Seduce Me Sweetly (Heron's Landing Book 1) (22 page)

Grace gasped. Her coffee cup tipped over, but luckily, it was already empty. “You can’t leave! Where will you go? Please don’t leave!”

“How can I stay here? You saw what just happened. I’m not welcome here.” Joy covered Grace’s hand with hers and squeezed. “That doesn’t mean we can’t stay in touch, though.”

Grace looked like she was about to start crying. She squeezed Joy’s hand back and then slumped back into her booth.

“Are you sure that’s the wisest decision?” Jaime asked. Suddenly realizing standing over them was rather awkward, he sat down next to Grace, who scurried as far away from him as she could. He didn’t notice. “I think this will blow over soon enough.”

“Do you really think so? I don’t. Small towns have long memories. I do appreciate your support, though. You don’t really know me, but, thank you.” Joy finished her coffee; it had already gone cold. “I’ll go back to Chicago for now. And figure out things after that.”

“Are you sure? Chicago?” Grace stared at her, and then she bit her lip.

Joy knew she was talking about Jeremy. But Joy refused to avoid an entire city just because her shitty ex happened to be lurking in it. Besides, she had unfinished business to attend to there.

“I have to go. But I’ll let you know what I end up deciding. Eat some pancakes for me, okay?”

“I’ll make sure she eats something,” Jaime replied. “What’ll you have, Grace?”

Grace only covered her face in her hands and sighed.

***

Two weeks later, Joy stood outside in the late August heat and watched her things being moved again. Had it really only been two months she’d been here? It had felt like an eternity, and yet also like the blink of an eye.

Looking up and down Main Street, she had to admit, she’d miss this place. She could’ve seen herself staying here for good. But now she was running back to the place she’d run from. How was that for ironic?

“Joy!”

She stiffened. She’d know that voice anymore—it was the voice that haunted her dreams most nights. She turned, and she had to stifle the sob from crawling up her throat.

Adam walked up to her. He looked…tired. Thin. Pale. A part of her was upset by this, but another part felt vindicated. She was glad he’d been as miserable as she’d been.

“Are you really leaving?”

She stared at him. He’d refused to talk to her for weeks, and now he showed up acting brand new? She couldn’t help it: she laughed.

He reared back. “What…?”

“Now you’re going to act like you care? Go home, Adam. My movers are almost done and I have to get on the road.” She turned away, staring resolutely at the guys hauling her couch into the truck.

By the silence, she almost thought he’d left. But then he said, “Are we just going to end things like this?”

“
You
ended things, remember? You were convinced I wrote that story. So please, save me the sob story.” When she felt his hand on her arm, she wrenched herself away. Anger sparked in her gut. She whirled on him. “Leave. Me. Alone,” she hissed.

His mouth tightened. “Fine. Although I’m the one who should be mad, you know.”

“Of course! You’re always the victim! Go home and be sad. I’m busy.”

She knew it was mean, and petty, but she was done. She just wanted to get out of here. Get as far away from Adam Danvers as she could. Tears threatened, but she blinked them away. She wasn’t going to cry over him anymore.

“I meant what I said, you know,” he murmured. “I loved you. I still do. I hope you can be happy, Joy.”

Did he want to break her heart even more than he already had? She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. “You too, Adam,” she forced herself to say.

When she finally got onto the highway, the moving truck following her, she cried until she reached the Illinois border. But as she entered her home state again, she vowed to herself: she wouldn’t shed another tear over Adam Danvers.

And when she arrived in Chicago, she kept that vow.

***

August passed into September, and Joy felt as though she were moving through a fog. Even in the hustle and bustle of Chicago, she couldn’t seem to find her center. She saw Adam everywhere: in the bright green trees near Lake Michigan; in the laugh of a man down the street; in the bottles of wine she looked at in the grocery store. She couldn’t escape him, no matter how much she wanted to.

Two weeks after Labor Day was when she got up the courage to call the person she needed to talk to most: her former best friend, Regina.

She and Regina had met when Joy had moved to Chicago as a young college graduate, and they’d been inseparable. Joy, Regina and then Jeremy had become a trio, going everywhere together. Joy had never thought her friend held the slightest interest in her boyfriend-turned-fiancé, but maybe she just hadn’t been paying attention.

Now that she was back in town, though, Joy needed to see her friend. It didn’t make sense, she knew, but Joy was lonely. She’d missed her friend, and now that Jeremy was out of the picture, maybe they could, at the very least, talk.

They decided to meet at a coffee shop they’d gone to many times before. When Joy arrived, Regina hadn’t gotten there yet, so she took a table in the back and ordered a latte with an extra shot. Her heart pounding, she didn’t know what to expect when Regina arrived. But when she did walk into the shop, Joy had to stifle a gasp.

Regina had lost weight—so much that she seemed sickly. She’d also cut her hair short, and her clothes hung loosely about her frame. When she saw Joy, she smiled a little but then as if realizing everything that had happened, the smile faded. She awkwardly pulled out the chair at the table and sat down, clutching her purse.

Regina had always been a striking woman, with highlighted brown hair and blue eyes. Joy had never seen her without mascara or her hair brushed, but now she looked as if she’d just rolled out of bed. Despite herself, Joy’s heart contracted. What had happened since Jeremy had dumped her?

“Do you want anything?” Joy asked.

Regina looked up, startled. She looked like she was about to fiddle with her hair, but then realizing she’d cut it all off, she shrugged. “I’m okay.”

“Okay.” Joy got up to get her latte, her mind whirling.

The pair’s conversation was stilted at best, with both accidentally interrupting the other. Regina briefly mentioned that she was doing ad work for a local marketing agency, but otherwise, she offered little detail. Joy similarly hedged around what had happened in Heron’s Landing.

Now they were at a stalemate. Joy suddenly wished she hadn’t called Regina at all. What did it matter? They could never be like they used to.

“I went to that sushi place we used to go to all the time,” Regina blurted. She blushed a little, but added, “You know, the one with the hot waiter?”

Yes, Joy remembered. The place was known for its good-looking staff, and this waiter was so gorgeous that Regina and Joy had eaten sushi every other day for three whole months before Jeremy had come into the picture.

“Remember when you gave him your number, and he thought you were propositioning him?” Regina laughed, although it sounded rusty. “I’ll never forget the look on your face.”

“I was so embarrassed that I tried to leave without paying,” Joy said, a wry smile curving her lips. “And they called the cops on us. I said that we could never go back there again.”

“Well, I went there last week, but no hot waiter. I guess he moved onto greener pastures.”

Joy smiled at Regina, who smiled back. Memories flooded Joy, and she wished all of sudden to forget the past, to move on. She’d missed her friend. And she obviously hadn’t had a good time of it, either.

“What happened, Regina?” Joy asked quietly. “What happened? To us? To all of us?”

Regina messed with the handles of her purse, curling them about her fingers like a cat’s cradle. “I don’t know. It just…I don’t know. But I’m so sorry for everything. I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I do want you to know how sorry I am.”

Joy swallowed sudden tears. Seeing Regina’s agitation, Joy reached out and touched her hand. “I know you are. I don’t know when I’ll get there, but I do know I’d like my friend back someday.”

After that, the two of them opened up more than they had earlier. Joy admitted to Jeremy coming to Heron’s Landing, which Regina had known nothing about. Then when she told her about Jeremy betraying her and writing the story about Adam’s wife, Regina looked like she could get up and find Jeremy herself and beat him to a pulp.

“That disgusting little shit!” she hissed. “He has balls made of steel, I will say that.”

“Well, he definitely thought he’d get away with it.”

Regina fidgeted, biting her lip. She looked like she was trying to figure out if she should admit something or not. Then she let out a breath. “I’ll probably get my ass reamed for this, but you should know: there’s been an investigation into some of Jeremy’s stories. There are rumors of plagiarism and scalping other journalists’ stories.” Regina swallowed. “I could lose out on clients for admitting this, though, so, keep it on the down low?”

Joy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Jeremy, stealing other writers’ work? Then again, he obviously didn’t care about ethics. For the first time in weeks, she saw a light at the end of the tunnel. If she could hurt his credibility, maybe, just maybe, she could repair her own.

And maybe she could convince Adam that she had nothing to do with that story in the first place.

She brushed the thought aside. She had bigger fish to fry right now. Digging through her purse, she pulled out a notebook and pen. Then she smiled. “So what all can you tell me about this, Regina? I promise to keep this anonymous.”

Regina smiled, and then leaned in closer. “Anything to screw him over. Are you ready for all of this?”

Joy flipped to a blank page. “Oh, I’ve been ready. Let’s go.”

Chapter Seventeen

With October’s arrival came the most important part of the year for River’s Bend: harvest time. Adam had watched the grapes ripen into juicy, purple berries these two months. With the leaves changing to umber and scarlet, the grapes were ready to be picked.

He walked among the rows of the vines, watching workers pluck the grapes by hand and tossing them into baskets and bins. Adam had a feeling they’d finish within a week, when normally it took twice as long, if not three times. The workers chatted amongst themselves, and they consisted of both men and women. Some were locals, while others were immigrants from places like Mexico, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.

Adam was infinitely grateful he had Jaime on staff to assist with the workers who didn’t speak English very well. Adam’s Spanish was okay in a pinch, but it was too rudimentary for more than basic conversations. He also made certain each worker was paid a fair wage, regardless of immigration status, and he collaborated with Jaime to work out ways in which to assist those needing work visas and, eventually, green cards. He knew the harvest would be meager this year, with the excessive rain that had destroyed so many fragile buds in the spring. Bending down, he rifled through a basket, and he sighed when he saw how many of the grapes were unsuitable for wine-making.

Adam already knew the projections, already knew how many grapes it took to make a bottle of wine, already knew that he’d be lucky to make it another year. He knew all of that, but he kept hoping against hope that they’d pull through.

They had to. Because now the vineyard was all he had.

After Joy’s betrayal and subsequent departure, Adam had tried to drink his woes away, but when that had failed, he’d delved even deeper into running River’s Bend. It became his obsession, his only way to make things right. That didn’t mean he didn’t think of Joy what felt like every other moment, or dreamed of her, or wondered how she was. If she’d gotten back with Jeremy. If she felt guilty about what she’d done.

Adam gritted his teeth. He couldn’t keep thinking about that story. He’d known from the beginning that journalists were not to be trusted, and his own instincts had proven right, hadn’t they? He wasn’t happy about it, but it was over. The town had mostly moved on, and Adam had to move on, too.

“How are things going?” Jaime walked up to Adam, nodding and saying hello to the workers as he passed them.