Just a Kiss: The Single Girls Wine Club (A Wine Country Romance #1) (17 page)

Once her tears were under control, she got back on Highway 101 and her internal autopilot led her home to Sonoma.

Leaving her bags in the car, she plodded through the gravel walkway in the dim gray moonlight. Just fifteen more steps and she’d finally be at the door. Bella Villa's porch never looked more welcoming. She fumbled with the lock, banging her keys on the door, and heard the pattering of footsteps.

Lulu called from inside, “Sarah is that you?” She seemed so far away.

Sarah vaguely heard the deadbolt unlock. Warm light and love snapped over her when the door opened.

Danica, Juliet and Lulu were in stocking feet, and pajamas and collectively pulled her in from the cold.

“Oh honey.” Lulu put her arms around her in a tight squeeze.

The embrace become stronger and warmer when Juliet and Danica joined in for a progressive sandwich group hug and Sarah lost her tears again.

“Are you okay?” Lulu stirred out of the hug and looked at her. Feeling Sarah’s arms, she walked around her while touching her back, and carefully appraising her legs.

Sarah caught a wide-eyed stare from Danica.

“You haven’t been in an accident?” Juliet blurted. “Sarah, say something.”

“N-no. No car accident. I accidently allowed…” She gasped. “Myself to fall in love with a liar… Again.” She gulped. “Jamie d-dump-p-ped me…” Gale force sobs doubled her over.

Lulu, who had her hands on her hips, threw an arm around Sarah and moved her to the couch. “Come on, let’s sit down.”

Danica shut off the television.

Juliet made a beeline to the kitchen, calling out in a tense happy tone, “I’m putting a kettle on. Dezerai came by today and brought some of your favorite Lemongrass tea.”

“Just relax, you’re home now.” Lulu patted Sarah’s shoulder. “There, you’re okay honey.”

She shuddered. Taking a deep breath, she noticed the worry in Danica and Lulu’s eyes. “I-I’m okay, I’ll b-be ok-k-kay.”

Juliet placed a steaming cup carefully in her hands. “This should help you feel better.”

The tears subsided a little while she sipped her tea and settled into the couch. Lulu kept her arms around her. Danica sat in a chair facing them, and Juliet scooted an ottoman closer.

As a courtesy, Sarah had told them before she’d left that she would be meeting Jamie. They’d made it a habit of telling one another if they were going to be out for the night so no one would be left worrying.

Sarah recounted the disastrous events of the evening while Juliet, Lulu and Danica patiently listened.

They shook their heads up and down in agreement and nodded back and forth in disapproval. The women didn’t interrupt or add any comments the first and second time they heard the story. Repeating the story only made the nightmare more real for Sarah.

“I just don’t get the texting thing,” Juliet said. “I mean, why didn’t he just call you at the Fairmont and ask you to go home and not wait for him? He could’ve come up with an excuse and then you wouldn’t have seen him going into Nikki’s room.”

“No Juliet,” Danica shot back. “Why did he invite her to the city in the first place? If he had any idea, any thought at all, about getting together with Nikki, why would he
even think
of asking Sarah to meet him? And why would he make such a big freakin’ deal about giving her the room key and getting a suite?”

“He seemed happy to see me on the set,” Sarah said. “You should’ve seen the way he smiled at me. Did I tell you he kissed me in front of everyone? He didn’t have to do that if he didn’t want to… unless he was acting. But he wasn’t. I don’t think so anyway.”

“Did something change?” Danica asked.

Sarah kept her eyes down. “When I saw him on the Marina Green? On the set?”

Juliet leaned forward and put her hand on Sarah’s knee. “Something must have happened between the time you saw him on the set and when he texted you. What changed his mind?”

“I have no idea. If I did, I wouldn’t be in this position right now.” Sarah’s bottom lip trembled, and she took another long sip of tea and let it settle. “So the consensus is I’m not paranoid.” Sarah’s voice cracked. “I’m not being a drama queen. This is really awful and he’s probably just a douche.”

“Yes. Definitely. He's indecent.” Lulu pulled a flask out of the coffee table drawer and took a swig from it. “With no chivalry.”

Danica got up from her chair and paced. “The whole texting you, after he gave you the room key when he knew you were already at the suite waiting for him. Why didn't he have the balls to call you and cancel? He leaves you sitting there naked in a bathrobe and
texts
you that he had a change of plans? At the very last minute?
That
is the coup de gras for me. He is done.”

Juliet nodded. “Done and done-er.”

“I didn’t see it coming,” Sarah said softly to the coffee table.

“Neither did I,” Juliet said, “or I would’ve given you a heads-up. If I had seen anything in the tabloids that I believed, honestly, I would have said something.”

“I’m shocked,” Danica said. “I should’ve just stayed out of the whole Jamie needs training thing…”

Lulu took another swig from her flask and put it back in the drawer. She put her hands up. “All right girls, this isn’t helping Sarah. There is nothing we can do about it now, and we shouldn't talk about it anymore this evening. Let’s get a good night’s sleep. Things always look better when the sun’s up.”

Sarah’s feet didn’t touch the white carpet next to her bed until four o’clock in the afternoon. Slowly dragging her body and not bothering to wash her face, she schlepped into the kitchen wearing a leopard flannel pajama top and green sweatpants. The light stung her eyes, so she grabbed a pair of Danica’s sunglasses off the counter, put them on and slogged her way to the coffee pot. She poured, and tasted while walking to the table to join Lulu.

She plunked into a chair, put the cup down and muttered, “Cold.”

“I’ve got some hot water ready, want some tea?” Lulu padded over to her china cabinet.

Sarah looked out the French doors and analyzed the view. The vibrant colors of reds, yellows, and greens in the vineyards were gone. Muted mustard and brown hues took their place. Dead leaves puddled at the base of the vines.

When Lulu placed the delicate Limoges cup in front of her, the steamy aroma of ginger met her nose. Two carefully placed butter crumb cookies adorned the saucer.

Lulu took a seat at the table in front of a stack of bright red Rudolf Christmas cards.

“Thanks.” Sarah studied the cup in a glazed-over stare.

“Go ahead, have a little sip, its non-caffeinated, and ginger will soothe your tummy,” Lulu said without looking up from her writing.

“Thank you for last night.”

Lulu put her pen down. “You don’t have to thank me for that.”

“I do need to thank you,” Sarah said softly. “You’re generous enough to rent a beautiful room to me, share your home, and what do you get in return? A babbling idiot, barging in late, interrupting your evening and falling apart in your arms.”

“Sar…ah,” Lulu said slowly like a lullaby. “It’s life.” She sighed. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you’ll understand. These situations happen, shocking incidents that just come from out of nowhere. I’m glad we were all home last night.”

Sarah shrugged reaching for a cookie and taking a small bite. “Thank you for the tea. It’s delicious, and so are the cookies.”

Lulu smiled. “I’m just relieved it wasn’t worse, that you weren’t in an accident or something. It may not feel like it now, but your heart will heal.”

“You just did it again,” Sarah said. “I don’t know how you do it, but somehow you always manage to come up with the exact words I need to hear, exactly when I need to hear them.”

Lulu leaned back in her chair. “After enough of life goes by, the full picture comes into view, and you understand what’s important. Which losses are final and irrefutable and which losses are only breaks that will mend with time.”

“So I’m not lost, I’m just broken. Is that what you’re saying?”

Lulu got up from the table and rinsed her teacup in the sink. “We still have you, Sarah,” she said over her shoulder. “Just a part of you is broken, but luckily, the heart is very resilient. You have plenty of time honey.” She came to the table and squeezed Sarah’s shoulder. “So don't you worry.” Lulu gave her a peck on the cheek and then left the room.

Sarah went back to staring at the vineyard view, but her right hand slipped into the soft pocket of her sweatpants and pulled out her phone. She placed it on the table and frowned at it. She took another bite of cookie and ran a finger along the gold painted handle of the teacup. She tried savoring another sip. Her eyes didn’t leave the cell. She plunked the rest of the cookie into her mouth and picked up the phone.

At first glance, it looked like twenty-two missed calls from Jamie and about thirty-five texts, she didn’t think to count all of them or read any. He probably just wanted to know how many hours she’d waited in that hotel room for him to see how long he could play her for a fool. She deleted the whole thread, all of it. Every single text Jamie had ever sent.

As she swiped the screen over to her voicemail, Danica approached and sat at the table. They made eye contact briefly, and Sarah looked back at the phone’s screen. She meticulously checked every box and hit delete.

“I told him you were here last night,” Danica said softly.

Sarah felt like Danica punched her. “You did not.”

“I did. I had to…” Danica winced.

“You—”

“Wait!” Danica put her hand up. “He was going to call the police, so I had to tell him where you were.”

Sarah shook her head in disbelief. “You talked to him?”

“No. Jamie called Michael and Michael called me. Jamie didn’t know what happened to you. He was so worried Sarah, I honestly didn’t think you’d mind if he knew you were alive.”

The tension in Sarah’s shoulders relaxed a bit. “He was just being dramatic,” she said. “Did he expect me to wait for him to finish up with Nikki and then welcome him with open arms, so he could be with me too, the
same
night?” Sarah shrugged. “What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know.” Danica fiddled with her sleeve. “Maybe check in with him when you got home so he’d know you made it back safely?”

“Why? He dumped me!”

“Please don’t get upset, I just didn’t think you’d want him sending the police out looking for you,” Danica said.

“No. You’re right,” Sarah agreed. “Serial killers, ax murderers and other assorted criminals should have priority in the police department over scheming actors with hearts of concrete slab.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re not mad…at me anyway,” Danica said before leaving the room.

The splash of warm water worked like an elixir when it hit Sarah’s skin in the shower. She stayed under the showerhead letting its pulses peel away her exhaustion. When she opened the shower door and stepped out of the steamy fog, she'd made an important decision. After buffing her skin with a towel, she got into her terry cloth bathrobe and tied the sash with the precision of a karate master.

The words “sick and tired” would be banished from her vocabulary. Heartache would only be a distant memory. Sarah Dupont had enough of being taken for granted, lied to and deceived, and she wasn’t going to hide from Jamie Santino or anyone else for one-second longer.

She wasn’t a frail, injured bird that needed rescuing. She’d been flying solo for years now without her mother and father. Sure, she’d taken wrong flight paths, just like those poor little birds that occasionally crashed full speed into a window. But she wasn’t lifeless, and she wasn't weak. Robert and Jamie had only knocked the wind out of her and left her stunned, but she still had plenty of miles to soar and she wasn’t going to let them stop her.

She padded across her room and grabbed her phone. Hesitating only for a split second, she hit the call button next to Jamie Santino’s name hoping he’d be finished shooting for the day. If he didn’t answer, she’d leave a message for him to call back. No anonymous hang-ups from her ever, from this day forward.