The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away novel · Chapter 32 of 32
Chapter 32: Harvest
The release party was on a Saturday in September, a year and a few weeks after the beach photo.
At seven o'clock the stone tasting room glowed on the hill.
No valet boys. No jazz trio.
String lights in the olive trees, because Goldie insisted, and a folding table by the door with a cash box and a sign in Winona's ruler capitals.
PICKERS DRINK FREE. EVERYBODY ELSE, BEHAVE.
They came up the stone path in their good jackets and their work boots.
The barn family. The old man whose well Grandpa drilled.
The widow from up the road, with her grandsons, who still bragged about picking rows eleven through twenty by headlamp.
The old grower with the crew cut came on his cane and stopped in the doorway to look at the brass letters on the wall outside.
"About time," he said, and came in.
The Texas couple flew out for it, and the bridesmaid who'd filmed my phone.
A man in a ball cap came up to me at the bar and shook my hand for a long time.
"Ohio," he said. "I watched the truck video six times. Then I watched the auction one about forty."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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