Forget Me Never (7 page)

              At the side of the house I could see some stables and behind them there was a building that looked like a factory. Alec took my hand and smiled warmly,

              “Jennie and Mike Hancock are from Kent and they have lived out for about twenty years now.” He said.

              “I can see why,” I smiled.

              “They’ll be at the vines, she likes to check the grapes before she agrees to them being harvested; let’s go and find them.” He towed me across the large driveway in front of the house towards the stables. As we passed them a young girl, upon the back of a light grey horse smiled,

“Alec?”

              “Hello, Chelsea, how are you?”

              “I’m cool,” she grinned. “I graduate in about six weeks and I cannot wait.”

              “I’ll bet you can’t.” he smiled. “This is my girlfriend, Grace.”

              “Nice to meet you, Grace,” she smiled.

              “And you,” I muttered nervously.

              “Well, Cotton needs a run, I’ll see you later, maybe?”

              “Sure you will, enjoy your ride.” Alec smiled and waved her off. “Chelsea is their eldest daughter, they have another daughter, Holly, she’s at a prep school, extremely intelligent girl. She’ll be president one day, mark my words. Then there is Calvin, he is nine and spoiled rotten, he has been so sick though, they almost lost him last year.”

              “Oh no, what is wrong with him?”

              “He has Cystic Fibrosis, poor kid, he is always in and out of hospital, no wonder they spoil him.”

              “Yes, no wonder.” I agreed.

A tall man wearing a green t-shirt and navy blue shorts was holding a ladder against some vines. He turned his head as we approached and as we got closer I could see some tanned legs half way up the ladder.

              “Alec,” he grinned.

              “Hello, Mike, how are you?”

              “All good, mate, all good.”

              “Is he here?” a voice called out from within the leaves above us.

              “Yes, love, he is here.” She hurried down the ladder as he held his hand to me, “So, you must be Grace.”

              “Yes, it is very nice to meet you,” I said shaking his hand.

              A dark haired woman with piercing blue eyes emerged from the leaves wearing a baseball cap, cut-off jean shorts and a blue plaid shirt. She removed her gardening gloves and smiled,

              “I’m Jennie,” she said and shook my hand also, her accent did not have the same twang as Mike’s. “Alec has told me a lot about you.”

              “He has?” I queried.

              “Oh yes. I expected someone special to capture his heart one day,” she added and linked her arm with mine, “Let me show you around, Grace.” I let go of his hand and flashed my eyes across his blushing face.

I walked with her across the grass, she was younger than I imagined and had an incredible figure,             

“This place is stunning,” I stated as she walked me towards the factory building.

              “That’s why we bought it, we came here for our honeymoon in nineteen-ninety-six and I fell in love with the place. It was up for sale at the time and we put in an offer.”

              “I don’t know if I could make a decision that life changing, on the spot.”

              “Trust me, Grace, when you know what you want, you have to jump at it, you never know what is around the corner.”

              “I suppose,” I nodded. “How long have you known Alec?”

              “Must be about six years now, he set up a new business program for us during the recession and helped to get us some overseas customers. Mike loves him like a brother and they are always talking on the phone when he is back in the UK.”

              “I have never met anyone like him before, it’s as if I have known him my whole life.” I admitted.

              “He is a lovely bloke and I will be honest, Grace, I have never met any of his girlfriends before. Like I said, you have to be a special girl because he is smitten.”

              “How do you know?” I frowned.

              “He phoned here this morning and said, I have met this incredible girl and I think I am in love with her.” I smiled, “Yes, Alec has never said that before, not for any of his girlfriends.”

              “Wow,” is all I could muster. “I don’t understand though, why me?”

              “Aside from the fact that you are beautiful and I don’t just mean on the outside. You look sincere, real and as easy to read as an open book. Alec doesn’t like complicated, although you intrigue him, he feels he’s known you forever too, as if your souls were tethered before you met.”

              “I don’t know about that, but I do know it’s too soon and I shouldn’t feel the same, still…”

              “You do,” she smiled and tapped my arm. “There is no such thing as too soon when it comes to love.”

We arrived at the factory building and she pushed a sliding door across. The scent of fermenting fruit filled the air. Huge hoppers were everywhere I looked and machines buzzed and roared around us. The bottles chimed as they moved along a conveyor belt towards machines that filled them with red, white and rose wine.

              I had never been much of a drinker, certainly not liquor anyway, but I did enjoy a glass of wine and this place made my mouth water. Jennie showed me the labels of the bottles, they looked as though they had been drawn by hand, beautiful pictures for each of the types.

              “Chelsea designed them,” she explained.

              “They are stunning,” I remarked gazing over them.

              “She is going to art school in the Fall, not my choice, but what can you do? They have to live their own lives and follow their own dreams.”

              “Totally agree there, my parents are the same. I am an only child and when I told them I wanted to work in London they were thrilled for me, they even helped me with my bills at the beginning.”

              “Has Alec told you about his parents?”

              “He has,” I nodded, “it is so sad.”

              “It is, he is a really nice guy, Grace and it’s good to him happy again. His last girlfriend made him miserable. She lied, cheated and stole his money. I thought he’d have a hard time ever trusting anyone again. I can see though, he trusts you.”

              “Its early days yet,” I winked my eye. “My gold-digger self is also on holiday.”

              She chuckled lightly, “Well, can you ask her where my gorgeous toy-boy is when you see her? Grumpy bum back there is starting to wear me out.”

              “Really?”

              “No, I love him to bits, he is the other half of me and not only my husband, but my best friend too.”

              “Alec hasn’t really said much about his life, I mean, he talks about his sister and her family, about his friends and that, but he never mentions his ex’s.”

              “He’s a man, they don’t feel the need to tell us everything when it comes to ex’s, especially if they have wronged them and left them with huge dents in their ego. If there is anything important he feels you need to know, he will tell you.” She linked her arm with mine again. “Let’s go to the cellar and choose some wine for dinner tonight.”

As Rose was my favourite wine, we decided on a couple of bottles for us and white for the men. We took them to the grand looking house and she led me inside by way of a side door. The kitchen was huge, in fact, I would go as far as saying my whole flat would have fit in that kitchen. It had a large island in the middle with white cabinets and dark grey, marble counters and a black and white chequered floor.

              We put the wine in the huge fridge and she took me on a tour of the house. I didn’t feel like she was bragging, I think she could see how intrigued I was. She led me through the downstairs, opening doors and revealing large rooms with plush carpets and expensive looking furniture. In the grand foyer, the hall as it is more commonly known, had a huge crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a large carpeted staircase that led us up to the first floor.

              The house had ten bedrooms in all, beautifully decorated, Chelsea’s room was what I would expect a teenager’s room to look like, hot pink accessories, black and white animal print covers on her unmade bed, posters all over her walls and all the latest high tech equipment anyone could ever need. Their son’s room had a sign on the door, Keep Out! She knocked on the door,

              “Calvin, honey,” she called through the door.

              “Come in,” he announced. She pushed open the door. He looked small for nine, more like six or seven. His dark blond hair was spiked and he wore black framed glasses. One of his front teeth were missing as revealed when he gave me the most captivating smile ever.

              “Calvin, this is Grace, she is Alec’s girlfriend.”

              “Hi,” I smiled.

              “Hi,” he answered, “So, what do you do for a living?”

              “I work at a fashion magazine back in London.”

              “I want to go to London, maybe when I am older I can.”

              “Well, if you do, be sure and let me know, I’ll take you to this amazing café where they have over a hundred different smoothie flavours.”

              “I will,” he grinned.

              “Dinner will be at six, okay, sweetheart?”

              “Sure, Mom, I’ll take my meds before I eat.”

              “Good boy,” she smiled slightly, but there was a hint of sadness in that smile.

              “See you later, Calvin.”

              “Okay, Grace.” He nodded and returned to his computer.

              She closed door and I could see the pain on her face, “I don’t know if Alec told you, but Calvin is sick.”

              “He did actually. I went to school with a boy who had C.F., he’s still going strong I believe, despite being told he would live much past his eighteenth birthday.”

              “They have really come along in research, but the fear is still there.”

              “I am sorry, Jennie.” I said stroking her arm. 

              “Oh, it will be fine, he will be fine.” She insisted bravely, but I could see the pain in her eyes as she fought to hold back her tears. “Now then, do you like ribs?”

              “I love them,” I smiled and followed her down to the kitchen.

When we got to the kitchen, Alec and Mike were waiting for us. Mike had set up a tasting session and led us out to the conservatory. A table was covered with bottles and glasses and as we got closer a staff member handed us each a drop of white wine in a glass. I had seen wine tasting on TV and did not like the idea of making slurping sounds with wine in my mouth. I took a small sip and rolled it modestly around my mouth before spitting it out in a bucket that the worker had pointed to.

              Alec did the same and as we moved around the table, sipping wine and rinsing our mouths with water we discovered one thing, we both liked rose wine and most of the white, but we both felt the red wines were too heady.

              “You two are so compatible, its uncanny.” Mike remarked. Alec flashed a proud smile at me, taking my hand and squeezing it lightly.

              “She certainly is something,” he stated making me blush. Corny alert or what?

              “Awkward!” Mike announced in a fake American accent, “Let’s take some of this and sit on the deck while we wait for dinner, okay?”

              “Lead the way,” Alec said to him. As Mike disappeared through the door, Alec turned to me, pecked my lips and smiled, “They’re a great couple, aren’t they?”

              “They are lovely.” I agreed.

We headed back towards the house and as we got to the side door again, Mike opened it and handed Alec four wine glasses. We followed him to the back of the house and sat on wooden chairs that surrounded a large table. Jennie came and joined us and we talked the afternoon away.

After dinner, Jennie and I talked with Chelsea and Alec played on the X-Box with Calvin. Even though I had consumed a ridiculous amount of wine, I didn’t feel drunk, smiley, but not drunk. It had been an amazing afternoon and evening and I was saddened when it came to an end, until then I had never pictured myself anywhere but in London. That night though, if I had the chance to move to America, I would have dropped everything to do so.

              We hugged them goodbye and thanked them a hundred times, Jennie and I swapped numbers and addresses promising to stay in touch which I could see pleased Alec. I sat in the back of the car as Daniel drove us back to LA and rested my head on Alec’s shoulder.

              “Grace, we’re back,” Alec said tapping my arm. I lifted my head and gazed around, “You drifted off to sleep.”