Page 109 of You've Got Hate Mail
“It really was good to see him having fun,” Samantha says.
“Agreed,” Olivia says. “He doesn’t take enough time off of trying to be everything for everyone.”
“Neither does Mabel,” I point out, since I need to talk about someone other than Heath.
“Oh, she gets her kicks and lets off stress regularly,” Olivia tells me. “She’s just good at being subtle about it.”
Samantha nods. “Plus, I think she likes how much it irritates the family that Pip won’t sell this place and is letting it rot.”
“Her family cares what Pip does?” I ask.
“Not Mabel’s family,” Olivia says. “Dean’s family. Nephews and their kids. They’re pissed that Pip inherited the winery, andthey sometimes come around pretending to want to help when what they really want is to get money out of her.”
“So they don’t know about the cash flow shortage?”
Olivia shakes her head. “All they know is that Pip’s sitting on a gold mine with what the property’s worth and that they don’t think she deserves it since it was their family’s before she married into it. They don’t know it’s on the brink of belonging to the bank.”
“I don’t think they even know what Mabel and Pip have been doing here, hosting all of us and making this a home for so many women,” Samantha says.
“I keep thinking about what else I can do to help,” I say.
“We all are,” Olivia says.
“It’s probably dumb, but I’ve been enjoying gardening so much that I—I wish I could learn how to take care of the grapes. I did some research, and it seems like if we could sell the grapes instead of giving them away, it would make a big difference.”
“It would,” Samantha says. “But one person can’t manage twenty-five acres of grapes solo. We’d still have to hire people.”
“I know. I’ve seen the crews in the fields. And I meant even after paying the workers, it would be good income. But I’m good with people and I’ve loved my time playing in the garden and I want—I want to do something that will make the kind of difference here that here has made in me.”
They glance at each other while I wipe my hands on the napkin, then rise and head for the sink to start on the dishes.
A deal’s a deal, and I mean it.
I want to pull my weight around here.
I want to be useful.
I want to stay.
“You mention this to Mabel yet?” Olivia asks me.
“No, it didn’t occur to me as a possibility until yesterday when I was on my way up to the tasting room, and then—well.Now I’m a little worried I’m crossing a lot of lines and breaking a lot of unwritten rules with what—with my crush on Heath, and for a minute this morning when I—when we woke up, I thought maybe I was finally going to get kicked out.”
Saying it out loud makes it more real than I’d like, and I don’t realize exactly how worried I am until Samantha murmurs a soft, “Oh, sweetheart, who hurt you?”
I swallow hard and blink harder while I open the dishwasher, finding it empty. “What, life doesn’t make everyone this kind of insecure and paranoid?”
“It does not,” Olivia says softly.
I say a silent, sarcastic thanks to my parents for the number of times they talked about what they would finally be able to do when I graduated high school, and to my boss of the last four years who always gave me a vibe like he only kept me on because my segment performed well and not because he liked it, and to every boyfriend who ever dumped me becauseyou’re just too much, Cricket.
“Guess I’m lucky then,” I murmur.
Then I shake my head. “Actually, Iamlucky. I’m lucky to be here. And so grateful.”
“We’re lucky to have you,” Samantha says.
I swipe at my eyes with the back of my hand. “Now if I can find a way to bring in money and get over this stupid crush, everything will be perfect.”
