Christmas in Wine Country (39 page)

This year they’d been doing well with books purchased for about 315 children already, but Lila worried about all the ornaments still hanging on the tree. At the end of each day she took care to rearrange and display the remaining ones attractively. Older children, mostly, she guessed they didn’t capture strangers’ imaginations as delightfully as a toddler on Christmas morning. Lila wasn’t sure she could handle seeing stragglers still hanging from the tree by Christmas. She might have to spend the rest of her paycheck taking care of them all. Not that she had much left over after shopping for gifts and then deciding at the last minute
,
and at a price that would have given Warren Buffet pause
,
to fly back East for the holiday. She hadn’t been back in a year and a half and it was time.

             
Setting herself up at the counter with the day’s haul of 23 gift books, about the right pace to get them to a total of 500 by Christmas, Lila began wrapping when her phone gave a familiar chirp. It was Zoe, texting: ‘on for tomorrow am…again!’ Lila shook her head in amazement, texting back ‘no way’ and wondering if that wasn’t the strangest development of the past week, or maybe year.

Five days ago Zoe had gotten a call from none other than Bob Endicott’s assistant to set up a private yoga session at his home. The next day she’d driven out to Endicott Vineyards and spent an hour with Big Bob himself, getting him to breathe deeply into his heart chakra and salute the sun. In true Bob Endicott style, he’d
aggressively insisted on her returning the next day, the day after that and so on in what now seemed to be his relentless pursuit of post heart attack stress reduction.

             
‘Way!’ Zoe texted back, adding, ‘he asked me about going vegan!’

             
Dear God, Lila thought, setting down her phone and wondering at the chaos that must be ensuing back at the vineyard. According to Zoe, Big Bob had announced to the family and anyone else who cared to know it that he was stepping down as CEO. Declaring that he was done with it all, he’d told Zoe he didn’t want to hear a word about the business from anyone because he needed to quit cold turkey. Like an addict. When Lila had asked who was taking over for him, Zoe had shrugged and said she’d respected his wishes and hadn’t asked. The one time someone had rushed in interrupting their yoga session with a question Big Bob had thundered, “My boy can handle it.” Zoe said it had taken them a full ten minutes of chanting to restore balance to his chi.

             
Zoe hadn’t seen much of the family as she’d come and gone, though she did say the one time she’d crossed paths with Oliver she’d felt some extremely negative energy. According to Annie, Lila’s other main source of Endicott gossip via Pete, word was now fully out about Big Bob’s heart attack and abrupt transformation to retired vegan yogi, but it wasn’t clear to anyone who was in charge. “They need to straighten that out and fast,” Pete had commented yesterday at the soon-to-be café, working hard at refinishing cabinets. 

             
Halfway through the stack of books, Lila stretched her fingers and found, like a magnet pulled irresistibly back to iron, her thoughts returned yet again to Jake. Or the
lack thereof. She hadn’t heard from him after the botched Bundt Cake delivery. Shaking her head as if to physically divert her attention, she wished Big Bob better luck than she was having at the whole Achieving Peace thing. Last night she’d gone to a yoga class and the intro meditation had gone something like: inhale—clear my mind of all thoughts; exhale—why did I drop off that Bundt cake? inhale—clear my mind of all thoughts; exhale—why hasn’t he called me? Did he think it was lame? inhale—mind clearing, blah, blah; exhale—He must be super busy with everything going on but too busy to even make a phone call? And so on.

During her Sunday call with Gram when she’d explained how her card had blown away, Gram had suggested simply putting another one in the mail. Lila had started to pick one out to do just that, but then stopped because what if Jake had already found the card she’d already given him blowing around in his driveway? Then if she sent another one it would seem really creepy, one step shy of making an obsessive music mix featuring ‘Pictures of You’ by The Cure.

             
A knock at the door made Lila jump. The clock hanging on the far wall read ten to seven. Looking over at the glass, she couldn’t make out who was standing there in the darkness. After another insistent rap, Lila made her way over and unlocked the door.

             
Vanessa stood at the entry, patent leather bag the size of New York City slung over her shoulder. Her long wool coat was belted, tight, as if she’d done it angry and resentful at the excess bulk. Her boots featured points at the toes and heels so vicious they would have made a Dominatrix jealous.   

             
Brushing in past Lila, Vanessa commanded a section of the floor by the register and stood, bristling with silent impatience.

             
“Hi, Vanessa,” Lila began with hesitance. “You know we’re closed, right?”

             
“I think we both know why I’m here.”

To buy out the section on witchcraft? Lila immediately realized that couldn’t be right—Vanessa had clearly already mastered the dark arts. Experiencing a moment of unease as she relocked the door and trapped herself in with Vanessa, Lila answered, “I honestly have no idea why you’re here.”

“Trying to play dumb?” Vanessa set her bag down with a giant and resentful thump. “I wouldn’t waste my time if I were you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“So now Little Miss Farm Girl wants to pretend she’s clueless.” Vanessa put her hand to her cheek and opened her eyes and mouth in mock innocence. “Gosh! I’m just a sweet little thing who bakes her own homemade crap.” Dropping that hand to the counter with a smack she barked, “Well, I’m on to you. You may think you’re under the radar, but nothing gets past me.”

Taken aback, Lila nearly wanted to look for a hidden camera, feeling as if she’d somehow stumbled into a TV crime drama. Only the producers had forgotten to cast the good cop. “Vanessa, I think you’ve made some sort of mistake.”

“Listen, Lila—” Vanessa spat out the name as if she found it distasteful.

“Oh, look, you know my name,” Lila found herself observing wryly.

“I’ve been hearing it a lot lately. At all the wrong times.”

“Is this about the Bundt Cake?” Lila guessed wildly. “Because I know it had a lot of carbs but I didn’t bake it for you.”

Puffing out a mirthless laugh, Vanessa shook her head. “You really are unbelievable, do you know that?” Her fingers began a staccato, absent-minded tapping on the countertop as Vanessa began the disturbing act of talking to herself. “No, you don’t. You have no idea what you’re fucking with. You’re probably on some save-the-world trip, one tree at a time, that kind of crap. Well, I’ll tell you something.” Her dark brown eyes once again riveted onto Lila. “The
Endicott
trees are
Off
. Fucking. Limits.”

“Uh huh.” Lila studied her, wondering if she was witnessing a nervous breakdown. But for someone in the midst of a massive crack up, Vanessa looked impressively put together.

“I don’t know what your game is. But if Jake stays on as CEO, he’s not going to turn Endicott into some sort of wildlife preserve. It’s a business.”

“Oh…” Lila began to get a glimpse into what might be so rocking Vanessa’s world.

“No one,” Vanessa continued, pausing for a pointed repetition of, “No one is going to stand for him ripping apart everything his father worked so hard to build.”

“So Jake’s CEO now,” Lila said.

“As if that’s news to you.”

“He wants to make some changes. And you think I’m involved with this how exactly?”

Narrowing the distance between them with a step forward, Vanessa warned, “Get out of his head, Lila.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“You got him to walk away from the store, your precious little coffee shop.” Vanessa spat out the words. “I don’t know how you tricked him into it.”

“I didn’t trick him!” Angry now, Lila felt her cheeks getting hot and flushed. 

“But that’s nothing compared to the damage he’s about to do. The opportunities we’re about to lose, the deals we’ll have to pull. There’s only so long we can keep people in holding patterns. Soon everyone’s going to know Jake’s taken over and he’s gone crazy.”

“Listen, Vanessa, I know nothing about this, but—”

“That’s right, you know nothing.”

“But what I was going to say,” Lila continued with growing indignation, “is it seems like Jake has a right to do things the way he wants.”

“The right to ruin everything?”

“You know what?” Lila flicked her hand in the air and walked back toward the door. “I don’t want to get into this with you. It’s none of my business.”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Vanessa insisted, giving no indication of taking Lila’s cue to leave.

“What are you so worked up about anyway?” Lila asked in frustration. “It’s not your vineyard.”

“Oh, but you hope it’ll be yours one day.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Lila nearly yelled.

Adopting a syrupy mock innocent voice yet again, as unconvincing and unsettling as a tough Reno Nevada Madam in a nun costume, Vanessa taunted, “Oh, that’s right, you’re just some nature girl. Little Miss Trail Runner. So sweet, working in the local bookstore, doing storytime with the kids. Helping with the bluebird houses.” Snapping back to her waspish self, she demanded, “What do you even know about running a multi-million dollar business? What kind of contacts do you have? You’re a joke, Lila.”

“It’s time for you to go, Vanessa.” Forgoing subtlety, Lila unlocked the door. 

“You’re in way over your head,” Vanessa continued. “You don’t even know who he is, the world he travels in. He needs someone who can promote him, make things happen.”

“Yeah, that sounds like it would make Jake happy.”

Furious at Lila’s sarcasm, Vanessa’s face seemed to swell and turn a vibrant shade of scarlet as she yelled, “He’s not a
G
od
damned farmer!”

Standing firm and tall, Lila held her hand to her hip and defiantly met Vanessa’s angry, panting gaze. Speechless as she was with indignation and confusion over what the hell Vanessa was talking about, she hoped the strong stance would suffice.

Starting up again in her former, low and mean-as-a-snake hiss, Vanessa continued, “You have no idea what it takes to run something like Endicott. You don’t deserve this.”

“I have no idea why you’re attacking me,” Lila insisted. 

“Listen, you.” Vanessa pointed an accusatory red, lacquered fingernail at Lila. “Just this morning, we lost a major deal. A major one. And do you know what Jake said?

“Not a clue.”

“‘Lila was right. I should have done this a long time ago.’”

“Lila was right?” Lila echoed, confused.

“And that’s not the first time he’s mentioned you while making exactly the wrong choice.”

“Really?”

The hint of pleasure in Lila’s voice was clearly not what Vanessa had been seeking. “He’s not some tie-dyed save the manatee loser like you.” As Vanessa heated
up again, Lila’s eyes widened with surprise and a hint of amusement. “He’s a winner! I haven’t put two God
dam
n
ed
years into this for nothing.”

“Two years, huh?” Lila realized that was about when Jake moved back to Redwood Cove. “I’m so sorry your investment isn’t paying off.”

“Wipe that smug look off your face and listen to me,” Vanessa demanded.” Jake and I are together. He’s dating me—exclusively. What do you have to say about that?”

“Then why are you here?”

“To make sure your little do-gooder ass stays out of the way.” 

“I’ll do whatever I want to do.”

“You won’t agree to stop seeing him?”

“I haven’t even seen Jake in six weeks.”

That stopped Vanessa’s train. With a look of surprise, she asked, “Six weeks?”

“Haven’t seen or heard from him,” Lila confirmed. “But I tell you what.” Lila moved toward Vanessa with a step of her own. “If I want to go to a Greenpeace rally with Jake, you bet I will.” She said it with impressive vehemence, having never gone to such a thing nor having any plans to do so. “Carrying a banner,” she added, for effect. “And wearing hemp.”

It was the last detail that made Vanessa recoil with a shudder. So bulky! Pulling herself together, she declared, “Well, I think I’ve made my point here.”

“You certainly have.” With a look toward the door, Lila added, “I think you know your way out.”

“I don’t expect to see you any time soon.” Hoisting up her bag, Vanessa swept out as she’d come in, leaving behind a cloud of angry perfume. 

Shaking despite her bravado, Lila locked the door behind her and retreated back into the staff room. She poured herself a cup of water and sat down on one of the folding chairs. Had she just experienced an extremely vivid hallucination? That made more sense than Vanessa having stopped by to warn her to stay away from Jake, the man who continued to make no attempt to get in touch with her in any way, shape or form.