A Not So Rosy Vintage, page 5
Thankfully, once Quirky Sue was done with the oven, she acted like nothing had happened, which worked for me. She led me over to a cupboard, where she let me pick from a variety of K-Cups.
Personally, I would have gone for nothing but caffeinated coffee, but Britt’s a tea drinker—I only discovered this flaw after I’d known her for weeks and was too far gone to hold it against her. So, while I loaded up on coffee, I also got tea for Brittany. Though after she’d ditched me with a weeping woman, she was lucky I was so kind.
On my way back, I paused to look at the photos in the main room. From the pictures, they proclaimed themselves to be the perfect friend group. Rose was in the center of most of the photos, and I wouldn’t say it was a huge leap to assume she controlled the group.
From Quirky Sue’s comment about Rose owning everything and doing the final inspections, it sounded like Rose had been the only one in charge. And she’d definitely used her name in all the branding.
At last night’s tasting, I kept feeling someone was missing. Was Rose such a part of the winery that it barely functioned without her? How had things changed since Rose’s death? She’d known about her heart disease for a while. Surely Rose would have made a will with some clear arrangements.
Could that be a factor in Tasha’s murder? Was it coincidental Rose died of heart failure and not long after that Tasha had shown up at the vineyard, supposedly knowing no one before getting murdered?
Was it crazier to believe Rose’s and Tasha’s deaths were connected or that the deaths were a coincidence?
Chapter 4
A crash from the kitchen reminded me I was still downstairs with absolutely no coffee in my system, so I headed upstairs. Why was I so drawn to those photos? Something about Rose’s face stuck with me.
When I got back to the suite, Britt was in the shower and nobody else was up. I made myself the inaugural first cup of coffee, then made Britt a cup of tea.
Checking my phone, I found an alarming number of texts on the family group chat. Usually it happened when my niece or nephew did something impressive or Juniper was pretending to be modest.
But instead of a photo featuring a family member, Juniper had sent a candid shot of me. And I mean very candid. Last night, after I’d fallen asleep, she’d snuck into my room and taken a picture of me wrapped up in that infernal pink comforter.
My movie-star looks had vanished, replaced by a slack jaw, and I was drooling onto a unicorn. Unfortunately, my family loved it. There were tons of comments and GIFs that only fed the monster that is Juniper. She then sent pictures of me sleeping on random other vacations, and the cycle continued.
Mom had texted me privately asking me to call her, but the funny thing about my parents having a midlife crisis and moving to Australia was that she was in a drastically different time zone. It was kind of confusing. Australia’s nineteen hours ahead, which really meant she was five hours behind me for clock time, except she was living in the future.
So weird.
I sent Mom an I’m alive text—deciding to leave out that I’d neither killed Juniper nor sued her for defamation of character. After pressing send, I wondered if I should tell Mom about Tasha. They’d never met, yet Mom had a way of sensing when I was in trouble.
Darren had also texted: What happened?
I’d kind of forgotten I’d called my friend for some free legal counsel.
Darren hadn’t forgotten. And he hadn’t given up after one text. Twenty minutes later Darren had sent: Were you arrested?
There was also a missed call with no voicemail. Then (and this proves how awful my baby sister truly is) Darren had forwarded the photo of me sleeping on the unicorn bedding.
Darren: Glad to know you’re alive.
What? He’d contacted my sister?
The moment I saw the pic, I was texting my reply: You’d better delete that photo.
Immediately my phone lit up with an incoming call from Darren.
Gross. I wasn’t ready to talk to more people. But I couldn’t let it go to voicemail since Darren knew I was by my phone.
Since it was a Friday morning he’d be exercising before going to work. He’d be way too energetic. The phone kept vibrating while I hesitated. The call was about to drop when I answered.
“Hello?”
“Can you guess how long it took me to remember I had Juniper’s number saved in my phone?” Darren didn’t bother with any pleasantries.
I stayed silent since the question seemed more rhetorical. So for a few seconds there was nothing but the sound of exercise machines whirring from his side of the call.
Darren sighed. “Juniper told me everything was fine. Is that correct?”
“Mostly fine,” I said.
“Well, that’s good, I guess. Next time you call me for pro bono legal advice, you have to keep me updated.”
“Next time?” I asked. “Why do you assume there’s going to be a next time?”
Darren chuckled. “Oh, there’s definitely going to be a next time.”
“Fine,” I said, since he was probably right. “What if next time, instead of having to remember to give you an update, I just pay you for your services?”
“You’d rather pay my hourly?” Darren asked, and it sounded like a challenge.
“If it saves me a phone call,” I said.
Darren muttered something I couldn’t hear, but his mood seemed to be improving when he said, “All right, pay me next time. But you should know I charge for time spent thinking about my clients. So I would bill for most of last night.”
Before I could answer, there was the low creaking of a door being opened. I was so excited Britt was out of the shower, I didn’t even check to make sure it was her.
“Sorry, man, I gotta go,” I said.
“Keep me updated,” Darren said as I was hanging up.
But I could have kept talking to Darren, because it wasn’t my girlfriend. It was my sister.
Even a little fuzzy around the edges, Juniper looked ready for a photo shoot. And from the pic she’d shared with the family, it was clear I took work to be attractive.
Juniper sat right beside me and rested her head on my shoulder.
“Did you sleep okay?” I asked.
“Uh-huh.” Juniper was quiet, then sat up quickly as she remembered her own shenanigans. “What about you? How was the mattress?”
My jaw ticked. I hated the potty-proof mattress, but letting Juniper know would only encourage her. I shrugged. “You know I’m fine. A bed’s a bed.”
“Okay.” Juniper didn’t sound disappointed. Maybe I hadn’t played my role convincingly. “And have you checked your phone?” she asked.
“Yup.”
“And what did you think?”
I took a long drink of coffee. “I have no thoughts.”
“Holt.” Juniper swatted my arm. It was amazing how quickly she became alert. Already she was more awake than me, and she hadn’t touched a drop of caffeine. “You need to have thoughts. This involves you.”
“Hardly,” I muttered.
Juniper studied my face. “Are you serious?” she asked. “You weren’t going to reply to the group chat?”
I set my mug down with more force than intended. “And what would I say? LOL, with a laughing emoji?”
“What?” Juniper’s brow wrinkled, and she seemed genuinely confused. Maybe she wasn’t alert, just energetic. “Oh.” A faint blush tinted her cheeks. “Not the photo. I sent that, didn’t I? Sorry, that last glass of wine was a bad call.”
I raised an eyebrow. “The photo was an accident?”
“Sort of.”
“What about the pink comforter and the pee protector?”
Juniper giggled. “Those were completely on purpose.”
“That’s what I thought.” I shifted away from Juniper, but she scooted even closer. Apparently, I wasn’t allowed to be mad at her, so I drank more coffee.
“But what about the other thing?” Juniper asked.
“The other photos you sent? I’ve seen most of them before.”
Juniper huffed out a breath like I was being intentionally difficult. “I’m not talking about my texts. I’m talking about Mom’s.”
“Mom’s?”
“Wait. You didn’t read it?”
I’m not exactly one hundred percent at reading the group chat. And the amount I read decreases the more I’m being teased.
Juniper sighed. “Holt, Mom sent this long message about us all spending Christmas together.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Does Mom really expect us all to fly out to Australia?”
The time change would kill me. Like, literally kill me. And if by some miracle I survived, I’d get acclimated just in time for the return trip to Seattle, only to be killed by another time change.
“Not Australia,” Juniper said, tapping at her phone screen. She handed me the phone, where a message from Mom was pulled up.
While the text was long and contained a lot of unnecessary details, the basics were Mom and Dad would be in the States for Christmas. Mom was planning on renting a large vacation home and wanted a head count so she’d know how many beds were needed.
Christmas? It was mid-September and I needed to decide whether I wanted to join a family pressure cooker for Christmas? As much as I loved my family, my time wasn’t my own on these trips. Mom had strict schedules. Plus, Casey’s kids are loud.
“Are you all right?” Juniper laughed. “Your face is green.”
I cleared my throat. “This is my excited face.”
“So you’ll go?”
I let out a long sigh. “If I remember correctly, I said no to the last family trip, and then you and Mom guilted me into going anyway.”
Juniper tried to look innocent. “Does that really sound like us?”
I leveled her with a glare, and she giggled.
The bathroom door opened, and Britt appeared in a bathrobe with damp hair. I was immediately on my feet. “Morning,” I said.
Her face remained neutral as she said, “Good morning.” Before I could say anything else, she disappeared into the girls’ room.
It wasn’t ideal.
“You’ll be fine,” Juniper said, coming to stand beside me. “Just give her some time to process how you could completely forget about Tasha—someone who once meant the world to you.”
I frowned at Juniper.
She smiled. “There he is. Now, come on. I have to take Chouzie for a walk. You shouldn’t be moping around all day.”
“Britt will be upset all day?”
“How would I know?”
It wasn’t until the three of us were almost out the door that I froze. I was still in the joggers I’d slept in, and Juniper had just rolled out of bed. “Don’t you want to…freshen up?”
Juniper hadn’t set foot in the rest room, and the sweatshirt she wore was one of her husband’s and was really baggy on her.
Juniper tossed her hair. “Why would I?” she asked, and left our suite.
That was confidence.
I’d assumed it was a simple walk outside to give Chouzie a chance to do his business. While that did happen, Juniper then set off between the grapevines toward the distant sound of workers harvesting.
“Someone here knew Tasha,” I said, stopping in the middle of a row of grapes.
Juniper tapped a finger on her lips, pretending to think, before saying, “Someone did know her.”
I rolled my eyes. “Besides me. Someone had to know her to have killed her.”
“Maybe.” Juniper scrunched up her nose. “Wasn’t she inside the winery?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe she was a stranger but was murdered because she’d discovered a secret.”
“Sure,” I said. “Tasha discovered their fermentation secrets.”
Juniper shoved my shoulder. “I’m not saying I know the secret. I’m saying there could be a secret.”
“That’s what I just said.”
“Well”—Juniper resumed walking—“I said it differently.”
Hard to argue with that.
What sort of secrets are common in wineries, and how easy are they to discover? Could I discover any by walking through the space?
“Do you know if the whole winery’s a crime scene?” I asked.
“Let’s see.” Juniper wrinkled her nose. “I’m pretty sure I heard Brad going over which sections they were still authorized to use. So I guess only parts of the building are closed off.”
“Can you get us into the winery?” I asked, since it was so much easier to snoop when you weren’t breaking and entering. “Like, say you need a tour?”
“Hmm?” Juniper tugged at Chouzie’s leash when the chow chow became overly enamored with a twig. “Oh. Probably.” Juniper flashed an influencer smile. “I’ll tell them it’ll help with their branding if I get some videos of the fermentation process.”
We reached a slight vista, and the vineyard stretched out in front of us. In the distance were low hills with scrubby bushes.
Juniper took a deep breath. “Hard to put a price on this.” Without missing a beat, she took out her phone and reenacted the same moment for the camera. And supposedly people liked my sister’s content because it was organic.
When the camera was off, Juniper tapped a finger to her lips. “Honestly I’m not sure why they’re having trouble booking this place. Rose’s Vineyard should sell itself.”
I shook my head. “But it’s not Rose’s anymore.” Something clicked in my brain. “Juniper, did their occupancy start decreasing in the last few months?”
“How should I know?”
“Well, what reasons did they give you for coming to the winery?”
Juniper shrugged. “I didn’t question the all-expenses-paid trip I was invited on.”
Of course she didn’t. Why would she? Why not assume everything would work out in a picture-perfect world?
“About that,” I said, since Juniper bringing up the all-expenses-paid trip was the best opening I could hope for. “Is this really all free?”
“Excuse me?” Juniper asked as we turned around and began our return trip back to the buildings of Rose’s Vineyard.
“You’ve said all expenses, but are they really giving us all free food, wine, and housing?”
Juniper stopped, crossed her arms, and popped her hip. “No, they’re not just giving it to us for free.”
I knew it. I knew there had to be some catch.
She pointed a finger in my face. “Don’t get so excited. What I meant is they’re paying me room and board for all the exposure they get from having me and Chouzie here.”
“And that’s really the deal?” I asked.
Juniper rolled her eyes. “You can read the contract, but I had my lawyer look over it, and he said the arrangement was perfectly fine.”
Lawyer? My sister has a lawyer?
I must’ve looked skeptical because Juniper raised her head high and said, “Just because I don’t have a job where my employer is contributing money to my 401k doesn’t mean I don’t take my work seriously.”
“Work? Juniper, your job is having fun on camera.”
“Sure. That’s all I do,” Juniper said, then stormed off.
I had to jog a few steps to catch up. “Hey, come on. I’m sorry,” I said.
But Juniper didn’t slow down.
“You know I’m a boring old man who likes a steady job with benefits.”
“You are old,” Juniper said, beginning to soften.
“That’s the spirit.” I grinned. “And I’m sorry if I downplayed your entrepreneurial accomplishments. I just didn’t remember you mentioning anything like this happening before.”
“Oh.” Juniper didn’t say anything else, but her cheeks turned pink and she began biting her lip.
What was she hiding?
“Juniper?”
“Okay, so this is a…unique experience.” Juniper quickly added, “But I have been given complimentary things in the past.”
“So what I’m hearing is that I was right.”
Juniper rolled her eyes. “Not what I said. But I’ll admit, it’s usually a complimentary facial or a water bottle. I’ve never been offered something at this scale.”
So Juniper had told the truth about the free vacation. But the managers offering Juniper an all-expense-paid trip was definitely fishy.
“What about your social media would make them ask you specifically?” I asked.
Juniper shook her head. “I don’t know. The offer came during our Idaho trip. I figured they liked the footage I had with Chouzie.”
“So I should be thanking Chouzie for my vacation?” I asked, playfully bumping into Juniper.
“Please do,” Juniper said.
“What?”
“I would love to see you thank Chouzie for anything. I won’t even film.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to thank your dog,” I said.
Juniper pouted, but I kept walking.
We passed a sign with a full map of Rose’s Vineyard. It reminded me of what Quirky Sue had told me. The vineyard was Rose’s. It may have been a group of five friends. They may have all worked here. But it all belonged to Rose. With her gone, who was next in line?
We’d nearly returned to Rose’s Repose when Juniper asked, “Will you ask Brittany to come?”
Was Juniper talking about the winery-snooping-tour? I’d been too busy mulling over Rose’s succession line. I shrugged. “I don’t know if she has any plans for today.”
“I meant for Christmas,” Juniper said.
Christmas? Invite a woman I wanted to like me on a trip that was a boiling pot of family activities? The thought left me momentarily dizzy.
Juniper was still talking, “…know how Mom is. She’ll want to get the head count right away, and…”
Brittany was barely talking to me. How was I supposed to suggest we spend Christmas together? She’d just moved to Seattle, and Christmas was months away. How would that even work? A new wave of dizziness hit when I realized I wanted Britt to come. Sure it sounded like a bad idea, and the list of nightmare outcomes was long, but Britt getting to spend time with my family. Them getting to know her…
“You’re smiling,” Juniper said, and Chouzie barked in agreement.
