Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 97053 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97053 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
We chitchat about Boston and the Vineyard. It’s polite. Friendly even. But nothing more.
“So what’s your plan, now that you’ve finished your master’s?”
She pulls in a breath, while shooting a glance at her mother. She lowers her voice. “Well, I’d like to go to Europe. I’ve never spent any extended time there. I’d like to go to museums, hang out in Parisian cafes. Just for a little bit. You know?” She smiles at me, and I can tell it’s genuine.
“It’s a secret?” I ask her, lowering my voice to match hers.
She shrugs. “Mother thinks I’m getting old. She’s worried I’m going to get left on the shelf.” She rolls her eyes. “What is the shelf, anyway? That’s what I want to know. I’m twenty-six. I don’t want to be having children for a decade. I’ve got a life to live.”
I stifle a chuckle. If my mother knew Gabriella didn’t want kids for ten years, I don’t think she’d let them finish their first course before she had them both escorted out.
“You should go to Europe,” I say. “You never know who you might meet.”
“Well, exactly. I’m so bored of New York guys,” she says. She blushes. “I don’t mean to be rude.”
I shake my head. “No offense taken.” It’s a relief to know that Gabriella is as uninterested in me as I am in her. “If you want to go to Europe, that’s what you should do. Don’t give up on that just because of… parental expectations.”
She smiles. “Easier said than done. You know that.”
“I do,” I reply. “Seeing as you’ve told me a secret, I’ll share one with you. I had no idea you and your mother would be here today. My mother summoned me to a one-on-one lunch this morning.”
Her face freezes, her mouth in a hard line. “I was told you were the one who suggested the lunch. As if we can be tricked into liking each other.”
I laugh. “Turns out I do like you.”
“But I mean romantically.” It’s clear we’re both on the same page as it concerns our compatibility as life partners.
“What are you two so deep in conversation about over there?” my mother asks. She turns to Frieda. “I knew they would find lots in common.”
“We’re just chitchatting about the house on the Vineyard.”
Mother nods and resumes her conversation with Frieda.
“So what about you, Jack?” Gabriella says. “I want to go to Europe. What do you want to do?”
Her question gets my attention. Gabriella wants to escape to Paris. It’s never even occurred to me that I could leave New York. Not for any extended period of time.
I admire her for thinking outside the expectations of her. I hope she makes it to Paris.
When Frieda and Gabriella have left, my phone buzzes.
It’s from Byron in our group chat with Bennett, Worth, Fisher, and Leo.
“Pack your bags, Jack. We’re heading to Colorado. Tomorrow. We’re taking Bennett’s new plane. Wheels up at 9 a.m. No excuses.”
When Worth suggested I go to the Club right after meeting Iris, it was the last place I wanted to be, but now? For the first time the two weeks since I met Iris, my chest loosens at the thought of not being in New York, and I realize a break from New York with my best friends is just what I need.
It might not be Paris, but anywhere but here will do.
NINE
Iris
I can now add delivery driver to my résumé. Since Bray’s accident, he can’t drive. On the farm, enough of the pickers can operate the machinery that it doesn’t matter. But Bray takes the deliveries to the Colorado Club. And I’ve inherited that particular job.
The Club likes to be able to tell their members that their fruit was picked this morning, so now I have to get into work earlier so I can be up the mountain by six thirty.
If it didn’t mean more work for me, I might be tempted to take a mallet to my brother’s other leg.
Lucky for me, the truck is loaded with the fruit, so I just need to find the key and go.
When I arrive, the truck is having the last few bits of fruit added, and then in a matter of minutes, I’m off, up the mountain.
I pass by Beth and Mike’s cabins, although they don’t own them anymore—Byron Miller does. Despite him owning most of the mountain, he’s building a house down in Star Falls. Of all the people who’ve left our town, he’s the one I never expected to see again. Apparently no one ever leaves this town.
There’s a huge yellow crane set up right on the edge of his land. I really hope it’s not going to block the road on the way back down. I’ve got things to do. I’m going to follow up with Karen today. It might kill me, but I need to get those damn invoices paid so we can place the order for the new machinery. Anything to stop my dad’s constant complaints. I also need to fill in my course enrollment forms for the course I’ve found on the Deer Valley Community College website.