So Far Into You (32 page)

‘Thanks, Seth,' Remy said, giving in gratefully. ‘I'd like to be here when she wakes up. Breeze never liked the vet. I don't want her to be scared.'

‘It takes a lot to scare an Am Staff, Rem. Don't forget that. It takes more than a lot to bruise one. They're super tough.'

‘They are. You're right.' And for the first time since he'd heard her cry out when that terrible thump and yelp filled the air, the stress in Remy's face relaxed.

***

With the help of her neighbours, and thanks to Rina, they got the fruit off before the rains.

Remy's harvest officially came in at 12.5 tonnes of sauvignon blanc fruit. The $3200 per tonne Seth paid brought her a small buffer on top of the $22,000 advance.

It wasn't much, but it was better than so many other growers had. The Adelaide Hills wasn't so bad, but in the Riverland and the Barossa there were grapegrowers who hadn't found a buyer for their fruit for years, and who'd had to cut their grapes and let them fall to the ground. Some didn't even do that, they let the fruit wither on the vine.

There were grapegrowers walking off land they'd tended for generations, and others selling for a price less the cost of ripping the vines out. Some just let the weeds take over. The wine industry had a term for it: mothballing. All over the country vineyards were being put in mothballs, left with zero or no input costs while growers waited for fruit prices to recover.

With true Am-Staff fortitude, Breeze recovered far faster than the viticulture industry. She was also pregnant, they discovered on one of her return check-up visits at the vets.

‘Love will find a way, grandma,' Seth said when she told him the news, putting his arms around her and nuzzling her neck.

‘Love had nothing to do with it, granddad. It's just your very horny dog.'

***

After Breeze's accident, Seth and Remy were happy to take the autumn days as they came: slow and steady with plenty of time to learn each other. Sensual days and nights filled with food and wine, love and laughter.

On one of those nights, Remy commented that Ailsa had yet to present the $100 000 cheque.

Seth bumped the heel of his hand on his forehead and swore. ‘Sorry, Rem. I never told you that part, did I? I ripped the cheque up when I saw her in Perth.'

‘You ripped it up?' Remy's jaw dropped.

‘Yeah. In front of her greedy damn eyes. She pissed me off to the point where I thought fuck it, she doesn't need it. I tore it into pieces.'

‘I can't believe you didn't tell me.'

‘I forgot about it.'

Remy felt a bit faint. ‘How do you forget about a $100 000? I've had years where I wished I could forget about that money and I never could.
Hell and Tommy.
'

‘Ailsa didn't deserve it. It meant nothing to her except maybe a few more paintings for her walls.'

‘But … what do I do with it? What will I do about it? I can't keep it.'

‘I did have some thoughts.' Seth stood to top up Remy's red wine, and stayed there, balancing the bottle in his big hand. ‘I thought about using the money to seed a community-based program building vegetable gardens for the elderly. I was thinking here in the Hills, the Barossa, McLaren Vale—the wine regions for starters to give back to people who've been part of our community.'

Remy nodded, thinking about how it could work, seeing it in her head.

‘It's a more structured version of what you're already doing. I thought we could get the TAFE colleges and schools involve somehow. We could provide the equipment and we'd resource it, and they could provide the labour. Kids get to learn about gardening and the community's health improves.'

‘We could call it The Munch Program,' Remy said.

‘Munch?'

‘I wanted to call my business—my vegie garden business if I ever did get it off the ground—Munch, or something like it. It sounds foodie. It sounds healthy. It's short and sweet. Munch.'

‘I was thinking about calling it The Lasrey/Roberts Community Garden Program for the Elderly,' Seth said, smiling.

‘Munch is very catchy.'

‘Compared with my mouthful, it is.'

‘It's a lot of work, Seth. I don't know how to even get something like that started.'

‘Margaret Castle was a schoolteacher once. She said she was sure schools would leap at the chance to get involved in something like that. It has great core fundamentals, she said, as long as it doesn't cost the Education Department any money. If it costs them, they'd run a mile.'

‘If the $100 000 was seed money …' Remy began, before Seth finished off: ‘Lasrey can add it to our annual sponsorship budget. We can kick in more each year. Other corporations might get involved once it's up and running and we've got a model to show them.'

‘I like it,' Remy said. ‘I love it. It's a great idea. What do we do next?'

‘I'll take the concept to our next Lasrey board meeting and we'll go from there. Meanwhile, it might as well stay in your account. Don't go to Hawaii without me, okay?'

‘Bugger. You read my mind.'

***

On Easter Saturday, Seth took Remy to the Oakbank Racing Carnival. She'd been before, but never to the corporate tents. Whenever she'd gone to Oakbank it had been with Zac and Clea and a handful of mates. They'd parked in the middle of the racecourse, set up their barbecue and drunk cheap champagne while the boys cooked bacon and eggs. She'd worn jeans. When the trumpet sounded and the new race was about to run, they'd rushed to the bookies to place two dollar bets, then to the rails to watch the horses thunder by.

Oakbank with Seth was all kinds of different.

She needed a dress and good shoes, but she drew the line at any kind of hat and refused to tote a handbag around all day, or carry anything called a clutch. Instead, Seth carried her money and a lipstick in his pocket.

‘Are you having fun?' he said, returning to her side with a fresh glass of bubbles.

‘It's good. I think I like it better in jeans.'

He smiled at her and she knew he was thinking of how much fun he could have with her,
without
her jeans. She couldn't believe she'd once accused him of not smiling enough and she reached up on tiptoes and kissed him.

‘Sorry to interrupt you pair of lovebirds.' Rina appeared beside them, not looking sorry at all. She wore a burgundy dress, much the same deep wine red colour as in her glass. She looked nice, Remy thought. The dress softened her bones.

After the debacle at the vineyard the day Rina had run over Breeze, the winemaker seemed to be making an effort to be nice, even if it appeared to be a struggle at times.

‘Will you make a bet for me, Seth?' Rina asked him. ‘I want Chess Of Gold in the next race.'

‘Chess Of Gold?'

‘Chest Of Gold. Sorry, looks like I'm slurring my words.'

‘Sure. What about you, Rem?' Seth asked.

‘I'm about fifteen dollars up for the day, so put it all on Vagrant Dancer for the win.'

He disappeared through the crowd, sharing a joke with Max Montgomery on the way. Max and Sue were Lasrey guests, along with Rina, Lewis Carney and his wife, Jackie.

‘I bet you never thought last Easter that this is where you'd be right now,' Rina said when she and Remy were alone.

‘Easter was earlier last year. I was picking grapes, from memory.'

Rina overbalanced slightly in her heels, and for the first time Remy realised the winemaker was very close to being drunk.

She tried to catch Max or Sue's eye … or Lewis', someone who might come help her out of this conversation, but Sue was deep in discussion with the wife of the local politician and Max was studying the form guide.

‘Do you want to sit down, Rina? I can get you a coffee if you'd like.'

‘Coffee? God no. People will think I'm drunk.'

‘Or a water?'

‘Oh don't fuss. I'm fine,' Rina said. ‘How's Breeze?'

‘She's coming along, thanks. She's having puppies in another few weeks.'

Rina's mouth curled. ‘Lovely. Just what the world needs. Puppies.'

Yes. Sometimes Rina's nice-o-meter struggled.
‘You don't like dogs much, do you? Seth told me.'

‘Dogs. Cats. Canaries. No, I don't like animals much. At least horses pull their weight. But you know I was sorry when I hit Breeze, right? I might not like dogs but I wouldn't want to injure one.' She shuddered.

Remy looked for Seth. He was the tallest man in the marquee and he wasn't hard to find, but she couldn't see him right now.

‘We'll miss the start. Are you coming?' Remy said.

‘Nah. Might sit for a minute. My feet are killing. Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude before. Maybe I have had one too many. I'm out of practice these days.'

Remy left her and Rina found a chair near the wall of the marquee where there was room to kick off her shoes and put her feet up.

That's where Seth found her a few minutes later.

‘Had a few too many, Rina?' He asked.

It took her eyes a second to focus, before she smiled. ‘Right as rain. Good to go again. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine.'

‘Do you want me to call a taxi for you?'

‘No. No.' She batted the question away. ‘I'm fine. I wish everyone would stop fussing.'

‘I'm not being much of a CEO if I leave you on your own.'

‘Why? Are you worried some rich eligible bachelor will have his wicked way with me? That only happens to Remy.'

‘Come on, Rina.' Seth reached for the wineglass and took it from her. ‘Let's get you home.'

‘Did you know Remy always bounces back, whatever happens? Even her name sounds like a spring.
Remy. Remy. Remy. Boing. Boing. Boing.
' She giggled.

‘Have you got your shoes?' Seth was tired of it. The race had started and he was missing watching the excitement on Remy's face as she listened to the race, as she cheered her horse on and jumped about if the race got close.

A great cheer came up in the grandstand. The horses were in the home stretch. Out in the crowd, he could have sworn he heard Remy call clearly: ‘Go Dancer.
Go
Dancer!'

Rina spun her shoes. Then she put the heels on the grass and slipped her feet into them, very carefully, one at a time, and did up each buckle.

‘You know, Rina. If you'd hurry it up, we might actually see who wins when they come round again.'

‘Remy always wins. Doesn't matter if it's horses, grapes, dogs or men.' She sat back in her chair and Seth gave up any faint hope of seeing the end of the race. ‘It's boring how many times she wins.'

‘I'm getting you a coffee.' He stood up, but Rina grabbed his arm and tugged him back down.

‘You asked me if my passport was up to date. Do you remember?'

‘What? When?'

‘That long weekend after Vintage Festival. You asked me about going to Bordeaux with you.'

The weekend I met Remy.
‘Yeah. So?'

She made a sniffy little giggle and it choked away to nothing. ‘I thought you were asking me to go to Bordeaux with you, but you weren't. You were asking me to go
instead
of you, so you could spend more time with Remy.'

She smiled at him, all sad and twisted with mascara bleeding, and Seth thought:
this is getting ugly.

Slowly the crowd filtered back into the tent. The marquee, which had been hollow and echoing, refilled. Max led the way, Sue behind him. Then Remy, moving like she always did, even in heels: hips rolling easy as water sliding over glass.

‘See,' Rina said in a small voice. ‘She comes back and you don't see anyone else.'

‘You missed it,' Remy said, glowing with excitement. ‘Vagrant Dancer won!'

‘Hoo-bloody-ray,' Rina muttered.

‘Okay. I'm calling the cab. Remy can you watch she doesn't do anything to embarrass herself, or my company?'

‘What would you consider embarrassing?' Remy asked him quietly.

‘No dancing on a table. Anything to do with challenging the patrons in this tent to a drinking contest.'

‘Okay.'

Remy sat in the chair Seth had left vacant and Rina said: ‘Oh. It's you. How's your dog?'

Haven't we done this already?
‘She's good thanks. Recovering well.'

‘What about Seth's dog? You didn't get in trouble with the ranger?'

‘No.'

‘I would have looked after Occhy if Seth asked. He didn't ask. He never asks me for anything.'

Hell and Tommy, come on Seth, hurry up. This is getting ugly.

Sue Montgomery sat on Rina's other side and patted her leg. ‘Had a few too many, love? We've all been there. Don't worry. We'll look after you.'

‘Thank you,' Rina put her hand over Sue's. ‘No one ever cares about me, not really. I should just leave. Even the horses I pick lose.'

‘The horses most people pick lose, love. Don't feel bad about that.'

‘Mine is still running,' Max Montgomery, who'd come to sit next to his wife, added.

‘Her horses always win,' Rina said, pointing at Remy. ‘She wins everything. Even when she loses, she wins.'

‘I have no idea what you're on about, love,' Sue said.

‘She's so nice. She's so unbelievably nice. I almost killed her dog—' she nodded pleasantly to a bemused Sue—‘I ran it over … and she forgives me.'

‘It was an accident, Rina,' Remy said, embarrassed.
Seth? Where the hell are you?

‘Not like back home,' Rina said, head slumping toward her chest. ‘No accident in the vineyard there.'

‘Nah, sorry, love. I still don't know what you're on about. Here's Seth. He'll sort it out.' Sue stood and touched the side of her head, indicating Rina as she passed Seth with a touch on his arm. Remy heard Sue whisper: ‘Think your winemaker's had a few too many, love.'