Blood Vines

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Monday, March 8

Noon

Alex knew of the El Dorado Kitchen. Located in the El Dorado Hotel on Sonoma’s town square and helmed by up-and-coming chef Justin Everett, it was consistently named by critics and foodies as one of the places to eat in wine country.

Rachel had already arrived and was waiting for her at a table in the courtyard. She looked like a million bucks in her earth-toned brocade blazer and Alex wished she tried a little harder than her jeans and denim jacket.

The waiter was at the table, opening a bottle of wine. Alex raised her eyebrows. Apparently, people here drank wine with every meal, no matter the day of the week.

A moment later, Alex reached the table. Rachel smiled brilliantly up at her. “You did remember! I was worried you wouldn’t.”

The waiter held out the chair for her. Alex returned the smile and sat. “You’re not the only one. I half thought the wine had prompted the invitation, which you had then immediately forgotten you made.”

Rachel laughed. “I never let the wine talk for me. And I never forget.” She waved the waiter off and poured them both a glass of wine. “It’s a Russian River Pinot.”

Alex tasted. “Mmm, yummy. Thank you.”

“No, thank you. I’m so glad you agreed to have lunch.” The waiter delivered a basket of bread and Rachel dug in.

“How was your morning?” she asked, spreading herb aïoli on the sourdough bread. “Did you explore a bit? Hunt down some of your mother’s old friends?”

“Much less exciting, I’m afraid. I spent the morning working on my doctoral dissertation.”

Rachel looked utterly disappointed and Alex laughed. “Don’t worry, I plan on striking out this afternoon. But no caves. Maybe never again.”

“I’m so sorry that happened. How’re you feeling today?”

“Frankly, embarrassed.”

“Don’t be. We’re used to drama around here. Goes with the wine.”

“I don’t know how I got so turned around. My sense of direction is usually pretty good. And I know what I heard. There were people partying in there.”

“That’s what really worried Joe and Ferris. They’ve had problems before. Kids smoking pot, stuff like that. It’s a huge liability. Like I said, those caves creep me out, too. You should see the caves at our winer-” She bit the words back and shook her head. “I keep forgetting, you have seen the Sommer caves.”

“But I don’t remember, so it’s sort of like I haven’t.”

“I find this whole amnesia thing of yours fascinating and weird.” Rachel broke off a piece of her bread and popped it in her mouth.

Alex could have been offended. But she found Rachel’s honesty refreshing. She laughed. “Want the truth? I find it really weird myself. Not so fascinating.”

“You don’t remember any of this?”

“Nope. Nothing.”

The waiter arrived with food. “I hope you don’t mind, I ordered several of my favorites apps for you to try. Fried egg pizza, fennel sausage and Fourme d’Ambert.”

“Not at all. It looks wonderful.” Alex helped herself to a little of each. “Why should I see the Sommer caves?” she asked. “How are they different?”

Rachel leaned forward. “The Reed caves are modern, ours are original. Dad likes to say Francis Reed had a case of extreme cave envy, so he had theirs dug.”

“But isn’t a cave a cave?” Alex gave in and broke off a piece of sourdough bread. “How are they different?”

“Try as different as a Disney jungle and a real one.” Rachel selected a portion of the pizza, then went on. “The first caves, like ours and the Schramsberg caves, were dug by hand in the late 1800s. They’re living caves, complete with mossy lichen hanging from the ceilings. They can be… atmospheric. If you can screw up your courage, I’ll give you a tour sometime.”

Alex shuddered. “No thanks.”

Rachel smiled. “To give you an idea, we have forty thousand square feet of caves and Schramsberg has fifty. Red Crest, where you got lost last night, is only fifteen-Don’t look now, there’s Joe and Ferris. Oh shit, they saw us.”

Alex turned. Sure enough, Reed’s brothers were heading toward their table. The same as the other night, she was struck with how different in looks the three Reed brothers were.

Rachel stood. “Joe,” she said warmly, offering her cheek for a kiss from them both. “Ferris. You remember Alex.”

How could they forget? Alex stood and greeted the men. “I’m so embarrassed about Saturday night. I’m usually not so excitable.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ferris said, smiling.

“It’s understandable,” Joe murmured. “Ferris told me you thought you heard voices?”

“Yes, but I-”

“She and I were just talking about that. Wondering if being lost in there might have jogged a childhood memory.”

Alex looked at Rachel in surprise. The woman winked at her, then turned back to the two men. “Seems I even remember something like that happening to you, Ferris. How old were you? Six? Seven?”

“Six.” He looked at his older brother. “A joke perpetrated by Joe and Clark.”

“And their group of evil henchmen.”

“Reed swooped in to save the day,” Joe drawled, though his playful words didn’t match his expression. “Already playing hero. We’ll let you get back to your lunch.”

When the two had gone to their table, Rachel leaned toward her. “Daddy’s boys, the both of them, I can’t stand either of them, though I find Mr. CEO Joe particularly loathsome. At least Ferris can laugh at himself once in a while.”

Alex was shocked. Rachel must have been able to tell, because her lips lifted in a self-mocking smile. “How’s that for honesty? Clark’s the same way. They’re their fathers’ puppets.”

Rachel pushed away her plate and reached for her wineglass. “I have a lot of respect for Reed. Walking away like he did.”

“What about you? You didn’t walk away.”

“I couldn’t.” She smiled. “Cut me open and I bleed cabernet sauvignon.”

Alex laughed. “So you love the work, but they don’t?”

“They covet it, there’s a difference.” She drained her glass and poured another. “Clark and Will both strut around like a couple of peacocks. Sommer Wines are the plumage. They can strut all they want, but I’m an equal shareholder. And you know what? Without me, those feathers aren’t nearly so fine.”

Rancor for her cousins was obvious. Alex supposed this was what Reed had been talking about.

Rachel motioned with her glass and the garnet-hued liquid dipped and swayed. “Until Dylan disappeared, Dad ran Sommer Wines, not Treven.” She leaned closer and motioned Alex to do the same. “But Dad was Grandpa’s favorite. So he put him in charge.”

She stopped, then shook her head. “His favorite, that sounded awful, didn’t it? I should say, Grandpa recognized Dad’s gifts. And he and Grandpa had the same vision of how to move the company forward.”

“And Treven’s differed from theirs?”

“Oh yes, world wine domination, bottle by cheap bottle.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Expansion and profits, by whatever means necessary.” Rachel started to say something else, then caught her breath. “Oh my God. That was your mother’s ring, wasn’t it?”

“You remember the ring. Any idea what BOV stands for?” Alex slipped the ring off and handed it to Rachel. “The inscription. I’m curious.”

She studied it. “No clue. You know who you could ask? There’s a jewelry store on the square, the Golden Bow. They specialize in wine country designs, they might know something.”

Rachel handed it back. “I just had the most completely morbid thought. If they hadn’t dug up that grave, we wouldn’t be sitting here together.”

Alex had thought the same. Many times over the past days she’d thought of how those remains had changed her life. And sometimes as she lay in the dark, she wondered what changes still awaited her.

“Do you think it’s him,” Alex asked softly. “Do you think it’s our… brother?”

Instead of answering, Rachel said, “The grave was in one of our vineyards. One of the Sommer family’s first. We produced a small production of old vine zinfandel called Two Brothers.”

“Two Brothers? For Harlan and Treven?”

“Actually, for the two Sommer brothers who founded the winery. The first Friedrich and Oliver.” Rachel picked up her glass and twirled it. The wine caught the light and Alex found herself mesmerized by it.

“Great wine starts with good fruit. The right amount of sun and water, temperatures that are neither too hot nor too cold. Soil that has just the right combination of minerals.” She laughed. “You see why I don’t have children; every year I give birth.”

Alex smiled. “What happened to the Two Brothers vineyard? Didn’t they find the grave while ripping it up?”

“We had no choice. The vines became infested with phylloxera.” At Alex’s expression, she explained. “It’s a louse that attacks the root of the vine. You don’t know you have a problem until it’s too late.”

Alex frowned, recalling something from a wine tour she had taken years ago. “I thought the phylloxera problem had been solved?”

“Mmm. After nearly totaling California’s wine industry.” She drained her glass. “Now, they graft a phylloxera-resistant root stock to the scion. But these were century-old vines.”

A note of reverence in her tone hinted that ripping up those vines had torn a piece from Rachel’s heart-as if she was physically attached to them.

She’d said it a moment ago: the wines were her babies.

Rachel reached across the table and caught her hand. “But if the vines hadn’t had to be torn out-”

“The grave wouldn’t have been found.”

“Yes. And we may never have seen each other again.” She paused. “Would you like to see it? The vineyard where the body was found? His grave?”

Even as “No” sprang to her lips, she said, “Yes.”

Rachel insisted on paying for their lunch. It occurred to Alex as they buckled into Rachel’s work truck that they’d polished off the entire bottle of wine and that Rachel shouldn’t be driving.

They took Sonoma Highway north to Moon Mountain Road. The road gently snaked upward, and Alex partially lowered her window to let the spring air blow against her face. For all her worries about Rachel’s driving ability, she handled the road with what seemed like effortless expertise.

Twenty minutes later, Rachel eased to the side of the road. They climbed out of the truck and silently crossed into the vineyard, stopping beside an area that had been staked off. It wasn’t a neat, clean hole, the way Alex had imagined it would be. Instead, it had the look of an eruption. As if something violent had taken place here, as if the earth had rejected the tiny body and forced it out. A sort of reverse birthing process.

“Ugly, isn’t it?”

Alex couldn’t find her voice and nodded.

“I think the body… that it was Dylan,” Rachel whispered, answering Alex’s earlier question. “I just do. I guess I feel it here”-she pressed her fist to her stomach-“deep in my gut.”

They fell silent. Alex gazed at the grave, tears welling in her eyes, swamping them. The breeze ruffled her hair and a crow flying overhead screeched.

Her brother. Why couldn’t she remember him? She’d loved him desperately. Even without his memory, she knew it was true.

“I wish I could remember,” Alex whispered.

“I wish I couldn’t,” Rachel said, voice thick. She looked at Alex. “Let’s get out of here.”

Silently, they returned to the truck and climbed in. Alex saw that Rachel was crying and reached across the seat and caught her hand.

Rachel curled her fingers tightly around hers. “No one should have to go through that. No one.”

Alex wasn’t certain whether Rachel was talking about what Dylan had endured-or what she had. In the end, she supposed it didn’t really matter. The pain was the same.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

Rachel looked almost startled at the sound of Alex’s voice. She glanced her way, shook her head. “Nothing was ever the same again.”

Not for any of them, Alex realized. All their lives had been violently, irrevocably altered.

Rachel freed her hand and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Maybe your mother had the right idea. Bury it all. Forget about it.”

Some things couldn’t be buried or forgotten. They made themselves known, coming out twisted and foul.

“No,” Alex said. “It destroyed her.”

“I think it destroyed us all.” Rachel made a face. “I didn’t plan for this to become a sobfest.” She flipped down her visor and peered into the mirror. “Look at me! I’m a mess!”

“Raccoon Woman,” Alex said. She lowered her own visor, peered into the mirror and laughed. “And her sidekick.”

Rachel handed her a tissue and they took a minute to clean themselves up. They rode in silence back into town. Alex had walked to the restaurant, so Rachel dropped her at her rental.

“I’m really glad you’re back, Alex,” Rachel said. “I think you being here is going to help us all heal.”

Tears stung Alex’s eyes. She blinked against them, uncertain what to say. Rachel reached across the seat and squeezed her hand. “I know that’s pretty heavy, but you’re a piece of the puzzle from that time. And you were taken away from us.”

Moments later, Alex watched her stepsister drive off. It was like a puzzle, she thought. But because of the individual frame of reference, everyone’s piece was overlapping but unique. She wondered where hers fit in.