Foraged Love in a Berry Grove - Love Tales from Santa Margarita Island Book 1

Chapter 1 - To Bite or Not to Bite

Gage contemplated the local variety of raspberry he had just plucked from the bush in front of him. He really wanted to taste it as he had no idea if he should put any in his carton, but when he had popped a mulberry into his mouth earlier, Nikki and Wandy had squealed at him and proceeded to carry on about it being dirty and needing to be washed first. A staff gardener walking past paused and assured them that it was safe to eat as they picked, but the girls waited for him to walk away before whispering snidely about dust and bugs on the fruit.

He glanced around to see where the others had gotten to and saw Patrick talking on his phone and the two ladies taking selfies with theirs. He was the only one who was doing any picking, and he hadn't even wanted to come here. There was a vintage car show at the Yacht Club he had wanted to check out, but on Thursday, Wandy had opened the connecting door to their classrooms and told him to be bright and early Saturday morning as they were going berrying!

"Sounds fruity," he had quipped, vowing to lock the dang door from his side from then on.

"Stop it!" Wandy had laughed. "Nikki's excited to see you again, and bloggers have been raving about the place." That would have normally been enough to ensure that he never stepped foot in the place, but he had somehow, totally unwittingly, allowed Wandy to latch her well-manicured claws onto him, and she was proving impossible to shake off.

When he had first got to the island three months ago, Wandy, whose fifth grade classroom was next to his fourth grade one, had decided to take him under her wing. Friendless and clueless at that time, he had welcomed the invitations to dinners with her and her boyfriend, the offers to drive him to the supermarket and whatnot while he shopped around for his own car, the introductions to her many friends, et cetera, until it had all graduated to her persistent pimping of her best gal pal, Nikki.

He should have drawn the line at the first double date, but he had been blindsided. Nikki had just come home from an extended shopping trip in Hong Kong, and there was a dinner celebrating her homecoming. Wanda, with her expert scheming, had been able to manipulate him into three more "dates" with Nikki (a party, a foodie tour, and a concert), and now, they were berrying and practically engaged.

He had to stop being a wuss and put his foot down. Nikki was a nice enough girl, pretty and personable, but she wasn't his type – not that he had already figured out what that was, given his past – and they just didn't have much in common.

Try telling Wandy that (what the heck kind of name is Wandy anyway?). The girl was thicker than a plank, and delusionally optimistic. For instance, when he had got in Patrick's car to go to the concert, she had squee-ed, "Oooh, you and Nikki are both wearing black! Matchy-matchy!" Nikki had hissed at her in embarrassment, but Wandy had just laughed it off. Of course, nobody had bothered to point out that Patrick had also been wearing black, so it had really been more of "Who's the odd person out in her peach top?"

Or what about that first dinner? "Hey, Nik! Gage here is a Volkswagen nut." She had made that admittedly correct conclusion because Gage, refusing to go to car showrooms, had insisted on buying a vintage VW Kombi. Anyway, she had then segued that statement with, "Gage, did you know Nikki is half-German? Her dad was born in Wolfsburg." You have to applaud the work she'd done to support her matchmaking. Researching his interests and finding a "link" to Nikki's dad's birthplace? Quite a reach, so Gage hadn't dared say anything about being part-German himself.

He had just smiled at Nikki and asked if she owned a VW?

Seemingly uncomfortable, Nikki had shot a guilty look at Wandy before shaking her head and saying that she drove a Mazda.

Even with the obvious lack of common interests between her subjects, Wandy had prevailed in getting them together time and again, so now, Gage was standing in the middle of a berry farm, worrying about them screeching at him if he put a freshly picked, and, thus, unwashed raspberry in his mouth. He furtively glanced at the girls again. Now, they're dangling equally unwashed strawberries over their open mouths, posing for another twofie. What the heck? He quickly tossed the raspberry in his mouth and shuddered at the pleasant blend of tartness and sweetness that exploded in his mouth.

"You finally did it!" A voice spoke behind him.