Read Online Too Close to the Sun by Diana Dempsey - Free Book Online

voice was low and cold and unlike anything Max had ever
heard out of her before. "You will run Suncrest when I say
you will run Suncrest. Your behavior tonight has been beyond
abominable. I have half a mind to go right back upstairs and tell
Will Henley I've decided to sell."
    She stopped then, and Max had to say he was
glad she did, because he couldn't believe what he had just heard.
'' Sell ? Who the hell is this Will Henley, anyway?"
    "He's an investor from San Francisco. With a
firm called GPG. And I have to tell you that I am a lot higher on
him right now than I am on you."
    Then she turned her back on him and walked
out. Max watched the big sliding doors part and her sweep through,
a group of orderlies splitting in two to get out of her way. It was
like watching Moses part the Red Sea.
    What did she mean, sell? Didn't she
understand that it was his right to run Suncrest? To inherit
it and to run it? He was the only heir, for Christ's sake!
    Max imagined a world in which his mother sold
Suncrest. It made him feel as marooned as if the 747 that had flown
him home from Paris had crash-landed on a desert island and left
him as the only survivor. His heart began to pound and for a moment
he felt like he was the one suffering cardiac arrest. He was hot,
and scared, and wanted only to sit down and catch his breath.
    But that was the last thing he could do.
Because if he wanted any chance of bringing his mother back around,
he'd better not leave her standing outside in the cold.
     
     

Chapter 4
     
     
    Saturday, midmorning. Gabby stood in
Suncrest's Rosemede vineyard, holding a walkie-talkie in one hand
and a cell phone in the other, its caller on hold. Fog lingered
here on the valley floor, enveloping her in a chill gauzy mist. She
lifted the walkie-talkie to her mouth and pressed TALK.
    "Felix, I'm halfway down row sixteen in
Rosemede and I don't see anything." No mildew on the vines, no rot,
no parasites. One of the field workers thought he'd seen evidence
of a pest, but apparently he hadn't. "Anything in Calhoun?"
    A beat later Felix's voice blared back, rough
with static. "I think we're gonna have to spray here. We got some
sort of mite. Not too bad, though."
    She shook her head. The vines were so at the
mercy of Mother Nature, which meant Gabby was, as well. A winemaker
lived and died by the quality of her fruit. But the threats were
many and varied. If it wasn't insects or cutworms, it was gophers
or rabbits or deer. A virus or a fungal disease. A killing frost in
spring, or a heat spike in summer, or a too heavy rain. Or, God
forbid, flooding.
    This time of year, the grapes were the size
of peppercorns and as hard as bullets. Soon they would begin to
swell and soften and color. Their sugar level would rise, and birds
would become the next threat.
    Gabby's scientist's soul loved the year
in-year out tending of the grapevines. The routine, the order, the
predictability. Yet every year was slightly different from the year
before: no two were exactly alike. They were the same enough that
she knew what she was getting, different enough that it stayed
interesting.
    "You want me to come help?" she asked
Felix.
    "I got Pepe with me. You go have your talk
with Mrs. Winsted."
    I'd rather spray the fields . But
"10-4," she said, then switched the walkie-talkie for the cell and
pushed HOLD. "You still there, Cam?"
    She waited. Nothing. Her sister had hung up.
And there was no way to reach her, as she'd been forced to use a
pay phone at the hospital. Gabby stowed her cell and headed for the
Jeep she'd abandoned at the vineyard's edge.
    What a difference 36 hours made. How light
her heart now felt. After those first horrible hours, the news
about her father had all been good. He's responding to
commands , Dr. Hearst said. He's breathing fine so we can
take out the tube . Most likely her father would be moved out of
ICU that very night, to something called the telemetry unit. She
wasn't sure what that was, but she knew the