Page 56 of A Vineyard for Two

‘Man, I can’t imagine it. What do you do on weekends?’

‘Sheer sheep and hunt deer.’

David stared at them, and he must have thought he was serious, then he cracked up. ‘Good one. You had me there for a moment.’

Brookes laughed, but it didn’t sound genuine for one second.

‘What’s your wine like?’ David continued when Brookes didn’t offer any extra conversation.

‘We like it.’

‘You stock at Dan Murphy’s?’

‘No, we’re more exclusive.’

‘Right. I suppose you need to be big to stock in the bottle shops.’

‘We do just fine without them.’

Brookes watched him as he took a sip of the water Leo had poured for him, then checked his watch for the second time in five minutes. It was a Rolex. Hard to tell whether it was real or not, but it was just another thing that irritated him about the man. But most of all, that Harper had been with him, or was with him.

He heard a car pulling up. ‘Excuse me for a minute.’

Brookes left the kitchen. He walked, clenching and unclenching his fist. He was back on the veranda just as Harper’s car came to a halt.

‘What in the world?’ She looked from the car to Brookes and back to the car again as she got out of her own.

The door behind him opened and closed and David walked out and past him, down the steps and straight towards Harper, with his arms wide open for an embrace. ‘Sweetheart, I missed you. I couldn’t help myself; I hope you don’t mind me coming here and meeting your family.’

She took a step back as he approached. His arms fell by his side. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I missed you, and wanted to surprise you. We’ve been putting off meeting your family and, well, you know, since you were here anyway, I thought why not just come out and get it over and done with?’

She shook her head.

Brookes couldn’t hear what they were saying anymore as Harper had lowered her voice as soon as she realised he was staring and eavesdropping on their conversation. Brookes turned and went back inside, slamming the door behind him, making sure that she heard it right.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Harper didn’t think the day could get any worse after she left Georgia’s side. Not only was her aunt in hospital with an unknown ailment, she couldn’t go back to the city, and now of all people, David had shown up. She could only imagine what Brookes was thinking. She sensed his fury the moment she laid eyes on him. He had a right to be furious. She hadn’t divulged any information about her life back in the city. Not that David was relevant, not anymore. She had made it clear that she wasn’t after commitment. He’d pushed, and she told him she wanted to break it off. He seemed not to have taken her wishes seriously and obviously had a different definition of what a break was.

‘I’m sorry you had to drive all the way here, David. But you can’t stay.’

He put his arms around her. ‘Harper, why do you keep pushing me away?’

‘I told you this wasn’t working for me.’

‘I thought a month was enough time. Then I found out that you came out here, and you didn’t even tell me.’

‘David, what part of we are not together is not clear?’

‘Your things are still in my apartment.’

‘Things which I asked for on several occasions, but you failed to give back.’

‘I thought with a few weeks, you’d change your mind.’

‘Look David, we had fun. But you and I both know that we don’t work. It was convenient until it wasn’t.’