The same couldn’t quite be said for Noah. Derek’s mountain of a brother was the one glaring exception to my enjoyment of my time in the vineyard. No matter how much fun he was to look at, as soon as he opened his mouth, it was all ruined.
This man wholly disapproved of me. I didn’t know why or what he could possibly know about me that would make him determined I couldn’t make any sort of decisions, but that was exactly the way he acted. He went so far as to completely ignore me, but then turn around and acquiesce to Derek about the same exact thing. The two men would clash and argue about the tiniest thing, but if it was about something I said, he would immediately take Derek’s word.
The whole thing made my blood boil. I was doing my best to just ignore him, but it wasn’t always an option. Sometimes Derek wasn’t there to answer a question or make a decision, or Noah asked me directly about something. Almost as if he wanted to create an opportunity to go behind my back and ask Derek about it.
To give him credit, Derek really was trying to run interference between us. Several times already he had done everything he could to excuse Noah’s gruffness. He even bit his own tongue and held back his anger when his brother copped an attitude with him. It was as if he thought he could be a good example for me.
But I waved that off, not really caring about his excuses or him trying to explain away Noah’s behavior. The reality was, I had been dealing with men like that my whole life. As soon as I decided to step foot in a kitchen, I opened myself up to all kinds of derogatory treatment and bad attitudes. Some of them stemmed purely from personality flaws, but other people just had an issue with women in general.
In that way, Noah wasn’t as bad as some of the men I’d encountered. He didn’t seem to be misogynistic. I’d seen him be just as dickish to men. He was just rude.
Later that morning as I was heading out, I found a man standing outside with a dog chewing on a tennis ball at his feet. He grinned at me as I walked up.
“Hey,” he said. “You must be Ally.”
“I am,” I said.
He nodded his head and stuck out his hand. “I’m Duncan.”
I shook his outstretched hand and nodded.
“Noah’s friend,” I said.
I’d heard the name during some of Noah’s particularly loud conversations with Derek. I hadn’t caught on to exactly who he was, but I got the impression he would be around the vineyard quite a bit as we were working toward opening.
Duncan nodded but also gave a hint of a dismissive shrug. “I guess you could say that.” He laughed boisterously, making me feel like I’d missed some joke. “No. I’m just kidding. Yeah, we’re friends. I’m here to help with the construction around this place. There’s a lot to be done.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that’s an understatement. But I’m sure it’s going to be great when it’s all finished.”
“It will,” Duncan said with total confidence.
I crouched down to play with the dog while Duncan and I talked. He was a personable guy I could actually enjoy being around. Which made me wonder how on earth he and Noah had gotten to be good friends. He seemed far too pleasant and easygoing to make any kind of connection with the gruff, moody King brother.
We’d been chatting for a little while when Mr. Grumps himself came walking up.
“Hey, Duncan,” he said. He looked at me. “Hey.”
I nodded at him, not intending to engage with him at all. Instead, I ruffled the mutt’s ears a few times and was rewarded with a lick on the end of my nose. Smiling at him, I stood and waved at Duncan.
“Good talking with you,” I said. “I’ll see you around.”
“Nice to meet you Ally,” Duncan said.
Noah didn’t bother to say any kind of goodbye, so I didn’t either. I’d had my fill of him for the day.
5
Noah
This was my element. A tool belt around my hips, hung low with the weight of various instruments, sawdust on my jeans. This was what I was meant for. Duncan held a long board in place beside me as I measured and cut through it with the saw. With the way things had been going, it was looking like we may be done with the kitchen early.
We had stayed through the weekend, pushing to get everything done. It wasn’t easy, but with Duncan there, it wasn’t so bad. Physical work never bothered me but working with boring or unpleasant people did. Duncan was neither of those things, and though he was a little older than me, we had very similar tastes in music and entertainment. We could talk for hours about any damn thing and had done so all weekend.