Winter in Mason Valley by Eliza Bennetts

Author:Eliza Bennetts [Bennetts, Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Chinese restaurant was like the one she went to as a little girl in the eighties. The food on the menu consisted mainly of eye-rollingly anglicised dishes like sweet and sour pork and honey chicken. There was even fried ice cream on the dessert list. Dee felt like she was twelve-years-old.

‘What do you recommend?’ she asked.

Vince didn’t bother looking at the menu. ‘Mind if I order a few dishes? I know the good ones.’

‘Sure.’

Dee was happy for him to make the decisions about dinner. Her mind was still trying to process all the information he’d told her in the car. The details pertaining to Annie’s mother were interesting and they explained a lot. She was busy conjuring images of a drug-addled beauty when the waiter came to take their order.

Vince rattled off about six different dishes and the waiter jotted the order down. By the time he was done, he’d ordered half the menu as well as a bottle of red wine.

‘Expecting about eight other people, Vince?’

He laughed. ‘I always over-order, then I ask for a doggy bag and live off the leftovers for the rest of the week.’

‘Strategic thinking. I like it.’

He smiled. ‘See, I’m more than just a pretty face.’

Dee took a moment to inspect his allegedly pretty face. “Pretty” might not be the correct word, more like “pleasing”. Vince had the face of someone you could trust, someone who was reliable and kind.

Too easily, the comparison to Travis arose. While Vince had a face you could like, Travis had a face you could lose yourself in. When Vince looked at Dee, she felt reassured; when Travis looked at her, she felt as though the world had been knocked of its axis. The comparison was … actually, there was none. Vince and Travis were stored under completely different categories in her brain.

Vince didn’t rock her world the way Travis did, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Dee wasn’t sure she needed her world rocked right now. What she needed was a friend and an ally, and Vince was the only person—other than Annie—who’d offered her anything close to friendship since she’d arrived in the valley.

Their wine came then, and Dee asked Vince for his thoughts on the distribution issue.

‘Maria from accounts payable has sent me the contract. She sent it today, actually, but I’ve not had a chance to look at it properly. I’ll take a good look at it tomorrow. There might be a way we can wriggle out of it if it’s not working for us.’

Vince sipped his wine, his expression thoughtful. ‘That’s not a bad idea, although I know Gary looked high and low to get the best deal. I’m not sure you’ll find a better one. You’re thinking of everything, though. You’re doing great, you know.’

Dee blushed at his praise. ‘Thanks. I just want to do a good job. I want to do right by the Olsens, but by this town, too. The community here needs this factory to work. It needs to be a success.

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