“I think so.” She forced a smile into her voice. “Before you know it, the kids and I will be in California, and everything will be fine.”
“That’s right.”
She exhaled slowly, telling herself to keep it together, remembering that once upon a time she’d been a fierce competitor, and tough. She’d poured herself into her sports, balancing athletics and academics, along with all the community service her private high school demanded. And while she’d dated in high school, and had attended every dance, she’d never wanted to have a serious boyfriend. She’d been too independent then, too focused on her goals. There was a reason she’d been offered full-ride scholarships to four different Division I schools, before she had chosen to go to UCLA and play volleyball for the school. She was smart. She was gifted. And she worked hard. “You love me?” she murmured.
“Honey, you know I do. With all my heart.”
* * *
It was the Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend, and once the morning rush at the café ended, Lauren hopped into her car to head up to Napa for the night.
It’d been a relatively quiet few days at the café. The A’s were on the road, and she wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she was lonely. She was missing Boone.
She wasn’t ready to miss him. She barely knew him. But she definitely felt butterflies when he was around.
To take her mind off him, she decided to go see her new niece. She couldn’t wait to hold the baby again, and it’d be good to hang out with Lisa and catch up. It’d been a long time since they just talked.
Lisa had said she could make a light lunch, but Lauren had told her she’d already made something at the café and was bringing the chicken, beet, and citrus salad with her.
They ate lunch outside on the stone terrace flanking the family room with the view of the adjacent vineyard; Audrey, in her pink fleecy onesie, was sleeping in a bassinette next to the wrought-iron table.
Now and then Lisa would put a hand into the bassinette and lightly touch the baby, checking on her.
Lauren smiled as she watched her sister with her daughter. Lisa was really enjoying being a mother. She and Matthieu had tried for years to get pregnant before turning to fertility specialists. Her doctor prescribed a medicine to help stimulate egg production and recommended that Lisa take up yoga, meditation, and add twice-weekly acupuncture to her schedule. She did all of the above and had been thrilled to finally be pregnant.
Lauren looked away from her sister and the baby to the view of the hills and grapes. Matthieu seemed to be getting a lot more serious about his wine now. He’d said it would just be a hobby when he’d bought the neighbor’s property and taken over their small vineyard, but apparently he was eyeing another property to the east, claiming it’d be a good investment.
“Matthieu likes to acquire things,” Lauren said now, thinking of the 1899 bank he owned in downtown Napa that housed their restaurant and the old newspaper building he was currently renovating.
Lisa shrugged. “If he has the money, why can’t he?”
True, Lauren thought, silenced.
And maybe Mom was right. Maybe she was a little bit jealous of Lisa and Matthieu. Maybe she was just a little bit jealous that Lisa had so much and she herself had so little . . .
But it was a horrible thing to think, and selfish. Lisa deserved every happiness. Lisa wasn’t just her big sister, she was also her best friend. Growing up, they’d been inseparable, and then as twentysomethings, they lived together in Grandma’s house, worked together at their bakery café, and stayed up late talking after work was done and Blake was in bed.
Lauren had never needed many friends. She had her parents. She had her sister. She had her son.
Then Lisa met Matthieu, and before Lauren knew it was even serious, he proposed. He and Lisa went house hunting. Got married. Traded up their house for a slightly bigger one in a much better neighborhood. They traded up one more time a few years back, landing them here, which gave them the space to remodel the existing house into a seven-thousand-square-foot mansion with copper turrets just like a real French château.
It was hard keeping up with the Roussels.
Audrey woke up and made a little bleating sound. Quickly, the bleating became a hard cry.
Lisa picked the baby up, inspected her unhappy face. “Hungry, aren’t you, sweetheart? You slept a long, long time,” she crooned, lifting a lapel on her blouse so Audrey could nurse.
Audrey had no problem latching up and soon settled down. Lisa patted the baby’s back, content to just sit on the terrace and soak up the dappled sunlight. “It’s so nice to have you here,” she said, smiling across the table at Lauren. “I was so glad to hear you were coming up to see us. I really have missed you.”