Page 60 of Love Among Vines

Jade laughed into her shock of red hair.

She hadn’t even consciously realized how important it was to have someone on her side during her first post-Nate showing.

And now she had a small battalion of people just waiting to support and celebrate her.

Even if Rett wasn’t here. That fact bothered her more than she cared to admit.

“We’ve been waiting to talk to you for like an hour.” Cindy elbowed Tom out of the way. “You’re so popular.”

“Everyone’s just shocked to see I’m not dead,” Jade said.

“Stop it,” Elena said. “They’re here for you. And to fight each other to the death in bidding wars, apparently. Did you see how many ‘sold’ tags you have?”

She glanced pointedly at the far wall, where there were indeed a lot of paintings with tags. She made a mental note to go to her bank on Monday. It was time to set up a retirement account and find a way to make sure that she was never again on the brink of homelessness.

“We are so proud of you, sweetheart,” Margie said. “That one’s coming home with me.” She pointed to another one of the rebirth series.

“The rest of us would snatch them up, too, but we can’t afford you. You weren’t kidding,” Tom said. His Australian accent seemed to have gotten thicker over the course of the bag of wine.

“What’s this?” Elena leaned forward and frowned at Jade’s collarbone. “You got the ice skates covered up!”

Jade’s tattoo had healed enough to be unveiled to the world. A crooked lake with a sunflower at the bottom now covered the last remnant of Nate.

“Let me see,” Cindy said. They all crowded around her.

“It’s perfect,” Gemma declared. “Now all we need for you is to?—”

“Come home?” another voice interrupted.

Jade inhaled sharply.

Everyone turned around. Jade bristled. There, standing just around the corner from one of the pieces he helped to inspire, was Rett.

Come home? Come home ? What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

He held a bouquet of sunflowers, and he was wearing one of his stupid three-piece suits. Penny sat on his foot, panting happily. Traitor.

“Did someone say hors d’oeuvres?” Gemma said loudly.

There was a murmur of agreement, and they all disappeared. Soon, it was just Jade and Rett standing in the room surrounded by her art.

Anger flared like a struck match. This was her night. A lifetime had passed since their last conversation. “What the hell are you doing here?”

He reached for her, but she stepped back and briefly fantasized about delivering a roundhouse kick to his chest. But that might damage one of her paintings.

His face fell. “I needed to see you. I would have come sooner, but I was trying to figure out how to apologize. I tried to call, but?—”

“I blocked you. For good reason. What makes you think I want to see you after everything you said to me? Do you know how hard it was for me to open myself up to someone again? Only to be told that I have ‘nothing’ by the person I decided to move five hours away for?”

Her angry air quotes almost knocked the flowers out of his hand.

“I’m so sorry, Jade. Of course you wouldn’t want to see me. I made the biggest mistake. Something about seeing my brother propose to Alexa just broke me. You were trying to comfort me, and I lashed out. I just kept thinking about seeing her every Christmas on my brother’s arm.”

Her hostility dropped a millimeter. He had gone through something incredibly traumatic seconds before their conversation.

“Well,” she said, “you clearly still have feelings for her if your reaction to her getting engaged was that strong.”

He shook his head. “I promise you, I don’t. I don’t care what she does. I just didn’t want her to be part of my family. I didn’t want to see her ever again. Probably the same way that you never want to see me again,” he muttered.

“But none of that is an excuse,” he said. “What I said was cruel and untrue. There’s nothing to fix, and you don’t have nothing. You have everything. You are everything, exactly as you are . I’m the one who has nothing.”

She raised an eyebrow. His winery and lakefront property would beg to differ.

“Nothing that truly matters,” he clarified. “And the worst part is, I haven’t been honest with you.”

Oh, good.

“What do you mean?”

“I broke the rules of our agreement. I fell in love with you. And it scared me.”

She inhaled sharply. The jagged edges of her anger softened.

“For the first time in a long time I could see everything—kids, a fall wedding, a little studio space for you in town. A painting shed in the backyard,” he said with a sad smile.

“And then I thought about what it would be like to have it ripped away—if you decided to go back to New York, or if things just didn’t work out.

I’m afraid of what you mean to me. Of what you make me feel.

You have a hold on me. I’ve never let anyone in the way I let you in, Jade. ”

She looked away, preferring to study her own brushstrokes. “I don’t know what to say.”

He grabbed her hand, but this time she didn’t pull away.

“You don’t have to say anything. I’ve thought a lot about what you said before—tomorrow is never guaranteed.

I know it was stupid to come here on your big night and interrupt your triumph.

But if I didn’t tell you now, in person, I would have regretted it every day for the rest of my life. ”

There was a rustling in the corner, and Tom appeared, dragging the corner of something large and flat. Had the gallery forgotten one of the decorations?

Slowly, a miniature version of the mural she had painted for Margie crawled into the room. But it was different—abstract blobs in a multitude of colors spanned the surface.

Her brain was jumbled. Nothing was making sense. All she could see were the flashes of color around her. Rebirth.

“I haven’t been at the winery all week,” Rett said.

“I was working on a project. The whole town helped me, actually. And I took your homework seriously. I enrolled in pastry arts classes. You inspired me. I don’t know exactly what I’ll do with it, but I know I want to learn.

I clearly have a long way to go.” He gestured at the miniature mural.

“You made this?” She took a step closer to the mural.

Each spot of color was a tiny dessert. Orange macarons, tiny blueberry pies, dark chocolate brittle.

Desserts of all colors and types spread over the scene.

Some of them had uneven shapes and edges, but the resemblance was undeniable.

It must have taken days. It was beautiful.

Imperfect and beautiful. He had found his dream.

“You belong here.” He gestured at the mural.

“And I took that from you. I understand if you want me to go. I don’t want to ruin your night.

You’ve worked so hard for this, and I’m so proud of you.

You clawed your way back from the brink with grit and determination.

I had everything handed to me, and I still managed to fuck it up. ”

He buried a hand in his hair, and her hands clenched. She had almost reached for him.

“I just needed you to know how sorry I am,” he said. “And I needed to tell you that I love you. You’re it for me, Jade. If there’s any way you can imagine finding your way back to me, I’ll be there.”

His face was ashen. He turned away and took a step toward the door.

Fuck. A big part of her was still afraid.

Not that she would lose her ability to paint again—that power was entirely her own, and nothing and no one would ever take it from her again.

She could see her future with Rett so clearly.

The idea of having it ripped away was torment.

But her mom would have wanted her to be brave.

“Wait,” she said.

No one was perfect. When Nate and Ashley had gotten engaged, she had almost thrown a dumbbell through the window at her CrossFit gym.

It was a human reaction, but she had taken it as a sign from the universe to cut ties and run.

And damn it if she didn’t love that stuffy, suit-wearing workaholic too.

“You will never speak to me like that again,” she said.

He shook his head. “Never. None of it was true.”

“You need to work less,” she added sternly. “Especially if you’re also going back to school. Which I think is great, by the way.”

“I already handed off weekends. It was time. I have new priorities.”

“I’m living in Margie’s cottage for at least a year,” she said, arms crossed.

His expression shifted. Relief flooded those infuriating green eyes. “Does this mean you’re coming home?”

She threw herself on him and kissed him.

Electricity crackled between them like the first time in the rain outside the restaurant.

Unspoken feelings rose and crashed like two seas meeting.

Love, relief, lust, trust all swirled together in a maelstrom that would either bind them together for life or ruin everything.

But she wasn’t going to let the fear of the unknown hold her back. Not anymore.

She drew back and looked in his eyes. “I’m coming home.”