Page 4 of Let It Breathe
Then again, they weren’t paying much attention to him. Jed was busy trying to look like he wasn’t intentionally grazing the side of his wife’s breast with his arm, while June brushed a strand of salt-and-pepper hair from his temple.
Some things don’t change, Clay thought, trying to decide if that was a good or a bad thing.
“So we hear you, uh—made some changes in your life,” Jed said.
June shot an uncomfortable grimace at Jed. Jed met his wife’s expression with an apologetic eyebrow lift, and Clay watched June’s frown soften. It dawned on Clay that he’d just watched an entire conversation between two people who didn’t require a single word to communicate, and he wondered what it would be like to have that connection with another human.
He also wondered whether he should just go ahead and address the elephant in the room. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I went to rehab. I’ve been clean and sober almost four years now.”
Jed smiled. “Sir? I’m not used to hearing you be so polite, son. Is that the sobriety talking?”
“Something like that,” Clay agreed, fighting the familiar sensation of feeling awkward in his own skin.
“Congratulations, honey,” June said, touching Clay’s shoulder. “That’s great news. So how long are you in the area? I’m sure Eric and Reese would love to catch up.”
Clay took a sip of coffee, then cleared his throat. “Well, actually, I’ll be here awhile. Dorrington won the bid to build your new tasting room and event pavilion out at the vineyard.”
“Oh,” June said, surprise registering across features that didn’t look a day over forty, though Clay knew her daughter was thirty-four.
Reese, he thought, and felt an unexpected flood of warmth.
“We knew Dorrington won the bid, of course,” June was saying. “They did such a nice job with the new cellar for our neighbors at Larchwood Vineyards last summer. It’s just that Jed and I have been gone for two weeks on the most romantic Caribbean cruise, so we’ve been a little out of the loop. I didn’t realize?—”
“Does Reese know?” Jed asked, never one to beat around the bush.
“I’m not sure,” Clay admitted. “I told Eric last night when I had dinner with him and Sheila. He was planning to tell Reese this morning.”
June and Jed exchanged a look, though Clay couldn’t know for sure what it meant. Might have been concern. Then again, they might have been telepathically communicating plans for a quickie in the restroom.
“Will you boys excuse me a minute?” June said. “I need to visit the restroom.”
Clay choked on his coffee. Jed smiled at his wife and squeezed her hand. “Want me to order the usual?”
“Thanks, honey. Blueberry this time?”
“Perfect. I call dibs on the crust.”
“I call dibs on the orange coffee mug.”
“All yours, baby.” He kissed her temple, then turned and sat down in the seat across from Clay. As Jed picked up the saltshaker, he studied Clay from across the table. “You’ve seen the plans for the new building, then?”
“Looked them over last week with the branch manager,” Clay replied. “That’s great you guys are going green, doing the LEED certification and all. Environmentally conscious building is the hot ticket in Oregon wine country right now.”
“That’s why they sent you.”
“That’s why they sent me,” Clay agreed.
He paused, waiting to see if Jed would add anything else. Jed seemed content just fiddling with the condiments, spinning the pepper shaker around in lazy circles. Clay remembered a joke he’d heard about a woman with a medical condition that caused her to have an orgasm each time she sneezed.
What are you taking for it? the joke went.
Pepper.
Clay opened his mouth but shut it again fast.
You’re a sober adult now. No more dirty jokes.
“So are you still leading wine country bike tours, sir?” Clay asked.
