Page 23 of Love Among Vines

CHAPTER TWENTY

JADE

“So what did you think of the tasting?” Rett said from Jade’s right, Penny’s leash wrapped around his wrist. Her nails tip-tapped down the walkway toward the vineyard.

“It was amazing.”

She meant it. Every wine was perfect in its own way. Bold, fruit-forward, aromatic. The cheese was a step up from backpack cheese. It was so good that even the pain in her wrist had dulled.

“You don’t think it was missing anything?”

“Aside from the sparkling wine that I’m not allowed to taste?” she said.

“Fair enough. Soon. How are you feeling?” He came to stand next to her. Penny planted next to them.

“Perfectly fine.”

“Tingly?” he probed.

She looked down at her hands. “To be honest, most of my body is feeling tingly, but I’m having trouble differentiating between booze tingles and potential muse action.”

“Come with me.” He led her past the building and over a charming stamped-concrete patio where chairs were stacked on top of tables.

“Aren’t you going to tell me about these vines?” she asked, poking the grape nearest her. “Not much of a tour so far.”

“Sure. These were some of the first vines my grandparents planted when they moved here,” he said over his shoulder. “They’re the fourth oldest pinot vines in the country.”

Penny ran ahead, frantically sniffing the rows. She would have green feet for a week.

“Wow,” Jade said. She paused to turn around and take in the acres of lush greenery and vines. It was stunning.

“Where did you say we were going?” She stumbled into a post.

“Just a little bit further.”

“Fair enough.” It must have been a special spot.

She snuck a look at him as they climbed a hill. He was in yet another three-piece suit. Would she ever find out what was underneath them? At what point was the whole friends-with-benefits part kicking in, anyway?

The heat was amping up outside. Humidity settled heavily in her lungs.

“Here.” Rett led her into a clearing on the top of the ridge.

She gasped. An easel and stool were set up alongside two cocktail tables full of art supplies.

“I don’t know if any of this will speak to you, but I thought maybe it was worth a shot after you painted that sunrise.”

Her lip quivered.

“This is the most picturesque spot on the vineyard,” he explained. “I hope it helps.”

Jade rushed in and threw her arms around him. She had been hoping for an elaborate, sexy picnic away from prying eyes. But this was somehow even better.

“Thank you,” she said, voice muffled by his suit.

“I know you can do it. I’m sorry if the wine is interfering.”

She pulled back and shook her head. “I used to paint drunk once in a while. It’s what inspired U Up? and Pizza Town, Two A.M. back before I met Nate. Maybe it’ll help me get out of my own head.”

He squeezed her arm. “I’ll take Penny for a walk. We’ll meet you back down at the winery when you’re ready. No rush. I mean it. I don’t care if you stay out here till midnight.”

In seconds, Rett and Penny were headed back down the slope toward the vineyard. Jade turned to the blank canvas clipped to the easel. She approached it cautiously, as if it might scream at her.

Universal primed, medium grain linen on a stretched canvas. Several more were stacked on one of the tables.

Tupperware containers overflowed with products.

Oil pastels, six different sets of brushes, acrylic paints, pencils, wax, feathers, glitter, twigs, dried vines, newspaper, powders, gouache, even a stray bottle of wine.

Virtually everything she could have wanted in her dream studio was spread in front of her.

How much had he spent on all of this? And what would he expect in repayment?

The least she could do was commit to the paint and sip night.

She lifted her face to the sun and basked in its warmth like a drunk lizard. The cloying humidity wasn’t ideal for paint drying conditions, but maybe that was okay for today. This was just practice.

She dabbed a layer of glue on the canvas and quickly set to work.

Sticks broken to varying lengths were pressed into the canvas for texture.

As it dried, she lifted the wine bottle and dug through one of the totes.

The vineyard and the lake were a stunning mix of browns, blues, and greens, layer after layer of color.

She turned the bottle on its side and squirted small puddles of acrylic paint onto it. When the glue was dry, she pressed the bottle onto the page and carefully rolled it back and forth, leaving a gap for the dirt road that split the property. The colors bled together, creating a serene scene.

It didn’t look like much—a blue-green mess on a canvas. But there was a whisper of something there. She set it aside to dry and pulled out another canvas, then closed her eyes and took a moment to still her mind.

Penny’s adorable form floated in, running full-tilt between two vineyard rows.

Jade’s eyes snapped open, and she picked up the nearest pencil.

After roughly sketching Penny in, she prepared a palette in a rainbow of colors.

She set to work bringing it to life with yellows and greens.

Shades of brown for her haunches. Robin’s egg blue for the sky.

A shiny black nose and a perfectly pink tongue.

It was the first time she had ever tried to capture Penny in any medium beyond the probable two thousand-plus pictures in her camera roll.

Like the experimental landscape, it was far from perfect.

It didn’t sing to her in the way that many of her pre-breakup paintings did.

But there was something purposeful and meaningful here.

Penny had been her reason to get out of bed every day for the last two years.

Her furry and faithful companion, always there to drop a slobbery tennis ball in her lap when it felt like things were getting to be too much.

Setting Penny to the side, she came back to the first painting.

She added in powdery white clouds and bursts of purple, and just the corner of the stone-covered tasting room.

Before she could stop herself, the shape of a man leading a vaguely yellow dog-like creature up the dirt path added itself in.

It was abstract, unclear. But there was feeling in it.

Gradually, the fog of alcohol lifted. And still she painted. She pulled out the next blank canvas and just threw paint and feathers at it. It was hot pink and lime green and tempestuously loud, like her apartment back home.

“Hey,” a familiar voice said. “Just me. I thought you might be getting hungry.”

Rett rounded the corner of a row with a picnic basket in hand.

Jade jumped in front of her canvas and threw her arms out like a teenage boy blocking a laptop screen.

“Oh, god,” he said.

“I know. I’m sorry. I was in the zone. I’ll clean it up.”

“No, I don’t care about the stuff on the ground. You just kind of look like you got shot by a unicorn.”

She glanced down at herself. Apparently she had been unknowingly wiping her hands on her previously paint-covered shirt.

“Shit.” She giggled and slapped a hand to her mouth to stifle it. “I can’t go back in there looking like this.”

“Well, there’s always my house. Walking distance.”

She debated for a moment before tossing a brush into the water cup.

“Race you.” With that, she took off downhill, beelining for the crest of the roof that was barely visible between the dense trees.

“Wait!”

She smiled and glanced over her shoulder.

Rett was full-on smiling, dragged through the vineyard by Penny’s exuberant tugging. The picnic basket hung from his other hand.

With a quick glance at the highway, she dashed across and kept going. It felt so good to run. Her hair streamed behind her in the wind. She stepped onto Rett’s driveway and sped up, bolting down the lane until she rounded the house.

The shadows had grown long. She had been painting longer than she realized.

Dashing through the side yard, she didn’t stop until she hit the dock. She tugged her shirt off over her head and tossed it to the ground. Her shorts were next.

By the time Rett rounded the corner of the house, she stood in the late afternoon sunshine in her bra and panties. With a calculated glance at Rett, she slowly shed those too, then ran down the short dock, leaping into the water before she could change her mind.

The chill of the water hit her like a fist. She broke through the surface, sputtering and gasping.

“Holy shit, it’s so cold.” In seconds, her nipples had pebbled with the strength of diamonds.

“I could have told you that,” Rett said with a mischievous grin. He set the picnic basket on the dock. His fingers went straight to the buttons on his waistcoat.

She was ready to climb out and find a warm shower, but if stiff-nippling it for a few more minutes meant that would shortly be joined by a naked Rett, she would tread water until Halloween.

“I’m surprised you’re joining me.” She hopped in place for warmth, just enough for the swell of her breasts to tease the water line.

Rett tossed his suit jacket and waistcoat to the dock.

“I’m trying to take your advice to heart,” he said as his pants puddled to the ground. “Have more fun.”

“Skinny-dipping on a Monday definitely qualifies.” She kicked off the rocky bottom and floated onto her back. Dappled sunlight shone through the trees on the shoreline. The mixture of the frigid water and the warm, humid air was strangely invigorating.

Boat motors whirred somewhere in the distance.

Something crashed into the water next to her. She straightened up and whirled around, but it was just Penny. A tennis ball was clamped in her mouth.

Okay, if the dog was invited, sexy things definitely weren’t on his mind. It was just as well. She wrestled the ball from Penny’s mouth and threw it back to Rett. Penny doggie paddled back to the dock and climbed up. With a mighty shake, she relinquished what had to be a half ton of water.

Jade shrieked and ducked underwater as Penny and Rett cannon-balled in.