she said weakly. “It’s just that—come on. Madeline Sinclaire and a pig? Is he your new best buddy?”
“Very funny. And there’s only one bathroom, all the rooms are tiny, and my hideous parents have already sentenced me to manual labor.” Maddy flopped down on the bed and hung her head over the side. She stared at the rich brown floorboards and traced a little pattern with her index finger.
“Unbelievable. What’s the deal with this place? I mean, why are they so obsessed with it?”
Maddy heaved a gusty sigh. “It’s their dream,” she said, rolling her eyes. “They’ve talked about buying a vineyard for practically as long as I can remember. The owners of this place went bankrupt because of some sort of insider trading scandal last winter. So they sold it really cheap and now my parents are convinced making wine is their destiny or something. And apparently I have to be part of it.”
“Well, don’t worry. They can’t keep you up there for the whole summer, can they?”
Maddy laughed. “Why not? They can do anything they want.” She knew Morgan was just trying to make her feel better, but she couldn’t help her nasty mood. 31
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“The party was hella fun, though,” Morgan reminded her. “Everyone’s saying it was the best one of the summer so far.”
Maddy smiled. “Thanks, chica.”
“And—”
Maddy sat up. “Wait, what’s that noise?” A steady cheep, cheep, cheep was coming from one corner of the porch. She got up from the bed.
“What? Maddy, is it a bear?” Morgan cried. She sounded genuinely scared. Maddy went out onto the porch and peered into the dark corner. The cheeping stopped as if on a timer.
“No, Miss Hysteria, it’s a cricket, not a bear. I’m not in the Yukon Territory.” She backed away a step. Cheep, cheep, cheep. She moved forward. It stopped. Back. Cheep. Forward. Stop. “It’s majorly annoying, though,” she said as she retreated into her bedroom. The cheeping resumed, right on cue.
“Poor Mad—hey, I’ve got to go,” Morgan said.
“Kirsten’s on the other line. We’re all going to dinner in a few minutes.”
“Who’s going?” Maddy asked mournfully.
“Why are you torturing yourself ? The usuaclass="underline" Brian, Chad, Taylor, Sunny, me, and Kirsten. Don’t worry, we’ll get an extra chair for you.”
Maddy pushed her face into her pillow. “Thanks,”
she mumbled. “Bye.”
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“Bye. I’ll call you.”
Maddy tossed her phone onto the bedside table and lay staring at the darkness. Cheep, cheep, cheep. She sat up and turned the light on. The cheeping stopped. She turned the light off and lay back down. CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP. Maddy sat up again. “Shut up!” she yelled in the direction of the porch. The noise stopped for a moment, as if the cricket were considering its options, and then began again, deciding Maddy wasn’t worth listening to. Of course, Maddy thought. Because what I want doesn’t matter anymore. 33
Chapter Six
!
Maddy! Rise and shine, little bean!”
Maddy pulled the sheet over her head and rolled onto her stomach. “Mmmff,” she moaned. She could hear someone coming up the stairs.
“‘You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy . . .’” Mom’s voice grew louder as she entered the room.
Maddy lifted her head and clawed the sheet from her face. “Mom, why are you singing? What time is it?” She fell back into the comfortable embrace of her mattress and let her fingers graze the mosquito bites on her forehead. She had forgotten, of course, to close the doors to the porch last night.
“‘You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you, oh 34
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please don’t take my sunshine away!’ It’s six thirty, Sunshine.” Mom was wearing one of Dad’s buttondown shirts with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of baggy khaki shorts. She strode over to the porch and leaned on the railing. “Ah! Just smell that Napa air! Isn’t this porch darling? You could sleep out here if you wanted.”
“Shhh,” Maddy whispered, turning over on her side and fluffing her pillow. “Right now I’m sleeping in here. I’ll be down in a few hours. Can you shut the door when you leave?”
“Get up, get up! Dad and I have already had breakfast. We have a whole plan for you, so be downstairs in fifteen minutes, my lovely.” She left the door open behind her as she skipped out.
Maddy flopped onto her back and lay with her arm over her face. Six thirty? The woman was inhuman. And
“a whole plan” sounded suspiciously like it might include large amounts of lifting and sweat. Grumbling, Maddy heaved herself out of bed and wrestled a short white cotton dress out of the bulging wardrobe. She briefly considered a shower, but realized that no one would see her except for her parents and Fred. She pictured Brian pulling up the driveway in his gleaming SUV, grinning at her from behind his Oakleys.
“Hey, babe!” he’d call out. “I came up to rescue you!”
Maddy shook her head to dispel the image. The 35
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chance of Brian coming up to save her was about as high as the chance that her parents would actually let her spend another night alone in the next twenty years. She pulled her hair up in a messy knot on top of her head and slipped her feet into a pair of Havaianas. Then she grabbed her huge sun hat from its nail on the wall and looked in the mirror. Ugh. Eyes puffy, face pale, so many mosquito bites that her forehead looked like the surface of Mars and . . . lo and behold, the start of a lovely zit smack in the middle of her chin. She ripped the hat off, tossed it on the bed, and stuck her sunglasses on her head instead. The last time she’d felt this gross was—actually, she’d never felt this gross. In the sun-flooded kitchen, she sat down at the round wooden table and tried to stretch her eyes all the way open. Mom set an enormous spinach and cheese omelet down in front of her. Without even looking up, Maddy started devouring it, along with two pieces of sourdough toast.
“We’ve been having such fun eating local,” her mother chattered as she bustled around the kitchen, putting away the omelet ingredients. “Those eggs are from our neighbors down the road. I found the goat cheese at a little grocery in town that sells all Napa-grown food. And the spinach is from our garden!”
“Great,” Maddy mumbled with her mouth full. It was hard for her to muster up enthusiasm for the origins of 36
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eggs and spinach before seven o’clock in the morning. Debbie poured herself a glass of orange juice and sat down across the table.
“It’s so relaxing out here,” she went on. “The air gives me so much energy! Take a deep breath. Don’t you just love it?”
“Um, yeah.” Maddy was concentrating on heaping three teaspoons of sugar into her coffee. She needed the caffeine—immediately. Her head was pounding and her eyes refused to stay open without serious effort. Mom jumped up as a truck engine rumbled outside in the front. “That must be Dad and Fred. They went down to talk about the harvest schedule with John Sands—our neighbor on the other side,” she explained.
“We might trade work to help each other out. Come on out when you’re done, okay, honey?” Her voice trailed off as the screen door slammed behind her. Maddy gulped her coffee in three swallows and immediately felt more awake. She lowered her sunglasses and clattered down the back steps. Under the pure blue Napa sky, the air was cool but held the promise of heat. The sun was shooting its lemon-yellow rays around the mountains and over the lush, green vineyard. In one corner of the yard, flowering quince glowed orange in the morning light. As she walked around to the front of the house, Maddy barely even noticed what a shack the place was.
“Hi, honey!” Dad called as he and Fred climbed down 37
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