The Vineyard: A Novel by Barbara Delinsky

The Vineyard: A Novel by Barbara Delinsky

Author:Barbara Delinsky [Delinsky, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 0684864843
Google: CQ9l0kFXoG8C
Amazon: B000FC0WBU
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2000-06-29T00:00:00+00:00


Seventeen

OLIVIA DIDN’T WANT TO SEE SIMON. She didn’t know how to deal with what she felt. It was raw physical attraction with no emotional link, and it was totally wrong at this time in her life. But Natalie was right—a woman’s mind wasn’t always in sync with her body.

Actually, Natalie’s analogy had to do with a woman’s mind and her heart, but the result was the same. Olivia didn’t trust herself. For the next few mornings, she stayed in bed until Tess came through the bathroom door with a cat or two in tow. By then, Simon was long gone from the patio.

Did she think about him?

She shouldn’t have had time. When she wasn’t on the phone in the loft, she was writing, staring at the computer screen, reading what she’d written, changing it all around. She talked the story aloud and typed as she talked in an attempt to make things flow, but flow was only part of it. Words could mean one thing in one context and another in another. She had to convey just the right feeling at each turn.

Natalie was correct. Olivia had no right to be judgmental, but the opposite was just as bad. If she sugar-coated the story, it would lose authenticity.

The key was to find a happy medium. To that end, she wrote, rewrote, and rewrote yet again. She worked in the loft after Tess was in bed, and kept a pad by her own bed to jot down thoughts that came to her through the night.

Did she think about Simon? Of course, she did. What red-blooded woman wouldn’t? She might even have been seduced into doing something about it if he had showed any inclination. But he was as absent as ever. That made it easier to push him from her mind.

The chaos in the house also helped. One maid had been fired and another hired, which meant that a new person was in need of training—all of which would have been easier had Madalena been there to do it, but she and Joaquin were long gone. In their absence, the kitchen had become disorganized. Natalie was interviewing possible replacements, but she hadn’t yet met one who appealed to her. In the meanwhile, it was catch-as-catch-can. They ate dinner out. They brought lunch in. Breakfast was strictly help-yourself; at least, it was supposd to be, but Olivia liked breakfast. It was the only meal she was any good at making. So one day she whipped up a batch of pancakes; the next, omelettes; the next, French toast. She sliced a mean banana on cereal and brewed a full-bodied pot of coffee. She was having a grand time of it, until Jill came down the fourth morning wanting nothing but tea and toast.

Olivia’s first thought was that something she had cooked hadn’t gone down the right way. Her second thought was more intuitive. “Oh dear. You must have talked with Greg.”

Jill smiled curiously. “How did you guess?”

“You’re lookin’ a mite pale.”

It was actually an understatement.



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