Two to Tangle (A Tangle Valley Romance #2) - Melissa Brayden Page 0,6
here.”
“Good. I just wanted to make sure.” Madison dipped her head as if about to confess something. “I feel a certain amount of, I don’t know, pressure to make sure you’re happy out here. You’re a long way from home, and dragging you out here was my idea.”
She covered Madison’s hand with hers. “You’re off the hook. For the first time in years, I can breathe, and that’s because I’m here and have you to thank. It’s been really nice. This,” she said, gesturing to the room around her, “is exactly the kind of pace I needed. Slower. Less drama. It’s what I never knew I wanted for my life.” She stood taller with a grin. “Aside from missing my sisters, my family, I’ve never been more at peace.”
“Good.” Madison relaxed her shoulders. “You’ve seemed lighter. Glad I wasn’t wrong to suggest you take the job.”
She smiled ruefully. “Well, I know how you hate to be wrong. Dear God, the shame.”
“If this is a reference to the green coffee maker incident of years past, I still claim I was right. My tinkering with it did nothing to harm that machine. I still believe it was being dramatic.”
“Oh, I know.” She laughed. “And I refuse to have that argument with you again. The fantastic part? We broke up, so I don’t have to.”
Madison leaned back against the counter and sipped her wine. “Did you ever imagine we’d be so great at the whole friendship thing? It’s honestly refreshing. Our maturity. Our growth.”
“I’m impressed with us.”
“Same. We rock.” They clinked glasses. “I came in and stole your dinner, dessert, and vino, and now I have to head to the barrel room and put the wine to bed.”
“Well, make sure it has a blanket and a glass of water.”
“If that will balance its acidity, I’m all for it.”
As head winemaker for the vineyard, Madison’s job was an important one that demanded a lot of hours. She had to be an artist, an innovator, and a chemist in one. The combined skill set put Madison LeGrange on the map in the industry as a young winemaker to watch. She was known in her field, and highly respected as someone who’d accomplished a lot by the time she’d turned thirty. She could have had her pick of a lot of vineyards, so it was noteworthy when she’d chosen this one, a smaller operation but one near and dear to her heart.
“Me and these empty plates hold no ill will,” Gabriella said. “Oh, are we all doing a movie night later this week? Once the restaurant work starts, we lose our makeshift movie theater.” They’d been using the unoccupied building and the giant white wall. Seemed fitting to say farewell.
“Good point. I vote for a Bond flick.”
Gabriella winced. “Again? No. I vote for a rom-com this time. I need to laugh and cry in quick succession, back and forth like a maniac. Lets me know I’m alive.”
“Do we have to?”
“Wasn’t Loretta’s daughter in an indie one from last year?” Carly Daniel was the only child of Loretta Daniel, their coworker in the tasting room. Joey and Madison knew her from back in the day when they’d grown up in the same town, but Gabriella hadn’t had the pleasure. She imagined she’d be starstruck as hell if she met her, given how much she loved Carly’s work.
“Yes, but it’s all mushy.”
“The entire point, Maddie. Time to meet your feelings. Say hello once in a while.”
“Let’s let Joey and Becca decide.”
“Okay, but those two are in love. They’re peanut butter and jelly on warm toast, adoring life and its splendor. What do you think they’re going to go with?”
“Damn. Carly Daniel rom-com it is. I’ll bring extra wine for the suffering party.”
“’Night, Maddie. It’s okay to cry. I want you to work on it.”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “’Night, Gabs. Be good.”
Gabriella started on the ever-present dishes while listening to the one local radio station counting down the hits.
With a hop in her step now, Gabriella spent the rest of her evening on her front porch, looking out over the darkened vineyard she’d grown to adore. She made a list of ideas for the running of the restaurant, tweaked her working menu, and then finished up with a little reading. A romance novel Joey had recommended by Parker Bristow. The cover was bent and worn in from Joey’s and Becca’s devouring of the story, which, she had to admit, was sucking her in as well. It had