorway to the barn, leaning against the side beam, her arms folded over the dark green T-shirt she wore. She had on black jeans that now showed more dust and dirt than denim and a pair of army-green, knee-high rubber farm boots that looked a few sizes too big, and probably were as they were one of the pairs he kept for his day-laborers and part-timers to use as needed during harvest season. Her pretty face was free of makeup and her hair had been combed close to her head and tamed into tightly woven pigtails. The curled ends rested just below her shoulders, each pigtail held in place with bright red elastic that somehow added to the overall perky vibe she already exuded just by breathing.

  “Taking a moment between chores,” he said, smiling at her. Because he’d already learned it was just damned impossible not to. “What are you two up to in there? Sounds like my sisters when they were cooking up something sure to stretch my parents’ patience.” He grinned. “Or their bank account.”

  “No plotting or planning. Just girl talk. She’s a sharp one,” Pippa added, referring to Bailey. “I like her.”

  “She’s a likable kid.”

  “I don’t know about the kid part. I feel like she’s seen a lot more of this world than I have, and without ever leaving the States.”

  “Likely true,” Seth said. “She’s an old soul, as Addie says.”

  Pippa laughed. “Yes, I’ve heard a lot about Miss Addison Pearl Whitaker today. The patron saint of Blue Hollow Falls, as far as I can tell.”

  Seth chuckled. “You wouldn’t be wrong about that. We all owe her a deep debt of gratitude, and it would irritate her something fierce if she were to hear me say it.”

  “I gathered that as well.”

  Bailey came out just then, carrying in her arms one of three baby pygmy goats in residence. Bailey was lanky for a ten-year-old, with freckled skin that tanned surprisingly easily, which made her pretty red hair and serious, bright blue eyes all the more striking. Seth didn’t envy the adults in her life, himself included, when she got old enough to be interested in boys. Or, more to the point, when she got old enough for boys to be interested in her.

  “I’m thinking this one,” Bailey said to Pippa.

  Pippa’s eyes widened, then went instantly moist. “Truly? Are you su
re?”

  Bailey looked from the goat to Pippa, then back to the goat. She smiled. “I’m sure.” She handed the armful to Pippa. “I’ve posted his regimen on the nursery stall. You have to follow it. If you have any questions, text me.” Her smile spread to a lopsided grin. “You also have to name him.”

  Pippa looked down at the goat in her arms. “I do?” she said, then sighed softly.

  Seth knew she was a goner right then. What is it about girls and goats? They were cute enough, he supposed, and these stayed little, which meant they didn’t outgrow their cuteness. He liked them because they could plow through and chow down an overgrown field better than a tractor, and he didn’t have to be there while they did it, which freed him up for other things. He doubted Pippa was thinking about their usefulness at the moment.

  “I don’t name the babies I don’t plan to keep,” Bailey said. “It’s a special thing, like a bond. It should be between the two of you.”

  Seth frowned. “Bailey, she can’t—”

  “She knows I can’t take him back to Ireland,” Pippa said, breaking in before Seth could get any farther. “Bailey just wanted me to have a special companion and connection to this place. She’ll find him a good home after I’m gone.” Pippa looked at Bailey. “I’ll support him of course. And presents on holidays. And if you think he needs a playmate, that, too.” She lifted the goat’s face to hers, then giggled when he licked her right across the face. “You have to make sure they’ll send photos,” she told Bailey. “Videos, if possible. And that they’ll keep his name. Will that be okay?”

  Bailey shrugged. “We’ll make it okay.” As if that was that. And knowing Bailey, it would be. She looked at Seth. “Sunny gave me my Little Bo-Peep sheep, and you gave me my first three baby goats. It made me feel like I belonged here, like I was connected to something long term.” She shrugged again, but the look in her eyes was anything but casual. “I wanted to do for Pippa something like what you did for me.”

  Seth could have told Bailey that Pippa had both a childhood home and a huge family and probably more feeling of belonging and connectedness than she needed. Pippa wasn’t adrift, as Bailey had been. But then Pippa was handing the baby goat to Seth and wrapping Bailey—who wasn’t much shorter than Pippa—into a tight hug. Pippa’s eyes were squeezed shut, a single tear trickling down her cheek as she expressed her sincere thanks to Bailey. A second later the two of them were giggling again, this time in mutual excitement.

  Seth looked down at the baby goat, who was busy chewing a button off the front of his shirt. “I think you just won the baby goat lottery,” he told the little nibbler. “Don’t blow it.”

  “So, are we cool?” Bailey asked Seth after he’d handed the kid back to Pippa.

  “They’re your goats to breed, sell, keep, whatever. That was our deal,” Seth said. “I provide the space and the feed in return for the help you give me with the sheep. Any money you make from selling them goes to Addie for your college fund.”

  “I’m not selling him to her,” Bailey said.

  “That’s your prerogative, too.”

  “Bailey, I’m not letting you give him—” Pippa began.

  Bailey cut her off with a shake of her head. “This isn’t about business. This is about belonging.”

  Seth noticed that Pippa shot him a quick glance, as if trying to gauge his reaction. She quickly looked back to Bailey, her expression one of sincere affection. “I think this is perhaps the loveliest gift I’ve ever received. Thank you.”

  Bailey nodded, smiled. “You’re welcome.”

  Seth felt out of the loop. Well, partly out. He knew Pippa wasn’t here so much to rest as she was to search. Seth just hadn’t figured out the “for what” part yet. Whatever it was, Bailey had apparently pegged it after just an hour or two. And you don’t need to figure it out, remember? Her journey is her journey. Yours has already been decided. Those paths will diverge soon. That’s why you’re sleeping alone in your bed at night, remember?

  Seth noticed Jake coming in their direction from the house. He stifled a smile when he noted Jake had tried to tame his wet hair into submission and was staring hard at his feet as he walked. “Hey, Bailey, I think Jake is done with the shower. Why don’t you head on up for yours?”

  Bailey glanced toward the house—which Seth realized he’d started thinking of as the chalet—then looked right back at Seth, her expression smooth, open, easy. Jake might want a solo meeting in case he geeked out when meeting Pippa, but if he could see Bailey’s face right now, and the automatic protectiveness she had for her good friend, Jake would know that he had nothing to worry about.

  “Will do,” she said. She looked at Pippa. “I’ll come back before I go.” She smiled. “In case you have any questions. See how the naming thing is going.”

  “That would be great,” Pippa said happily, without a trace of anxiety. Apparently, there were no second thoughts about her new acquisition.

  Bailey stepped past Seth, then turned back. He’d been watching Pippa walk back into the barn, and noticed Bailey hadn’t missed that, either. But she didn’t say anything about that. Instead, she tugged his shirtsleeve and he ducked his head down closer to hers. “Jake is super freaked out about meeting Pippa. He worships her music. She’s like . . .”

  “The Beyoncé of folk music?”

  Bailey rolled her eyes. “More like Bono. Anyway, can you just ... hang around a few minutes? Help him out if he gets totally geeked? I know she’ll be great to him, but he’ll beat himself up forever if he fanboys all over her.”

  “Fanboys?”

  “Makes a fool of himself over her.” Bailey looked up into his face and smiled beatifically, then batted her eyelashes. “Not that you’d know anything about that.”

  Seth coughed on a surprised laugh. Bailey didn’t rib or tease very often. When she did, it was usually for a purpose. “Very funny,” he told her, but he was smiling and there might have been a faint trace of heat in his cheeks. Outed by a ten-year-old. “You know Pippa will be heading back to Ireland before too long,” he told Bailey, hoping to nip in the bud whatever little matchmaker plans she might have.

  “I know,” Bailey said blithely. “The world isn’t that big a place these days. That’s all I’m saying.” Then she headed on up to the house, waving easily at Jake when they passed, then turned around and ran back a few steps so she could hug him from behind. She brushed off the dust and dirt she got on the back of his nice clean shirt, then when he turned around, she reached up and whispered something that Seth was too far away to hear. Whatever it was, it made Jake laugh. Seth saw the rigid set of the boy’s shoulders relax a bit and shook his head. Bailey to the rescue.

  “Some guy out there is going to be a very fortunate man one day,” Seth said under his breath. And that girl should be at least thirty before anyone gets any ideas. Maybe forty.

  Bailey ran the rest of the way up to the house while Seth waited for Jake. “You clean up good,” Seth said, then winced when the tips of Jake’s ears went scarlet. Some wingman you are there, sport.

  “Is that Jake?” Pippa’s voice echoed from inside the barn.

  And the rest of Jake’s face now matched his ears.

  Pippa came bouncing out, no baby goat this time, a huge smile on her face. “Hullo,” she said. “Bailey has told me so much about you, I feel like we’re already friends.” She held out her arms. “I’d hug you but I’m still covered in baby goat.” She turned and headed inside, assuming Jake would follow, which he did. As did Seth, wishing he knew the trick to being a pied piper.

  “I’ve a new goat,” she told Jake excitedly. “Bailey gave him to me just now. I have to name him, and I have no idea where to begin. You’ve probably named loads of animals. Would you help me?”

  “I—uh, sure. Yeah. I mean, yes. I’d be happy to, Miss MacMillan.”

  Pippa giggled at that. “You sound like you’re talking to my mum. Just call me Pippa. Is it okay if I call you Jake? Or would you rather Jacob? Or Master M
cCall?”

  Jake laughed at that, the high-pitched kind that broke and croaked in the middle. Seth winced, which Pippa noted as she glanced past the boy to him. Without missing a beat, she leaned in closer to Jake as she so often did, as if sharing a secret. “I’ve had that going on with my voice now for about eleven months. It’s so annoying.” She straightened and grinned. “I’m told I’ll grow out of it, too, but it doesn’t help much in the interim, does it?”

  Rather than being mortified, Jake shook his head and grinned back at her. “Not at all, no.” They walked over to the goat stalls together.

  And just like that, Pippa had another heart tucked neatly in her pocket.

  Seth had thought to stay in the barn, work in his office a bit, just to be on hand for moral support if Jake needed it. As that didn’t seem to be the case, Seth opted to head on back to the chalet and scrape a few layers of muck off his own person.

  It wasn’t until he was stepping under the shower that he thought back to his earlier reaction. Yet another heart tucked in her pocket.

  He’d been thinking of Jake’s and Bailey’s, of course. And Noah’s. And Mabry’s.

  “Right. That’s exactly what you were thinking.” He ducked his head under the spray. Then, just to make sure he shut down all thought paths that led to Pippa, he turned it to cold.

  Chapter Nine

  Pippa drove Bluebell down the road that led from the vineyard, past Mabry’s apple farm, down into Blue Hollow Falls. The town proper was small by any standard, but it was a bucolic little place, tucked away as it was in the hills. She’d seen it once before, the day she’d followed Noah from the hospital up to her wee cabin.