“You better?”
Remi nodded. “I don’t know. I think so. I will be.”
He sat in the wicker chair beside hers, a cup filled with coffee gripped in his hand. “She’s gone?”
“Yes.”
Leo didn’t push. He just sipped his coffee.
After a while Remi asked, “Do you think you can forgive someone for something like that? Something that rips the floor out from under you?”
Leo looked out toward the hills. “I think forgiveness is less about them and more about you, Remi. It’s about whether you want to carry that weight for the rest of your life.”
Remi absorbed his words in silence. She knew she wasn’t ready to forgive, not yet. Maybe she never would be. But she also didn’t want to carry someone else’s burden, nor live in bitterness for the rest of her life.
“I just want to focus onJoie,” she finally said. “This winery was supposed to be a new chapter. Supposed to bring me joy.”
“And it will be, Remi,” Leo said. “It’s going to be everything you dreamed of and more.”
She smiled faintly. They sat for a while longer in comfortable silence. Her phone buzzed and she picked it up. It was a message from Paloma:Your bottling equipment is set to arrive this week! Let’s talk about marketing and social media, okay? Everything’s moving forward. So proud of you, amiga. Joie is happening.
Remi stared at the message, her heart swelling with hope. She needed hope at that moment. It was like a rainbow after a storm.
“Let’s do something today,” Leo suggested with a beaming smile. “I know just the thing, if you’re game.”
“I’m game,” Remi replied.
The wind was playful along the Sonoma Coast, teasing Remi’s curls as Leo maneuvered his drop-top white Mercedes up the winding route of Highway 1. The sky was perfectly blue—not a cloud in sight. A cooler sat on the red leather back seat of his car, filled with vegetables from the farmers market, aged cheese, prosciutto, and a bottle of white wine. The sound of Kirk Whalum’s saxophone belted from the speakers and serenaded them. Remi enjoyed the drive; she felt a sense of peace, solace, a temporary escape from reality. The farther they drove along those cliffs, the more she almost forgot about the truths she’d uncovered and the confrontation that had taken place just last night.Almost.
Leo found a perfect spot for a picnic. He spread a handwoven blanket out on the ground—a deep navy one that he’d packed into his trunk.
“Cheers,” he said, pouring wine into the stemless glasses and passing one on to her.
“To beginnings,” she added. The glass was cool in her hand. The wine crisp, floral, citrusy.
Seagulls passed overhead. Down the slope, a family with two children chased each other through the sand, their laughter carrying over the waves that crashed against the shore. Her mind drifted to Gerard and Bianca, but she tried not to let the thoughts consume her—tried not to visualize them together.
The waves were steady, relentless, and she liked that about them. No matter the storm, no matter the change, the sea always returned itself.
“I’m not ready to forgive either one of them,” she whispered.
Leo passed her a bundle of green grapes. “Then don’t. Until you’re ready,” he said. “You deserve to move at your own pace.”
They ate in the kind of silence that didn’t require filling, the kind that healed. Around them, the coast pulsed with life, seagulls cried, the scent of salt from the ocean danced in the wind, the sea whispered. And she found herself listening intently to all of it.
“At least I have Zoe,” Remi said out of the blue. “She’s the one good thing in all of this. He gave me Zoe.”
“That is a good thing. Vivian and I didn’t have any children together, and my son—my son before Vivian … our relationship is a little strained.”
“I didn’t know you had a son. Is he here … in Napa?”
“No, he’s in Virginia. Stationed there. He’s a Marine,” Leo said. “He followed in my footsteps.”
“You were a Marine?”
“Once a Marine, always a Marine. Always faithful. Semper fi.” Leo reached into his wallet and pulled out a worn photo, its edges curled.
Remi took it and studied the face of a young man in full dress uniform, decorated with gold buttons down the front and medals pinned on the lapel, a white hat perched proudly on his head. “Look at you.” She smiled widely. “Looking all serious.”