Sinner and Saint

Chapter Seventeen

Vivienne's smiled at that, and it was warm and kind. She reminded me of Stellan so much in that moment. "And screw up is the first thing you'll do if you can't give yourself any grace to make mistakes."

I rolled my eyes. "Girl, you're telling that to someone who gave herself way too much grace. How do you think I ended up where I did?"

She surprised me with a not so lady-like jab of her elbow to my side. "I think your dodging of the hard truth is the bigger issue, you brat."

"Who are you calling brat, you spoiled princess?" I shot back.

Vivienne turned her nose up at me. "You might need an eye exam. I only see queens here."

I laughed and shook my head, all the fight in me gone.

"Thanks for the advice, Vivienne," I said. "I do appreciate it."

"You're welcome." She glanced at me sideways, looking a little pleased with herself. "And by the way, I told every single one of those men that you're handy with tools and their balls won't be the only thing black and blue if they don't keep their unwelcome attention to themselves."

I winced, but happily, if you could picture that out. "Damn, you're scary but fucking awesome."

We laughed at that just as we arrived the tent.

Stellan looked up from behind the industrial grill where he was flipping steaks with Charlie Vice who was Sebastian's half-brother, Max, and the Marlington's eldest son, Connor.

He caught my gaze instantly even through the screen of smoke, and grinned at me.

Fuck. These Cartwright siblings are too hard to dislike.

"You two look like you're plotting world domination," Stellan said as Vivienne and I set down the salad containers in one of the coolers behind him where some of the food would be kept at the ready for refills.

"That's only on weekdays," I said with a smile. "How's everything going? Will we be eating soon?"

"Yes, Stellan," Vivienne chimed in, looking over what was grilling. "You've already made all your guests do some sort of free labor. Feed us, will you?"

"Ladies, please," Max chimed in. "This is culinary art we're doing. You can't rush genius."

"That leaves us with you to rush then since Charlie is an actual culinary arts expert and Stellan is a Mensa-certified genius," Vivienne retorted smoothly. "You're neither."

Max scowled. "Hey! I'm good at other stuff."

Stellan laughed and shook his head. "I think we'll all be sitting down in ten minutes or so. Everyone's here according to Lily."

Lily had been manning the guest list of about forty people, not counting the Marlington family and some of the farm staff who were overseeing the whole event.

Stellan's family and closest friends were all here. Sidney, Jamie and three of our crew came with me along with two women from Passage. Those we asked felt a little awkward dining with 'rich folks' and also didn't want to be in a situation with alcohol considering their ongoing issues with it. But there were two women, Delia and Terri, who wanted to go since they had both come from a small-town farm themselves and wanted to experience it again. Dave and Sonia, the husband and wife duo heading the Marlington clan, already told me they're interested in hiring them as extra hands for the fall harvest. It was a great opportunity for the women to build on since the farm was going to continue being busy post-harvest, putting out their own apple cider and different canned fruit products onto the local market as the holidays approached.