“Morning,” he said. “I brought donuts.”
A little later that afternoon, a theme became apparent. Cameron caught me in the hallway, walking back from the staff bathroom, with a few files in his hand. I thought he was going to go over financials with me and was prepared to brush him off.
“Hey, Noah,” he said, approaching. My hand was already on the way to tell him no.
“Hey—”
“I just wanted to check up with you,” he said, cutting me off. “I heard Derek and Alex had trouble reaching you this weekend. You’ve been acting a bit off. Are you okay?”
“Acting off?” I asked, surprised. “What does that mean?”
“Just not yourself,” Cameron said. “I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright.”
“I’m fine,” I said, not sure if I was lying or not. “Everything’s fine.”
Brushing by him, I continued on my way toward the tasting room. It was disheartening to have my younger brothers worried about me. But I had to just keep nodding and avoid the kitchen. That was what I had to do. If I could keep that up, then everything else would be easy. I could finish my job at the vineyard, hop in the truck, and go home until I had a house to build.
I got back to the tasting room, and Duncan was already ready, sledgehammer in hand. We had spent the morning going over the plan for the day and making sure we were on the same page about what was to come. But now all that was left was the actual work. I grinned and waved as I came in. I looked down at one of our makeshift worktables, covered in a heavy canvas, to see my tools and hard hat sitting there, along with another sledgehammer propped up against the table.
“I think we’re ready to get to kicking in some walls,” Duncan said.
“I think we are too,” I said. “Last big project, and then we can get back to the easy stuff.”
“Yup. The biggest question I have now is a doozy.” I looked up and cocked an eyebrow. “Eighties hair metal or nineties pop metal?”
I laughed.
“Whatever you’re in the mood for,” I said. “I know that probably just means an endless stream of Ronnie James Dio, but I said what I said.”
“Okay,” Duncan said, his grin getting wider. “You just can’t say I didn’t give you a choice or a chance.”
I raised my hand in the air by my face. “I promise I will not make that accusation. Now come on, it’s time to break shit.”
Duncan laughed and drained the coffee he was holding, putting it aside and picking the sledge up. We had marked the walls that needed to come down with marker on paper, and he turned to slam his hammer in the wall behind him, marked number one. I joined him by his side and started whacking away as well.
As dust filled the room and we began to push our way through the demo of the room, I felt glad to finally be starting on the tasting room and being done with the kitchen. No more Ally, no more Derek, no more stress. No more ending up naked at inopportune times. Now all that was left was the stuff I knew I was good at and then getting the hell out of there.
18
Ally
I headed for the vineyard on Tuesday fully prepared to spend yet another day alone in the kitchen. But when I walked through the door, Derek was standing at the counter, poking one of the dishes I’d made the day before with a fork.
“It’s not going to bite you,” I said, walking past him to put my sweater and bag in the back room. “It’s just a baked Alaska. It probably wasn’t the best idea to keep it overnight. Toasted meringue doesn’t do well in a freezer.”
“It’s not terrible,” Derek said when I walked back into the kitchen and found him cautiously sticking the tip of his tongue onto the ice cream on the fork. “The mint flavor you got into the ice cream is really good. You know what did actually try to kill me though? That stomach flu.”
I laughed. “I thought you were going to say one of the other desserts.”
Derek looked offended. “Are you not going to show me any compassion about my dire illness? I spent almost a week right on the brink.”
“Right on the brink?”
“Okay, maybe not the actual brink, but I was definitely nearing the brink. I was on that trajectory,” he said. “I spent a couple of days there wearing nothing but boxers because I didn’t have enough energy to actually get dressed. And I would have to drag myself into the bathroom…”
I held up a hand and cringed. “Alright, I think that’s enough of that. I got the basic idea.”
“But I have a whole elaborate explanation for you,” Derek said with a teasing note in his voice. “There might even be some visual aids.”