The Best Man (Blue Heron #1)(118)
Levi nodded.
“Well, I remember it, because it was the one and only time she ever said anything weird about Jeremy, and also, I had finals and the last thing I wanted to talk about was her love life.” Honor crossed her arms. “But it was strange, because from day one, Jeremy was Prince Charming and Dr. Wonderful all rolled into one. And she was asking me for advice, and that didn’t happen too much. We weren’t...” Honor cleared her throat. “We weren’t that close back then.”
“Do you remember what she said?” he asked.
“Yes, but I’m inclined to make you wait, just to watch you suffer.”
“Give me back my coat.”
“Fine. She asked me how to know if you were in love. She said she and Jeremy had taken a break, and something had happened and...I don’t know. What did being in love feel like.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her I had finals and she should read Seventeen magazine. I was kind of a bitch.” She looked at the ground. “Sorry. I wish I had more.”
“It’s enough.”
“Good. Then get your ass in gear. And thanks for the coat.”
Levi went up to his apartment and booted up his computer. Called Sarah once again.
“What? I’m trying to study for my exams, Levi! Can you please leave me alone?”
“Hi,” he said, clicking on a travel site. “I know I said you could come home, but I’m going to San Francisco for a few days.”
“Fine, whatever. Love you, gotta go.” She paused. “I have a friend here to study.”
“I thought you didn’t have friends.”
“Bite me. Call me when you land, and make sure you bring me a present.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
THE PHONE RANG AT TWO o’clock in the morning, and it took Faith a minute to remember where she was. Her apartment in San Francisco? Nope. Opera House? Nope. Goggy’s? No.
The phone shrilled again. “No!” came a sleepy wail from down the hall. Right. She was at Pru’s, having gotten in from California a few hours ago. At the moment, she was so tired she felt dizzy, but if your last name was Holland, a phone call in the middle of a November night could only mean one thing—someone was dead, or it was time for the ice wine harvest.
Pru was already up. “Hey! Ice wine!” She banged on Abby’s door, then Faith’s. “Ice wine! Come on, Ned’s already gone. You don’t want to miss it, do you?”
“I so want to miss it,” Abby muttered, stumbling into the hall, Blue leaping excitedly about, looking for somebody to love. “I hate my life.”
“Oh, come on, now,” Faith said. “It’s fun.”
“It’s hell. A frozen, barren wasteland.”
For weeks, Dad had watched the forecast like a hawk, sleeping in his truck some nights, waiting for his special alarm-thermometer to announce that magical second when the temperature hit seventeen. Then the phone calls went out, and every living Holland was expected to show up within minutes to cut down the frozen grapes, which would be pressed that night.
“Bet you wish you were in San Fran still, huh?” Abby asked as she, Pru and Faith drove up the hill to Blue Heron, bundled in their warmest gear.
“And miss this?” She smiled at her niece.
“I’d kill to miss this,” Abby muttered.
“Well, Faith, your timing was perfect,” Pru said.
Faith’s project had finished early, everything going ahead of schedule, which was practically unheard of. She’d done the job she was hired to do and did it well, took her buddies out for ridiculously beautiful and expensive martinis, went to Rafael and Fred’s wedding, hired movers to pack up her stuff from the apartment, formally turning her lease over to Wonderful Mike.
Then she’d taken a long walk in the cold, damp air, and said goodbye to the city that had welcomed her, where her heart had mended, and went back to the place she loved with every molecule in her body. And to the man she loved just as much. More, even.
Twice in her life, Faith had been in love. Once with a man so perfect she should’ve known there was something wrong. And now with a man who wasn’t perfect at all, who was stubborn, occasionally irritable, and mildly to moderately constipated when it came to emotions, and maybe had some abandonment issues going on, too, not to mention the weight of the world on his shoulders.
He was also the best man she knew.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do to help someone. Find a cat on a dark night, drive an hour to do his sister’s laundry, wash a dog covered in chicken poop, let his ex-wife say her piece.
Go out in the middle of the night to reconstruct a twenty-year-old accident.
Stop his best friend’s wedding when he knew it would only lead to misery...for Jeremy and for her.
But the thought of his expression when he broke up with her...that hurt like a splinter in her heart. Just so...decided. So damn resolute.
“Are you getting out of the truck or what?” Abby said.
Right. They were here.
“Ice wine!” Dad called, the veritable kid at Christmas. It was a genetic defect or something. Jack was talking to the grapes already. “Are you ready to get pressed, sweeties? Are you excited?” Ned rolled around with Blue on the thin film of snow that had fallen sometime when Faith was asleep. Even Abby accepted her grandfather’s hug and said, yes, she, too, was so excited. Honor already had half a basket full of grapes, and Goggy was manning the forklift, shining the headlights down the row so they could all see what they were doing, snapping at Pops to take a step back or she’d run him over and enjoy her widowhood. Carl was here, too, and returned Faith’s wave a little shyly, perhaps guessing (correctly) that Faith knew far too much about his sex life.