Love Letters From Ladybug Farm - Donna Ball [111]
Cici picked up the frozen peas and plastered them to her eye again. “You know, it really wasn’t such a disaster, when you think about it. For our first attempt.”
Bridget nodded her satisfaction. “We’ll get better, with practice.”
“And I was thinking,” Cici mused, “after all that work building the dance floor, it would be a shame to tear it all up after one use. If I put a roof over it, and maybe enclosed it with lattice, we’d virtually have an outdoor party room. And it would really set off the garden.”
“Sounds like a lot of work,” said Bridget.
“And a lot of money,” added Lindsay.
“Not so much. Noah can help. And Farley.”
“Dominic,” said Lindsay warmly, standing. Cici opened her good eye to see him coming up the steps, his jacket slung over one shoulder, his eyes squinted against the low rays of the sun. “How did everything look?”
“Can we get you a cup of coffee?” offered Bridget. “Or a glass of wine?”
“No thanks,” said Dominic. “I've got animals of my own to feed, and I need to get back home.”
As he reached them they could see that his expression, and his demeanor, were somber. Cici removed the pack of peas from her eye and sat up straighter. Bridget stopped rocking, and Lindsay looked at him curiously.
“I wanted to thank you for asking me to the wedding,” he said. “You ladies throw a heck of a party, and I really enjoyed myself. I can’t tell you how much I hate for it to end like this, or that I’m the one who has to tell you.”
Now alarm began to creep into each of their faces. “Tell us what?” Cici demanded, and Lindsay echoed, “What’s wrong?”
“Hail,” he said, simply. His voice was heavy. “It’s not good for any crop, but grapes, this time of year...” He shook his head slowly. “The older vines have been stripped bare, and the new ones ... well, there’s not much we can do but pull them up and start over.”
Both Bridget and Cici stood then, staring at him in disbelief. Bridget’s hand went to her heart. Cici asked, “Not all of them? Surely we didn’t lose everything!”
He said gravely, “I'm sorry. We can protect against an early frost or a late freeze, and we can treat most diseases and pests, but a hailstorm can wipe out a farmer faster than just about anything else. I wish there was something I could do.”
Lindsay forced a weak smile. “We know you do, Dominic.”
And Bridget added, “You worked harder on the vineyard than any of us.”
Cici gazed in the direction of the vineyard with a bleak, stunned expression on her face. “Unbelievable.”
Dominic dropped his hand lightly onto Lindsay’s arm. “I’m really sorry,” he repeated. “I’ll call you in the morning, okay? We’ll figure something out.”
Lindsay pushed back her shoulders, forced another smile, and squeezed his fingers. “Thanks, Dominic,” she said. “Really.”
No one spoke for a long time after they watched him drive away. Then Bridget said uneasily, “We should probably check the vegetable garden, and the berry bushes. And the fruit trees, to see if there’s anything left. We were so desperate to get the wedding back on track we didn’t even think about our crops.”
Cici said, “It’s too late to save anything. And I can wait until tomorrow to see the damage.”
“What are we going to do?” Bridget asked.
Cici just shook her head.
And suddenly Lindsay grinned. “Did you hear what he called us?”
Both of them looked at her as though she had lost her mind.
“Farmers!” She answered her own question proudly. “He called us farmers.”
“That’s right,” Bridget said, looking impressed. “He did.”
“And this from a man who knows a thing or two about farmers,” Cici had to admit, and even her own shoulders straightened a little as she said it.
“And I guess we know what farmers do when they hit a setback,” Lindsay said. “They start over.”
Bridget grinned. “Which is a subject we know a thing or two about.”
Cici reached into the pocket of her pantsuit, unfolded the check, and regarded it longingly for a moment. Then she smiled. “Easy come, easy go.”
Lindsay found half a bottle of wine, and three almost-clean glasses, and poured.
“To Ladybug Farm,” she proclaimed,