So they ate and drank and told stories and had a damn good time. Some folks left, and Maureen and Johnny went to bed, leaving Jason alone with Clay and Alice. Jason was telling Alice stories about their teen years, giving her all the dirt on her fiancé.
“Then there was the time one summer when he was fifteen,” Jason said. “He crawled out the bedroom window at one in the morning, thinking he could take his horse into town to meet up with a girl he liked. Only the horse wasn’t that fond of having to get up that early, made one hell of a ruckus, bucking around the barn, which woke Clay’s dad, who also wasn’t that happy about discovering his son trying to sneak out.”
Alice’s eyes widened. “What happened?”
“Let’s just say I didn’t leave the ranch for a while, and my daily chores list was . . . unpleasant.”
She laughed. “Oh, you poor thing.”
“Nah, don’t feel sorry for him,” Jason said. “The girl he wanted felt so bad about him getting in trouble, she ended up giving him a—”
“Don’t tell her everything, man.”
“So, not such a poor thing, after all,” Alice said, giving Clay the side-eye.
“You don’t know how much I suffered, babe. Two weeks at home, mucking out horse stalls. All that horse shit.”
“Uh-huh. I’d say you’re feeding me a line of horse shit right now.”
Jason muffled a laugh and got up to go toss his empty beer bottle. When he came back, Clay and Alice were standing.
“We’re heading out,” Clay said. “I’ve got a date with some cattle early in the morning.”
Jason nodded. “I’ll walk with you.”
This way he could get a peek at the wedding to see if it was wrapping up. He didn’t want to linger if Erin was still busy.
And it looked like she was. The reception appeared to still be in full swing. He took out his phone. It was eleven thirty. Typically, the latest a reception would go was eleven, but this one didn’t seem to be even close to breaking up.
He saw Brenna heading their way.
“Is anyone still around back there?” she asked.
“No, we’re the last.”
Brenna blew out a breath. “This reception is insane and these people can party. I’m headed to the cellars to get a few more cases.”
“Need some help?” Jason asked.
“I could use a hand or two.”
They all ended up helping Brenna cart the wine into the kitchen area of the barn. Erin and Honor came in to help with the bottles, while Erin whipped out her phone to tally up the number of cases, no doubt to add it to the clients’ final bill.
“Some party, huh?” Alice asked.
“They’re all having fun,” Honor said. “And that’s what matters.”
“And no one is blackout drunk and throwing up in the vineyard, so that’s even better,” Erin said, hoisting a few bottles of wine out of the case. “I think the entire group is dancing out all the liquor they consume.”
“Need some help?” Jason asked.
“We’ve got the bar staff here to assist, so we’re good, but the wedding party said they’re having so much fun they’ve asked for extra time, so I think we’re going to be at this for a while. Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“Thanks for understanding. I’ll talk to you later.” She gave him a quick kiss, then disappeared back into the reception area.
He said his good nights to Clay and Alice, then climbed into his truck, looking into the barn again.
Yeah, it looked like a big party. That’s how all wedding receptions should be. That’s how he wanted his to go.
Someday.
With a smile, he put his truck in gear and started down the road.
CHAPTER
twenty-five
IT WAS A spur-of-the-moment plan, but the idea had popped into her head from the moment Alice had told her Clay had proposed to her. Since Alice’s birthday was this weekend, Clay was flying in her parents to help her celebrate. The timing would be perfect.
Ever since Alice and Clay had first met each other and had been snowbound at the house during the Christmas season last year, Erin and Alice had become close friends. And now Clay and Alice were engaged and getting married—at the Red Moss Vineyards. The idea of throwing Alice and Clay an engagement party seemed like the perfect fit.
She’d already talked to both Alice’s and Clay’s parents, and they were all on board with the idea. And if there was one thing Erin was good at it was planning an event.
Of course, they couldn’t have the party on Friday or Saturday, since it was summer and weekends were booked solid. But Sunday afternoon was available, and everyone had said that sounded great. They were keeping things low-key, but Erin still wanted to make it elegant and fun.
She’d had a couple of weeks to plan the event, which in her world was more than enough time. And fortunately she hadn’t had to deal with facing Owen since he’d bailed out on being in Ryan and Yolanda’s wedding. For reasons that still eluded her. Surely he hadn’t done it to avoid her. Or maybe he had.
Either way, she didn’t care. She hadn’t had to face him, and the wedding had turned out perfectly.
And her tension level had dropped dramatically since she hadn’t had the possibility of seeing Owen weighing on her. Not that she could avoid him forever, but she could for now, and that worked for her.
Fortunately, last night’s wedding had wrapped up by ten p.m., which meant they could clean up and head to bed early. Not that Erin had done that. She’d grabbed Agatha and they’d gone to Jason’s. He’d had wine and food ready for her, and they’d spent a couple of hours talking about their week. They’d both been super busy and had hardly seen each other. She’d missed him, and texting and talking on the phone just wasn’t enough. The catching up had been good.
So had the hours they’d spent in
