Page 7 of Rock the Chardonnay
“Dad, if I take your side, can I have screen time?” Alex folds his hands together in prayer position and pinches his face into a pleading puppy expression. “Please please?”
Fuck it. I’m done. “Fine. Get in the car and you can play Minecraft while I set up the tasting tent. As long as you promise not to tell Grams anything that just happened.”
CHAPTER 4
Daughtry
With my headphones on and plugged into my guitar, I run through the riffs in “Grape Crush.” I don’t need Louise reminding me that this is my big break. Touring with the Vendetta is a dream, and it’s taken twelve years of hustle, blood, and sweat to get here.
I’m not going to mess it up by slipping on my chord progressions.
Dante Baker, the bassist for the Vendetta, stops in front of me and waves his hand in front of my face. He’s dressed as he always is, in a button down shirt and trim jeans.
“Hey.” I slip my headphones down around my neck. “How’s it going, Dante?”
“Not too bad.” He pushes his shaggy dark hair out of his eyes. “Have you seen Ellery?”
“No, sorry.” With the hand not holding my guitar, I gesture around the lake. “This resort is gorgeous, isn’t it? Are you staying here?”
He shakes his head. “Ellery has some friends with a vacation house nearby, so Louise didn’t book our accommodations. What about you?”
“Not sure. We went to the rental apartment, but the owner told us there was a glitch in the system so it was double booked. Louise is looking into it now. All the hotels in the area are booked for the festival.” So what if Foster Family Vineyards may have an opening? I’m not running headfirst into that minefield.
“Makes sense.” Dante rocks back on his feet, looking uncomfortable at talking to anyone beyond his bandmates for more than five minutes. “I’m going to find Ellery. Do you want to come?”
“Sure.” I hop off the packing crate I’ve been perching on and replace my guitar in its case. “It’s been ages since I lived here, but I remember the food being incredible.”
We walk from the concert stage that has been set up by the conference center and down among the maze of tent-lined lanes. I love festivals. They smell like deep fried heaven and warm summer rain. This one has the added benefit of excellent music piped through the speakers.
I grab Dante’s arm. “Hold on. I know this song.”
It’s the Vendetta’s first and most famous single, “Centrifuge.”
“How cool!” The lyrics wash over me. The first time I ever heard the song was on America Sings! and I was completely hooked. “I can’t wait until that’s me.”
“It will be, one day. Honestly, it’s weird, hearing our songs on the radio,” Dante says. One of the nicest things about him is that he isn’t that tall, only a few inches more than me, so I never feel dwarfed.
“I spent so long trying to get to this stage and now it all just feels like quicksand,” I say.
“You’ll settle into it. We all do.” We pass by a tent with local metalwork jewelry. Dante pauses, sifting through the earrings. He holds up a pair made of bronze and silver hammered ovals. “Do you think Ellery will like these?”
“Yes.” I run my fingers over the studs in my left ear. I got the piercings senior year of high school, and I rarely take them out. For a while, it was from lack of money. If I had spare cash, it usually went to food or transportation back then. Then I didn’t change them because I kind of liked remembering how Zoey Foster had noticed them immediately. The day I got them, she’d stepped back to examine them properly, her face lit up with appreciation. It had made me feel so seen.
I still don’t think my actual mother knew or noticed. I’ve definitely never told her about my other piercings. “You and Ellery are definite couple goals. I don’t think a guy has ever picked out jewelry for me that I actually liked.” Not that I give them a chance. Better not to be disappointed.
Dante hands the earrings to the seller and taps his card on the credit card reader. “I used to think no one would ever love me for who I am. But Ellery gets me. In that deep, soul-satisfying way.”
It’s either fear or indigestion that makes my fingers feel numb. It isn’t the memory of how, when Zoey asked for her son Declan’s opinion on my new earrings, his gaze darkened and he’d said, She already looked like a superstar.
I pick up a pendant of a dragon and then put it right back on its tree-shaped jewelry stand. “I mean, deep and soul-satisfying is one way to live. Or you can try to cram as many experiences as possible into life. Who’s to say which is better?”
“That’s true.” He takes the little green jewelry bag from the seller and puts it in the pocket of his dark wash jeans. The color washes his pale skin out more, but he has a look that he likes. “There are a lot of different ways to live. You have to find your own joy.”
“Exactly.”
“Hey, there she is.” His face explodes into a wide smile as Ellery comes into view, perusing a used book stall. “I’ll see you later, Daughtry. You’re going to be great.” With very little fanfare, he walks toward Ellery and slips his arms around her waist. Ellery laughs and leans back against his chest.
Way too much intimacy.