The Buried Secret by Jen Talty

Riesling

Riesling hung back as she watched Trey and Ashling pick the final few apples to bring home.

Trey had put up with a lot yesterday when it came to her family and he’d done so with a smile on his face. He became flustered once or twice, but he held his own with the best of them.

Including her mother.

“Hey, Riesling,” Sam Wilde said as he strolled across the orchard. “I heard you’ve been giving Brad a hard time for getting injured.”

She laughed. “I was only busting his ass for bragging about not needing a doctor and then showing up with a fracture, that’s all. But since I’m here, where is he? I hope he’s following my orders.”

“He’s up in the office trying not to go crazy,” Sam said with a slight laugh. “He’d rather be out in the fields.”

“I’m sure he would, but I’m glad he’s not. His injury isn’t going to set him back forever, but he’ll heal faster if he takes it easy.”

“Trust me, he’s being a good patient.” Sam had been a nerd his entire life, but what always cracked Riesling up was that her younger sister, Zinfandel, had the worst crush on him all through middle school and into high school. Why? Riesling had no idea. Sam wasn’t bad to look at. Actually, he was handsome.

Now.

But as a kid, he put new meaning into the word bookworm.

Actually—strike that—he was a science nerd and that was worse, in Riesling’s book. Of course, she’d always gone for the motorcycle, long-haired, tattooed bad boy, but only to piss off her parents.

Everyone thought it was only her mother she had issues with; however, her father hadn’t been any better. He was sweeter and gentler than Weezer, but Carter River could let down the hammer just as hard when he wanted to.

And he’d done just that when it came to Theo.

“Ashling has really grown.”

“She sure has and she’s quite the handful.”

“I can only imagine,” Sam said, stuffing his hands in his pockets and bouncing up and down from the cold breeze. “Did you hear that Lyra Chambers is back in town?”

Lyra was Malbec’s age, so a good seven, eight years older, but who didn’t know that snobby chick. She’d been about as stuck up as they came.

Even worse than Racheal, Malbec’s ex, if that were possible.

“Is she and that fancy schmancy husband of hers visiting her folks?”

“That’s just it. She moved into that dumpy place near Brad. Alone. Just her and her two boys.”

Riesling jerked her head. “You’ve got to be kidding?”

“Nope. I couldn’t believe it myself.”

“Wow. That’s just crazy.”

“I know,” Sam said. “Well, I better get going, but I wanted to make sure I got a chance to say hello and that bushel of apples is on the house.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Brad took care of it, so it’s done. Enjoy.” Sam strolled off toward the main building.

“Mommy!” Ashling came running with her arms flapping like a wild beast. That child had more energy than the Energizer Bunny. “Trey said he’d teach me how to make his mom’s famous apple crumble. Can we go to his place now and make it? Please!”

“That’s not quite what I told her,” Trey said with a bit of a sheepish smile. “My exact words were that I’d be happy to make it, share it, and give you the recipe. She came up with the idea and I told her only if it was okay with you; otherwise, I’d make sure she got her own little dish of it.”

Ashling put her hand on her hip and pushed it dramatically to the side. “I did my school reading. I can get up early and take a shower before school and you made me do all my chores before we came here today. I don’t see why we can’t go to Doctor Trey’s place and help him make the apple crumble. You’re always saying you need something new to bring to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving. Well, here’s your chance to do something other than a traditional pie.”

Trey turned his back, but he did a horrible job at stifling his laugh.

The day she’d left with Theo, her mother had told her she hoped her child had the same personality that Riesling had so maybe she’d understand what it was like to deal with someone bullheaded. Riesling already knew what that was like. All she had to do was look at her mother. But when it came in the size of a six-year-old with an attitude the size of the state of Texas and the resolve of something stronger than bleach, that was an entirely different story.

“I can name one reason we shouldn’t go to Trey’s.” Riesling lowered herself to her daughter’s level. “And that’s your attitude, young lady.”

Ashling pursed her lips. Her lower quivered as if she were about to cry. “I’m sorry, Mommy. Can we please go over to Doctor Trey’s and learn how to make apple crumble?”

“That’s a much better way to ask.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek. “Are you sure it’s okay with you, Trey?”

He turned. “Absolutely. I’d love to have you both.”

She stood, taking her daughter by the hand. “My friend Brad, one of the owners of the orchard, gifted us that bushel of apples, so we are free to leave.”

“That was nice of him,” Trey said. “Is he a special friend?”

Riesling burst out laughing. “God, no. He’s more like a dorky older brother and he comes with the same warning label.”

Trey gave her a sideways glance. “What does that mean?”

“He can be protective, like all my brothers, and a royal pain in my ass. But all in a good way. Brad’s a good man.”

“I feel a little guilty taking these apples.” Trey opened the door to his spiffy Audi SUV, helping Ashling into her booster seat. He was so good with her and it shouldn’t bother Riesling, but it did.

Any man that wasn’t Riesling’s father that had this kind of connection to her tended to get under Riesling’s skin. Not because she didn’t want Ashling to have positive male role models, but because the one man who should be the most important person in her life, wasn’t. Theo cared only about himself and Riesling should stop pretending it was different.

“Don’t. Brad doesn’t give me apples on a regular basis and we don’t give him wine either.” If she were being honest, Brad was doing it because of Ashling. He was a sucker for her smile.

Most people were.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

She slipped into the passenger seat and buckled herself in. She stared out the window as they pulled out of the orchard. She’d left this town more out of shame than because she wanted to chase after a life with Theo. After he’d taken a fair amount of money from a lot of her friends’ families and then lost it, she should have left him, but he swore he hadn’t known his partners were full of crap.

Deep down she knew Theo had been lying. That they were leaving Candlewood Falls not because the company wanted him to open an office in Ohio, but because Theo had stolen the money.

Shortly after Ashling had been born, her worst nightmare had come true.

“You seem quite contemplative,” Trey said as he navigated the backroads toward the old farmhouse he now called home.

She always loved that house. It had character that many of the places in town that had been redone no longer had. When she’d heard that Trey had decided to live there, a small part of her had been disappointed. She’d thought she might like residing in the farmhouse. But it wasn’t her decision to make and the small carriage house on the property serves her and her daughter well.

What would be nice would be to build an office building separate from the original house. It wasn’t like there wasn’t enough land. It could be done closer to the main road and that way if and when Trey ever had a family, he didn’t have to either kick Riesling out of the carriage house or have to force his family to live above his offices. However, that would take an enormous amount of cash flow and she doubted Trey had that.

The real question was, why was she even contemplating the topic? Trey didn’t have a family and he’d given her a two-year lease.

Her home life was secure for the moment.

Something she hadn’t had in a while.

“I was thinking about Malbec’s wedding. It’s right around the corner.” Total lie but now that she’d brought it up, her mind snapped to the happy occasion. Eliza Jane was the perfect partner in life for her brother. They complemented each other like apples and ice cream.

“I’m going to be the flower girl,” Ashling called from the back seat with enormous pride. “I even promised to wear a dress and everything.”

“I’m sure you’ll look beautiful,” Trey said.

“I don’t really want to be pretty.” Ashling’s voice had that edge it got whenever anyone brought attention to the way she looked.

Riesling understood that her daughter didn’t like it when people called attention to only her good looks, but what she didn’t understand was why had she developed this at such a young age. For Riesling it was because she always hated walking into a room and having men turn their heads and deciding her worth based on her looks. Hell, even women did that and it made her crazy. Theo used to tell her all the time to use the assets that God gave her to get ahead in life. Silly her thought he meant her brains.

Not her tits.

“Why not?” Trey asked. “What’s wrong with being pretty? Your mom is absolutely gorgeous.”

“So is Grandma, but no one would ever say that about her. They always say she’s smart and tough as nails and no one messes with The Weezer. I don’t want anyone to take advantage of me.”

Riesling sucked in a shallow breath. She glanced at Trey and then over her shoulder. “Do you think that if you’re a pretty little girl that people will assume you’re a pushover?”

Ashling nodded her head wildly up and down.

“Where on earth did you get that idea?”

“Watching and listening at the salon with Grandma,” Ashling said. “All the pretty ladies with nice clothes and painted toes and nails all talk about how their husbands or boyfriends don’t respect them and I look at Grandma and maybe some people don’t like her, but Grandpa thinks she’s the best thing ever. He says she’s the smartest person he’s ever met and even mean old Mrs. Chambers once said that my grandma has the kind of respect in this town she wished she had.”

Riesling blinked. Her daughter had started talking at an early age. Walked at nine months. Her kindergarten teacher didn’t know what to do with her half the time and now in the first grade, she was reading at a second-grade level and doing advanced math. She wasn’t a genius, but she was smart.

And way too articulate for her own age.

But Riesling hadn’t realized how intuitive she’d been as well.

“Grandma doesn’t downplay her looks because she thinks it will gain her respect or that people will see her for being smart,” Riesling said. Shit. How did she explain this to a small child without making it sound even more fucked up than it was? Because Riesling’s mother had her own set of issues growing up that had made her into the woman she was today. Riesling understood them because in part, she’d done the same thing, though for very different reasons. “She gets her hair done weekly. Her makeup is always perfect and her nails are always polished.”

“That’s not what people see,” Ashling practically shouted.

“I understand that, honey.” Riesling twisted in the front seat so she could hold her daughter’s gaze. “Growing up, Grandma wasn’t allowed to be herself. She had to be stronger and tougher than the next person. There was a lot of pressure on her and she felt like her parents only saw this pretty little girl that looked like she could be in beauty pageants. She was told that being pretty made her soft and it made her look weak. So, your grandma, she became this big old personality that no one, except maybe your grandpa, even tried to understand. It was as if she was daring the world to see past her good looks, only it backfired a little bit because Grandma came on a little too strong.”

“I like Grandma just the way she is,” Ashling said as she sat up taller in her booster seat. “I want to be like her when I grow up.”

Riesling’s first thought was oh no, you don’t. But she wouldn’t be like her mother. She wouldn’t stifle her daughter. Besides, Weezer wasn’t the worst person in the world and that was something Riesling had to come to terms with. Because Riesling’s life hadn’t turned out this way because of her mother.

It had become shit because of the decisions Riesling made.

Regardless of the ultimatum her parents had given her.

“That’s not a bad thing to aspire to,” Riesling said. “But I want you to grow up to be Ashling River. I want you to be your own person. No one else. If that means you go through life with dirt on your face, then so be it. Or if you decide to be a beauty queen, then I’m right there with you.”

Ashling scrunched up her face. “I don’t know why or how Grandma does it, but I do not want to sit in a salon once a week and have someone fiddle with my hair.”

Riesling smiled. “Then you won’t. You’ll find your own thing.”

“That’s right,” Trey piped in. “We all have a thing.”

“What’s your thing?” Ashling asked.

Trey turned into the driveway to the old farmhouse. “I love to cook and bake. A lot. So much so that I need to find people to do it for because I make too much for one person. Like this morning I made two huge breakfast casseroles, so I brought one into town and gave one to the Kyle family. I thought they could use a pick-me-up after the scare they had yesterday.”

“That was real sweet of you,” Riesling said.

“I have one for you and Ashling too.” He pushed the gear shift into park, turned off the vehicle, and jumped out of the SUV, racing around the hood as if the Audi were on fire. He opened the passenger side door. “I’ve got a pot roast in the crockpot and there’s enough to feed an army, so you might as well stay for dinner.”

“Mommy? Can we? Please?”

“Since all I have is peanut butter and jelly, the answer is an absolute yes.” She was going to get fat hanging around this man. She glanced at her watch while Trey ducked his head into the back of his vehicle and helped Ashling out of her booster seat. “But I insist on doing all the cleanup.”

“I’m not going to argue.” Trey took Ashling by the hand. “Let’s get started on peeling these apples.”

“I’m good at doing that.” Ashling glanced up at Trey and smiled. “Better wash our hands first.”

Riesling took the bushel of apples and followed Trey and her daughter up the porch and into the back staircase that led to the apartment above the doctor’s offices. Outside of her father and her brothers, Ashling hadn’t had many decent role models. It was nice to see her bond with Trey, though she would have to have a chat with him about keeping a safe distance. Not that she didn’t want them to have a relationship. She did. Trey was Riesling’s boss and one didn’t buy a small practice like this if they didn’t plan on sticking around. She wasn’t concerned about Trey running off.

But Riesling needed to make sure he understood his place. They weren’t dating.

They were co-workers.

And friends.

Hopefully good ones.