Blush - Jamie Brenner Page 0,47
Red.” Leah remembered dancing to it at her senior prom. She also remembered sitting in this very spot a few days before her prom with her friends, all working on their tans. All her friends had had crushes on Asher, and Leah had looked up to him.
“I need to talk to you,” Asher said.
“What’s up?”
“Dad just told me he formally accepted the offer for the winery.”
Now, all of a sudden, Asher was confiding in her?
“Well, I guess we knew that was coming. Do you think the new owners will keep the staff?”
“I can’t worry about the staff right now,” Asher said. He sat down at the edge of her chair and lowered his voice. “Leah, there’s going to be very little money after the sale.”
“What do you mean?”
“It means we’ve been operating with huge losses for a long time. Losses I didn’t realize.”
“How could you not know? You’re a VP.”
“I’m not a finance guy . . .”
“You’re not a finance guy, you’re not a winemaker, you’re not a salesperson. What exactly do you do, Asher?”
He shook his head. “After all this time, you’re still jealous.”
“Jealous? Okay, Asher. Whatever. Sorry your plan to cash out isn’t looking so good.”
He took off his baseball cap and ran his hand through his hair, looking like a movie star. Leah felt so annoyed she wanted to slap some sense into him.
“I’ll deal with it. But I’m afraid Bridget is going to freak out.”
“Yeah. She might even have to sell her second engagement ring.”
“Low blow.”
“You’re right: I shouldn’t attack Bridget for your shortcomings.”
“Just . . . don’t say anything to her about all of this.”
“I think she’ll notice when the moving trucks arrive,” Leah said dryly.
“The sale will take months to close.”
And by then, they’d be married. Asher, like most people headed to the altar, thought the wedding was the finish line. They had to learn for themselves it was just the starting mark.
Keeping this secret was not a good way to start.
* * *
Leah stood at her bedroom window, watching the sky turn from gold to pink to purple. The natural beauty of the North Fork always astonished her. And tonight, it made her miss her husband. That, and some of the steamy love scenes in Chances.
As much as the book offered in action and plot twists, it had a surprisingly tender love story between Gino and his second wife. Reading the scene of them making love for the first time gave her an actual twinge deep inside, a flickering reminder that she was still a woman with her own desire, however latent it might be. And she knew that if her libido was showing signs of life, she should be at home with Steven. Maybe staying behind had been a mistake.
A knock at the door, and then Sadie poked her head in. “Do you have a sec?”
“Of course. What’s up?”
Sadie sat in the armchair. “So I don’t know if I should tell you this, but then I thought maybe I should: I found out that Mateo is interviewing for a new job.”
Leah sighed. “Not surprising. I would be doing the same thing. How did you hear?”
“I ran into him when I went to Southold for lunch. Has Grandpa announced the sale?”
“I think he’s going to this week.”
Sadie picked up the copy of Chances on Leah’s bed. “What’s this?”
“An old book of Gran’s. I’m rereading it—indulging in a little nostalgia. I was in eighth grade the first time I snuck this out of the library.”
Sadie opened the book, scanning a page. Her eyes widened. “Wow. Even as a member of the internet porn generation, I find this shocking. Is Dad aware of your precocious reading habits? It seems like something that should have been disclosed.”
“Very funny.”
“I just can’t believe Gran and her friends were into this stuff.”
“Okay, Ms. Literary Fiction. ‘Which one of you bitches is my mother?’”
Sadie rolled her eyes. “My reading is purely anthropological. I’m in college. It’s a time of experimentation. In fact, Dr. Moore told me to expand my horizons.”
“In Gran’s defense—and mine—these were very popular books at the time. The one you were reading was also a television miniseries. I’ll never forget watching it in my pajamas. The actress who played Lili—Phoebe Cates—seemed like the most beautiful woman in the world to me. Most of the actresses and models at the time—not to mention all the Barbie Dolls—were blond, wholesome, girl-next-door types. Phoebe Cates was the first actress I really noticed who looked a little different.”
“Did Gran know you