Page 93 of My Brother's Best Friends

“Wait. Let’s check out the upstairs first,” I suggest, putting off the inevitable chores for the time being. “Get the full picture before we dive in.”

The staircase is obviously newer than the floorboards. Its wood is a happy yellow while the floor is made up of weathered, grey boards. We make our way upstairs to find two spacious bedrooms and a relatively new bathroom with bright blue tile and only a minimal amount of grime in the shower cabin.

“I’ll take this room,” Janet announces, peeling off to investigate one of the two available spaces.

“Not a bad choice, ma’am,” I muse as I briefly inspect the room.

Its walls are painted a cream color, but it needs a serious cleaning before anything else. The linens survived a moth invasion and the subsequent chemical treatment, but we brought fresh textiles from the city, anyway.

A single window looks out over the valley, letting in a steady stream of sunlight filled with flecks of dust.

“Nice digs, Jan.Let’s see what I get,” I say as I walk across the hall to the other room.

My window looks out over the forest in the distance. I can see the road and the car from up here, the future vineyards almost whispering to me from across my field of vision. It’s not bad. Not bad at all. As soon as we get the bed up the stairs and the single chest of drawers I brought, it will feel just like home.

Janet joins me by the window. “Mac, this is a slice of heaven.”

“Wait until we’re done sprucing it up.”

“Let’s get crackin’, then.”

We put on some loud music and get started. There’s no way I can spend more than half an hour in this place without cleaning. We tackle the kitchen first, considering that at some point, we’re going to want to cook a meal.

It takes us nearly two hours, working together, to clear enough counter space to prepare our food. I clean the refrigerator while Janet tackles the stove. It looks like all of the appliances are still working, which is great. I’m too much of a city girl to have any idea how to fix a stove.

“We’d better start meeting folks in town,” I say at one point. “And get in touch with Bryan’s guy, too. We need a handyman, a plumber to check the pipes, and we’re going to have to hire a fieldhand or two for the brushwork.”

“I’m right there with you, sister. But first,” Janet pulls her dish gloves off and sighs, “I think we need to take a break. There was a bottle of wine here somewhere, wasn’t there?”

“In that bag, I think,” I say, pointing across the room to one of the grocery bags Janet brought with her.

“Oh, yeah,” she remembers, pulling two bottles out and holding both up. “I got a rosé and a white, because I wasn’t sure what you like.”

“We’ll do both,” I say thoughtfully. “Let’s start with the rosé.”

“Rosé it is,” Janet agrees, looking around for some wine glasses.

We aren’t able to find any, but there are two coffee mugs in my kitchen box. I pull them out and set them on the counter so that Janet can pour. Once both cups are full, we hold them high to cheer for this next chapter in our lives.

“To friendship,” I say.

“To new opportunities,” Janet replies.

The wine is a little too sweet, and it isn’t cold at all, but it hits the spot nonetheless. I glance outside and see that the sun is going down. I haven’t even taken a tour of the land yet to figure out how I’m going to set up my vineyard.

There are so many technical details to put together, including a map of the terrain with soil and lighting specifications. An irrigation system. I need another sip before I overwhelm myself on the first day here.

“Let’s go for a walk,” I suggest.

“Absolutely. But we’re taking the bottle with us,” Janet says.

“No argument here.”

It’s too early to start mapping out rows or creating scaffolding for the grapes, but I can get a general sense of what’s what. I already know that I don’t have to grow the grapes from seeds. But even with a healthy starter crop, it will take a year or two for the fruit to mature.

“Let me wash up for a second,” Janet says, hurrying upstairs to change.

“I’ll be here with my many, many… MANY thoughts.”

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