Blush - Jamie Brenner Page 0,123

a long week. I’d like to relax over dinner. No work talk,” Leonard said.

“Yes, let’s enjoy just being together as a family,” Vivian said.

Leah glanced at Steven, and he nodded her on. She took a sip of her wine, then continued. “You know, all these years of living in the city, one thing I still miss is the first day of harvest. The way the air smells. The way everything feels sort of electric—all that anticipation of the hard work ahead. And my favorite thing of all is the end of the first day, when it’s almost dusk and everyone gathers to add things to the freshly pressed Chardonnay juice.”

“Oh, we did that last year,” Bridget said, turning to Asher. “Remember I added that pebble from the dock where we met?”

“It’s a great tradition,” Leah said. “And I want to share it more widely.”

Leonard glared at her.

Vivian cleared her throat. “Leah, you heard what your father said.”

Leah shot her mother a look. What happened to her wanting Leah to help save the winery? What happened to her belief in her ideas? Maybe her primary concern now was simply saving her marriage, and that meant being Team Leonard no matter what.

“Yeah, just chill for once,” Asher said.

“‘Chill’? Oh, babe, that expression is so nineties,” Bridget said.

“Technically, it’s probably from the eighties,” Asher said.

Leah could see that there was no way anyone at the table was going to jump in to support her. She would have to switch gears.

“Well, as much as I’d love to ‘just chill,’ I wanted to make this suggestion while we’re all together. Since it seems that we’re in sort of uncharted territory here, I was wondering, Dad, if you’d let me host the Harvest Circle this year. I have some people I’d like to invite—just for the fun of it.”

“What people?” Leonard said. “The whole point of the Harvest Circle is that our employees who spend the fall harvesting the wine are included in a ceremonial way. It gets them emotionally invested. That’s the purpose.”

Exactly, Leah thought. So why not offer it to the people who will potentially be buying the wine? She wanted to reach out to every group of women who had visited the winery over the summer and invite them to bring something from their home or garden to contribute to the starter yeast for their first vintage of Hollander rosé. The wine would be for them, and in this small way, also by them. It would be truly theirs—something they might even care enough about to preorder. It was something businesspeople called “proof of concept,” and it might be just enough to convince her father not to give up. But that wasn’t something she could explain to him. It was something she just had to make happen.

“Look, I’m asking if I can run with it this year. It’s something I always dreamed of, and this is probably my last chance. It would mean a lot to me.”

“Are you including the employees?”

“I want it to be only women,” she said. “So no. Unless Peternelle wants to join in.” The employees might be upset to miss out on what might be the final Harvest Circle. But this was what she needed to do to make sure it wasn’t the last.

“This is crazy talk, Leah. The Harvest Circle isn’t for entertainment,” Leonard said.

“Leonard, with all due respect, she’s never asked you for anything since the day she left this winery. Can you just consider this?” Steven said.

This seemed to give Leonard pause. He turned to her. “Just a few friends?”

“Absolutely,” Leah said. “Just a few friends.”

Fifty-seven

Leah converted the estate’s unused stables into a makeshift office—a sort of war room for outreach and planning for the Harvest Circle. It was the one space that was large enough for the assembled team to get some work done while being out of the way enough that Leonard wasn’t likely to intrude.

Steven helped her move a large folding table and chairs from the barn and bought portable chargers for their phones and laptops. She ordered a whiteboard, put it on a stand, and moved a bunch of fans from the house. At noon, heat was battling the whirring standing fans and winning.

The invite list was close to one hundred women, and Leah considered that number just the beginning. The more people who attended the event, the greater their chance of presales.

It was a lot to mobilize in a short amount of time. Still, calling Sadie to come help had been