A Fine Year for Love (Shores of Indian Lake)

by Catherine Lanigan

  His eyes sparked with ambition and impatience.

  “Never,” he answered. “I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I couldn’t feel the dirt under my boots or breathe in the electrically charged air when a storm is coming.”

  “Me, too,” she said honestly.

  “I find that very refreshing.” He stretched out on the blanket and propped himself up on his elbow. “I’ve never known a woman who understood a farmer’s life. All the women I’ve known want to go to parties and get their nails done. When they realize what hard work it is to labor on a farm, they run the other way.”

  Liz threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, and that’s why you’re so womanless at the moment? I’d venture to say it wasn’t that way a month ago.”

  “Well, Miss Smarty Pants, you’d be wrong. There’s never really been anyone...” He lowered his tone. “Well, there hasn’t been anyone in over a year.”

  “Is that so?” she teased, tossing a paper napkin in his face.

  “I envy you,” he said seriously. “Following in your grandfather’s and father’s footsteps is what you really want to do.”

  Her father’s footsteps? She felt as if she’d truly lost step with her dad. She’d jeopardized their well-being by not finding the cashier’s check. She wasn’t so sure it was Sam’s fault at all, but hers. She had to have put it someplace safe before going to France. In the frenzy of leaving, she’d simply forgotten to give it to him.

  Now that she’d nearly resigned herself to the fact that the cashier’s check was lost, she almost wished she’d never gone to France or brought Louisa back. She had probably risked their financial well-being by borrowing the money to construct the tasting barn. Suddenly, Liz felt unsure of just about every business move she’d made.

  Perhaps it was synchronicity that had brought Gabe to her life right now. He was going through all kinds of changes and being forced to make hard choices with his family, and he had chosen her to be his confidant. He appeared to genuinely trust her. Why else would he tell her about his discordant relationship with his father?

  The more Gabe drew her into his world, the more she found herself really listening to him—with her ears, and her heart.

  “I feel like I’ve barely begun,” she replied, gazing across the expanse of unplanted land. She exhaled deeply. “My father put his heart and soul into this acreage. I have drawings and blueprints of precisely how it should all be planted. For instance, down there where the hill drops to that little valley, the temperature plummets twenty degrees and the soil is perfect for blueberries. Those blueberries he and I planted are still there. I want to blend that flavor with a new merlot vine I’ve ordered from California. Every time I come up here, it’s as if I can reach out and touch him. I can feel my dad leading me, talking to me, showing me the way. I know it sounds silly to a lot of people, but I believe that.”

  “He’s alive to you up here,” Gabe offered. He tapped her head gently.

  “Yes. Very much.” She smiled.

  Gabe knew the smile was for her father. Not for him. She carried her heart in the corner of her eyes. He could see so much love in her gaze, it nearly hurt to witness it. He wanted to burn this image into his memory—her thinking of her father. Loving him. Gabe wondered what that would be like, to be loved by Liz unconditionally.

  “He would be very proud of you, Liz.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “Yeah. I know I would be. I am. You want so much and you have the talent to do it all. You’re going to make this place legendary. I can feel it.”

  She blushed. “I don’t know about that. I thought I would have been further along by now. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a great deal of money, which we really don’t have...especially now.”

  “Now?”

  “It’s a long story. I don’t want to bore you.” Liz longed to share her worries with him. He’d trusted her enough to bare his problems. Friendship was a two-way street. Friends helped each other, and right now, she needed comforting.

  He reached out and touched her hand and then kissed her palm. “Believe me, you could never bore me.”

  “We had a mishap. I thought I could take care of it, but it’s not turning out to be that easy. We got behind on our taxes, and when I called the assessor’s office, they told me that I’d have to make double payments. Though it helps not having to pay it all in one big chunk, it’s very difficult. That’s why there’s no chardonnay. We’re selling everything we’ve got.”

  “I’m so sorry, Liz. How can I help?”

  “It’s not your responsibility.”

  “But I want to help you. I do.”

  “Why, Gabe?”

  She was looking at him with eagerness and yearning. She wanted the truth from him. It seemed that she wanted to trust him.

  Gabe realized he’d fallen in love with Liz. He would do anything for her. He’d move mountains for her. Taxes were a sticky problem. If she was in deep, the situation could turn dire. Was she in over her head with her new tasting room, as the Mattuchis had said? Was she in danger of losing her land?

  There was no way Gabe would allow that to happen. Lord only knew who would come in here, pay off the taxes and then kick her and Sam off the property. That very thing could easily have happened to the Mattuchis if Gabe hadn’t stepped in. Sophie had said he’d been their savior.

  But would Liz see an offer from him in the same light?

  Would she think he was a guardian angel, or a devil?

  Gabe believed there was only one answer for Liz and that was for him to buy her land. Not an outsider.

  No, for Liz’s dream to become reality, the best option for them both was for him to buy and plant those acres. He would be helping the woman he loved and her family, even if she didn’t know about his feelings. Maybe then she would come to trust him. Even love him.

  As far as Gabe was concerned, his idea could right all the wrongs in her life—all the wrongs between them—and if the fates chose to shine on him, Liz might come to see how good they could be for each other.

  “You’ll find a way, Liz,” Gabe finally said, dipping his toe into the precarious waters he intended to tread.

  “Yes, Gabe. I will find a way,” she said resolutely.

  Gabe touched her cheek and moved a long strand of hair behind her ear. The urge to kiss her nearly wiped out his courage. “I could help you if you’d let me.”

  “Help me?” She bristled.

  “I could buy this land from you. You could pay the taxes and whatever mortgages you have. You’d be solvent, and then we could—” He stopped abruptly. Her blue eyes had turned to ice.

  She slapped his hand away from her neck, where he’d been caressing her. “So that’s your plan!” She jumped up and planted her feet solidly to steady herself.

  “Liz, don’t look at me that way! It was just a thought. An idea to help you.”

  “You have no intention of helping me or my grandfather, Gabriel. You’re just after what can help you. You saw my fallow land when you checked into the Mattuchi farm. Admit it.”

  “Well, yes,” he said, rising to stand face-to-face with her. Despite the fact that he was half a foot taller than she was and outweighed her by fifty pounds, he realized she wasn’t intimidated in the least. He would bet she would keep up with him in a tussle, armed only with adrenaline. “But I had no idea how large it was until you told me. And now showed me.”

  “And since then, you’ve been trying to figure out just how you could wangle your way into my life and get on my good side, or out-and-out romance me like you’ve been doing. But don’t worry! I blame myself, too. I should never have told you about the back taxes. I’m an idiot.” Liz felt more than just stupid. She was hurt and disappointed that Gabe still wanted her land more than he apparently wanted her. Tears threatened to spill over, but s
he beat them back and glared at him.

  “No, you’re not. It’s like I told you. I’ve admired your courage since you were a kid. Since I was a kid.”

  “I’m not buying it, Gabe. You probably made that story up. It was a pretty good one—I’ll give you that.”

  He took a deep breath. “Now you’re twisting everything around. I just wanted to help you.”

  “Why?” Part of her felt gutted, raw and seeping. The other part was begging for the truth. Did he have any feelings for her at all? Was it possible she had been moved to her core by his kiss, and he hadn’t? Did he sleep all night through without thinking of her? Was she the only one falling in love?

  She kept asking “why” because she needed to hear his reasons for continuing to come around. Even now, heated by her anger and feelings of betrayal, she still wanted him. She was more in love with him than she’d thought possible and it terrified her.

  “Honestly, Liz, I have never met anyone as pathologically paranoid as you are. Do you do this to everyone you meet, or just to me?”

  “Do what?” she demanded in a voice one decibel below a shout.

  “Distrust. It’s written across your face. You don’t believe a thing I tell you. Not even that, as a child, I thought you were courageous. Maybe you weren’t courageous after all. Maybe you were just scared stiff like you are now. It’s a lot easier to label everyone in the world as a liar or a thief than it is to actually trust a person. So that’s what you do to stay safe. You lock the whole world out. Then you can’t get hurt. You’re untouchable. I may have been too busy or too picky to have ever had a relationship, but what’s your excuse? You’ve never had one for the reason I just hit on.”

  “You haven’t hit on anything,” she said. “Your behavior is textbook projectionist. All narcissists do that. They shine the spotlight of blame onto someone else so it never shines on them. You’re only angry because your ploy didn’t work. I called you on it.”

  He shook his finger at her and then let his hand drop. “What’s the use? I’m out of here.”

  He leaned down and gathered the food, cutlery and plates he had brought. He shoved it all into the paper bag.

  Liz stood frozen to the spot as he gathered up the horse blanket.

  Holding the rolled-up blanket under his arm, Gabe stopped long enough to stare her straight in the eye. “Goodbye, Liz.”

  Liz watched Gabe tromp down the hill and cross the flat land to the gravel parking area. Liz watched him toss his things in the trunk and then drive away.

  “Good riddance, scumbag,” she said, feeling her anger deflate until she was completely drained. The heat that had threatened to sear her insides was replaced with a hollow void. The saplings of hope she’d unearthed as she’d gotten to know Gabe were now withered and dead. She felt the same way she had when she’d first stared down at her parents’ graves.

  Today, she’d lost a new friend.

  As she trudged down the hill from her father’s favorite place, a new fear sprang to life.

  Selling her land to Gabe would solve all their financial issues. She could pay the back taxes and current taxes and still have enough to finish buying the equipment she wanted. But selling to Gabe would mean she would have to face a deeper loss than ever before. She would have to lose her father all over again. His dream would be gone and with it, her own plans and goals. She’d buried both her mother and father once. Gabe had said she’d been brave and strong back then, but Liz knew she could never do it a second time.

  That second death would be so painful and everlasting, she knew it would be her undoing.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  THE DUST FROM Gabe’s tires had barely settled in the driveway by the time Liz reached the tasting room. There were three cars in the parking lot, all with out-of-state plates. Liz caught Louisa’s eye as she grabbed her apron from her office.

  She went to the counter, where Louisa had just poured a flight of reds for three men in shorts and expensive golf shirts. “What can I do to help?” Liz asked.

  Louisa nodded toward the far corner of the room, where a woman was sitting near the windows. “That lady wants a cheese plate. I haven’t been able to get it for her.”

  “I’ll do it. What else?”

  Louisa leaned her head close to Liz’s ear. “I saw Gabe with you. You should be smiling but you look terrible. N’est-ce pas?”

  Liz forced a grin as she turned around and went to the refrigerator to pull out a selection of cheeses. Taking a white pottery plate out of the cupboard, she placed cheese, crackers, pita chips and a fresh daisy on the plate.

  “Can I get you anything else?” Liz asked as she set the plate in front of the auburn-haired woman.

  The guest glanced up from her tablet and smiled. “I would love another glass of wine, but I have to drive back to Chicago. I’d like to buy a bottle of the cabernet I tried. It’s wonderful,” she said. “It’s expensive, isn’t it?”

  “Very.”

  “I still want it. I’d also like a case of the pinot grigio and a half case of your ice wine.”

  Liz tilted her head and peered at the woman. She was immaculately dressed in an expensive navy suit with white piping. She wore high-heeled navy shoes and had a classic Chanel bag that shouted style. “You look familiar. Have you been here before?”

  “Yes. Just a few weeks ago. Your tasting room is so cozy, and I adore Louisa. She’s turned me onto some very good wines that my friends in Chicago just love. I had no idea all this was here.” She waved her hand toward the window overlooking the vineyard. “Actually, I grew up in Indian Lake. I’ve passed through here several times lately. I’m looking for a new home base for our company.”

  “And you’re considering Indian Lake?”

  “Among others, yes.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Katia Stanislaus.”

  “Liz Crenshaw.” Liz shook hands with Katia. “Did you go to Indian Lake High School?”

  “I did. But I’m sure you were in grade school back then.” Katia paused. “When I drove up I could have sworn I saw Gabriel Barzonni driving away.”

  “Yes, you did. Were you a classmate of his?”

  “No. I was a senior when he was a sophomore. But I remember watching him play football. We all thought he would go pro. He was that good. What’s he doing now?”

  “He works for his father on the farm.”

  Katia nodded with understanding in her eyes. “Yeah. His future was pretty well carved out for him, wasn’t it?”

  Liz chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. “You must have known them all pretty well.”

  “We all knew Angelo,” Katia said. “I always felt sorry for those boys.”

  Liz had to concentrate in order to keep from dropping her jaw. Pity for a Barzonni? What didn’t she know? Gabe had been pouring his heart out to her for weeks and she was realizing through this one conversation with Katia that she hadn’t been paying close enough attention. Liz had been so focused on her own problems and anxieties that perhaps she hadn’t been fair to Gabe. Gabe was right. He’d been doing the majority of the friendship-building. He’d made a generous offer and she’d crucified him for it. She really was paranoid—in addition to a long list of other faults.

  She realized it was her turn to apologize. Clearly, there were depths to Gabe she had yet to explore—beyond his desire to buy her land.

  “I suppose having an inherited career can be a good thing.” Katia smiled widely, her eyes glittering.

  Liz couldn’t help but wonder what it was like to be so beautiful.

  Katia continued. “It was very lucky for you, wasn’t it? I mean, your vineyard was here when I was a little girl. My mother and I used to come and pick our own apples and pears. I have some very happy memories of this farm. I guess it’s a vineyard now. But can people still pick their own fruit?”

 
; “No, we pick them ourselves and use some for ciders. It’s so nice to hear we were a part of your life.”

  Katia sighed wistfully. “Your place is like home to me. You have no idea. It’s lovely.”

  Louisa walked up to Liz and whispered, “I need two cases for those guys over there.” Louisa indicated to the men at the counter for whom she’d been pouring flights. “I hate to take you away, but Aurelio isn’t answering his phone.”

  “No problem.” Liz turned to Katia. “Excuse me, Katia. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Same.” Katia smiled back.

  Liz pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. There were no calls and no texts.

  No Gabe.

  Liz felt her stomach turn. The sour taste of guilt rose in her throat.

  She hid her face as she flew out the door toward the fermenting barn and aging cellars, hoping Louisa would not see her tears.

  Angrily, she crossed the parking lot, wishing she could stop Gabe’s words from echoing in her head.

  Untouchable.

  Paranoid.

  She opened the barn door and flipped on the fluorescent lights. She walked past the steel tanks, not seeing anything but the look on Gabe’s face when he’d assaulted her with his opinions.

  He’d appeared to be more stunned than angry. And had that been genuine concern she’d read in his eyes?

  To keep herself from falling under his spell completely, she had to protect herself. Gabe said he wanted to be her friend, but at the same time, it seemed as if he wanted more. Why else would his eyes continually fall to her lips? Why did he move so close to her to ask even the simplest questions?

  Gabe was invading her space. Making her feel uncomfortable. And he was doing it on purpose.

  His goal was to try to buy their vineyard. Or at least a large chunk of it. And she had given him the ammunition with which to pursue his goal, guilt-free.

  She felt off balance and weak in the knees. How could she have fallen in love with such a con artist? How desperate she must look to him now!