She snorted. “I’m an adult. I can come and go when I want, so don’t apologize. My dad is just a hard ass who thinks his opinions are golden.”
“Still, I hate to think that you are at odds with your family.”
She shrugged. “I’ll live.” She didn’t want to talk about how much her dad’s words had hurt her. She hated to think he thought of her as a failure to be ashamed of.
“But what about you?” Grace touched his arm. “You said you’d explain what was wrong when you got here, then…” She blushed again.
She could see him remembering everything that had happened. She took his hand, entwining their fingers together.
He clenched his jaw, and then said in a harsh voice, “The cops showed up yesterday with a search warrant. They basically ransacked my place, took my laptop, pretty much anything of value. I’m lucky they let me keep my phone.”
Grace squeezed his hand. Her heart twisted in her chest. “Have they pressed charges?”
“No, but I imagine it’s only a matter of time before they will.”
“But you haven’t done anything wrong!”
“I know.” He smiled sadly. “But someone has it out for me, and I don’t think there’s anything I can do to stop them.”
She started breathing harder, panic filling her. Jaime couldn’t go to jail. He couldn’t be arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. She buried her face in his shoulder, clutching at him, as if she could keep him here and protected through force of will.
“Hey, hey, it’ll be all right,” he said against her hair. “We’ll figure it out.”
She knew he was just saying that to comfort her. She appreciated it, but at the same time, it only strengthened her resolve to figure out this mystery. But she didn’t tell Jaime that. Instead, she tipped her head back, looking into his eyes, and said, “Stay with me?”
His gaze roved over her face. He pushed her hair back from her cheek. “Of course I will,” he said before kissing her.
After Jaime left to go back to his house, Grace resolved to return to River’s Bend and find those receipts she’d found. It was a Sunday; nobody would be there. Putting on her boots and coat, she drove over there late that afternoon. She tried very hard to concentrate, but it was rather difficult, given that her body didn’t want her to forget what she’d done with Jaime the night before.
After he’d left, kissing her and murmuring her name, she’d gone to the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. It had been an odd experience. She’d wondered if she’d look different. Did losing your virginity transform you into a new person? Logically, she knew it didn’t.
But standing there, wearing only a bra and panties, she found the love marks dotting her pale skin. She saw the beard burn on her breasts. Leaning forward, she looked at her face, like she could see some new layer upon it. There was nothing, of course. She was still Grace Danvers, still whoever she’d been yesterday. Yet she couldn’t help but feel there was something different, something you couldn’t name, precisely. Like a slight difference in movement, or like the light shone on her in a way she hadn’t noticed before.
She stood there for a while. Sometimes it was like she was looking at someone else entirely, while in the next moment, she recognized herself. It was disconcerting. Shaking her head, she stripped out of her underwear and got in the shower, letting the warm water ease some of the aches of last night, centering primarily between her legs. Having sex for the first time hadn’t hurt, and she hadn’t expected it would, really, but now in the light of the morning, she felt it all. Maybe her body was just more attuned to itself, she thought.
Now, driving to River’s Bend, she shifted on the seat and winced a little. Yeah, okay, I’m kind of sore. But she couldn’t regret what she’d done. If she were honest, it had been one of the most beautiful moments of her life. If she thought about it too long, she’d probably start crying like a loony.
She unlocked the back door of the vineyard, glancing around to make sure no one was here. She didn’t see any cars, and it was too cold and gray for anyone to want a tour. The vineyard was sometimes open on Sundays during the spring and summer months, but in December, it was generally deserted. She made sure to lock the back door after she’d entered.
Grace flipped on a light, going straight to her brother’s office. She wished she’d taken the receipts the first time around, but with Eric snooping around, she hadn’t wanted to make him suspicious. She began going through Adam’s drawers. Finding the folder from before, she took out some of the receipts.
Going from oldest to newest, she noticed two things for a vendor supplying their produce: one, that certain food items had increased in price since January and two, that the invoices were all addressed to Jaime.
She frowned. Starting in March, items like apples and flour started increasing in price, going up incrementally each month. By the time she’d gotten to the last invoice, she saw that there’d been an increase of almost twenty-five percent overall. She knew that produce varied in price due to the season, but why would something as basic as flour and sugar be more expensive in August than it would’ve been in February? That made no sense.
She placed that folder on the corner of the desk. She then saw a folder of checks on Adam’s desk and started going through them. She couldn’t find anything amiss there, though, but something niggled in the back of her brain. Going to the copy machine, she made copies of everything before putting it all back where she’d found it. About to log onto his computer, she was sitting at his desk when she heard footsteps.
Immediately, she got up and turned off the light in Adam’s office. She waited and listened, clutching her bag. The footsteps continued and seemed to go past the front desk into the kitchen. Slowly opening the door, Grace looked around. She’d locked the backdoor, so whoever was here must have their own key. Maybe it was Jaime? She kept listening, but she heard nothing more.
She walked toward the exit, making as little noise as possible. When she reached the backdoor, she saw it was unlocked. She turned the knob, and it creaked so loudly on its hinges she swore underneath her breath. But she stepped out and into the cold outside, almost running to her car.
She stopped in her tracks, though, when she saw the car parked next to hers. She’d know that red car anywhere. Eric. Why is Eric here again?
“Funny how we keep running into each other here.”
She whirled. Eric stood in front of her, his head cocked to the side.
Grace tipped her chin up. “I just had to pick something up. What are you doing here?”
“Same thing as you.” He stepped closer. “Although I have a feeling you might have been looking for things that are none of your business.”
Her heart pounded so hard she felt dizzy. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Just what I said. Don’t get involved where you don’t belong.” He looked up to the sky, then shrugged with a smile on his face. “I can’t guarantee what’ll happen otherwise.”
She watched as Eric got into his car and drove off. She stood there, frozen, her hands shaking. She knew who’d set Jaime up. She’d suspected since the beginning, but this had made it clearer than day. Eric. It was Eric. She didn’t know if she had enough proof, though.