She was stirring the eggs in the pan as David’s footsteps sounded on the stairs. “Hey,” he said suspiciously.
“What’s going on here?”
Maddy turned around, smiling. His normally curly hair was gleaming wet and still flat against his head. He was wearing a T-shirt that read deadman trail 15k and carrying his Tevas in one hand. He dropped the shoes on the floor and came over to her. Maddy’s palms immediately started sweating. She grinned and held out the pan.
“Breakfast?” she asked, trying to sound smooth and failing miserably. The toaster pinged.
“Wow, I’m impressed,” David said, sitting down at the table. “I love a girl who makes me breakfast.”
Maddy giggled— like an idiot, she thought—and scraped 221
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the eggs onto a plate, adding the toast on the side. Please try to act intelligent, Maddy, she begged herself. It was hard, when he was so unbelievably cute.
David inhaled the eggs in four bites, piling them on top of the toast and stuffing them into his mouth.
“Mmm. These are great, Mad,” he said with his mouth full. Maddy beamed. He scraped up the last bits with his fork and pushed back from the table. “Okay, let’s get out of here.” He turned and smiled at her as if they were beginning an adventure.
Side by side, they hurried through Jenkins’s field, following the path along the stream until they reached the tasting room. Maddy pushed the big double doors open and together they quickly cleared the room of the remaining painting supplies: a big blue tarp, a ladder, some paintbrushes in a bucket of water, a pile of rags. David grabbed a bottle of Windex and some paper towels and went over to the windows while Maddy mopped the floor industriously. They were almost done when Maddy heard a diesel engine rumbling from the direction of the house and a screech of brakes. Her eyes met David’s.
“The stuff ’s here!” Maddy squealed. She had to restrain herself from jumping up and down and clapping her hands.
David dumped all the cleaning supplies into a garbage bag to take back to the house. He placed it outside the door and then turned back to Maddy, who was 222
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still standing in the middle of the floor. “Come on, Maddy-Mae, let’s go meet them.”
But Maddy didn’t move. She was gazing around the empty space, looking at the gleaming, polished wood floor, the glistening fresh paint, the sparkling windows with the wavy glass throwing little splashes of color all over the walls. David walked over to her. “What is it?” he said, touching her shoulder. She looked up at him.
“I was just thinking of the way this place looked the first day we saw it. Remember?”
He laughed. “Yeah, I do. How could I forget? I had no idea what to make of you. But I could hardly take my eyes off you.”
Maddy blushed and looked down. “I can’t believe how different it looks—we’ve done so much this summer,” she murmured.
“Well, I don’t know about you,” David said, looking down at her, “but this has definitely been one of the most interesting summers of my life.”
Maddy lifted her chin. “Yeah,” she said. “Me too.”
The moment was broken by an engine rumble. Maddy ran to the door. A guy with a clipboard jumped down from a truck parked just outside. “Madeline Sinclaire?” he asked, consulting a sheaf of papers.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Okay, I’ve got a delivery of furniture here. You want to tell the crew where you want things?”
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He had barely finished speaking when another, smaller truck arrived with standish & sons painted on the side. The next hour was a blur of workmen in heavy boots, boxes and crates with their lids pried open, piles of packing paper and straw littering the floor, furniture emerging from its wrappings and filling the room. Little by little, stacks of glittering glassware appeared from mountains of cotton padding, covering the long oak table pushed against one wall.
Everything was almost unpacked when Maddy heard a voice by the door. She looked up. A guy about her age was squinting at a piece of paper. “Excuse me, are you Madeline Sinclaire? I have your rug here.”
David looked up from where he was cramming packing paper into a box. “So that’s what you were getting in town, sneaky girl!” he said, straightening up. Maddy grinned at him. “Wait till you see it.” She motioned to the guy. “Can you just prop it over there?
We’ll unroll it later.”
The guy shrugged. “Sure,” he said and manhandled the heavy column wrapped in brown paper against one wall.
At last, the workmen were gone, stuffing the wrappings and boxes into their trucks and bumping back up the path toward the house and the road. The silence felt good. Maddy took a deep breath and turned to David.
“Want to see the rug now?” she asked.
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“Of course. It better be pretty amazing after all this buildup,” he teased. Together they stripped off the paper wrapping and, with a flourish, unfurled the rug on the shiny brown floorboards. David stepped back, his hands on his hips, and gave a low whistle. Maddy waited. She was surprised to find herself a little breathless with anticipation. “Wow,” he finally said. “I’m speechless.” He bent to examine the rug more closely. “This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. How did you even know it would be so perfect in here?”
Maddy beamed. “Thanks.” She walked over to stand next to David in the doorway, and together they gazed at the results of an entire summer of work. The whole place looked utterly fantastic. Two plump sofas covered in tan silk stood in opposite corners, with matching armchairs pulled up near them. Rectangular coffee tables in light maple were positioned at the perfect angle for resting glasses or propping feet. Near the middle of the room, four round bistro tables stood surrounded by elegant little straight chairs. The long oak table dominated one entire wall, crystal wineglasses lined up in perfect rows on its surface, looking just as Maddy had pictured them when she saw the table at the store. The pure Napa light poured from the clean windows, highlighting the mellow patina of the floorboards, the crisper, sleeker wood of the tables and chairs, and the rich texture of the rug. Framed by the big open double 225
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doors was that stunning view of the mountain that Dad had shown them the very first day.
David’s voice broke the silence. “Well, Mads, this room is really incredible.”
“I agree,” Maddy said, smiling.
“But I have to say that what really makes it stand out is that.” He pointed to the rug. “It’s, it’s . . .” He struggled to find words in an unfamiliar vocabulary. “It’s the perfect combination of rustic beauty and modern elegance!” He looked very proud of himself.
“How about the perfect combination of old and new?” Maddy suggested.
“Yeah, that’s what I meant. Actually, it’s the perfect combination of Napa and Maddy.” Maddy looked up at him in surprise and delight. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. It was the closest they’d been, Maddy realized, since that day in the lake. He felt just as good now as he did then; better in fact. His warm arms felt so safe around her, she never wanted him to let go. He must have felt the same way, because he squeezed her a little tighter before finally stepping back. They were both smiling a little selfconsciously, but this time Maddy didn’t look away. 226
Chapter Twenty-six
!
Maddy collapsed onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling after she’d confirmed that night’s cooking lesson with David. Who would’ve thought this was how her summer would end up? She rolled over onto her stomach and remembered how David’s arms felt around her. Just then, her BlackBerry on the bedside table rang. Maddy picked it up and looked at the screen. Morgan.
“Hey, babe!” she said.
“Hi!” her friend squealed. “How’s everything going?”
Maddy smiled dreamily at the ceiling. “Awesome, actually.”
“Wow. Um, didn’t you just break up with Brian?”