Eight Hundred Grapes

The story returns to the year 2009, when Dan is feeling neglected while Jen joins a band and a musical theater group. When Jen brings up the fact that Dan has lost the ability to do anything but work in the vineyard, he goes to an extreme and proposes to sell the vineyard. When he doesn’t seem to understand what’s making her worried and frustrated, Jen leaves him behind, moving further and further away from him and their relationship.

While everyone else goes to take care of the children and the vineyard, Georgia stays in the waiting room to wait for her mother to return. When she does, Jen tells Georgia that Dan is showing signs of his old self: more annoyed at not being able to work in the vineyard than anything else. Jen tells Georgia that the fire was started by the lasagna left on the stovetop and that Jacob left a care package for Dan. Jen announces that despite her love for Henry, her endgame remains Dan. When prompted, she tells Georgia that Dan had whispered to her the same words that he had when they first met—“So, where are you taking me?”—during his speech (247), and it had convinced her that he would once again become devoted to her.

When they return, Jen goes to bed, and Georgia finds Bobby sitting alone in the wreck of the winemaker’s cottage, drinking beer. He tells her that half the Block 14 grapes were saved and that he and Margaret have discussed their issues. He admits his faults in their relationship, saying that he is mad at both Margaret and Finn but that he is committed to making it up to her and forgiving her. Finn shows up with the contract that Georgia made them both sign in her second year of law school and reveals that Georgia never signed it herself. Finn and Bobby reiterate that they do not want the vineyard but intimate that she should fight for it. Finn then holds out his hand in apology, and Bobby takes it.

Georgia finds Ben sleeping in her bedroom. She tells him that he cannot stay with her any longer and that his life is in London while hers is in Sebastopol. She tells him that she knows he wants to work things out with Michelle, despite choosing Georgia; in the end, Maddie is his “have-to-have,” and he cannot compromise on being Maddie’s father. They share a last moment together in bed, neither of them angry with the other, and Georgia envisions a time when they might see one another and be happy for each other.

Georgia checks in with her father at the hospital, who is trying to get discharged as quickly as possible. She tells him about breaking up with Ben, and he agrees with her decision. She then announces that she’s moving back to Sebastopol and that even if she doesn’t inherit their vineyard and the sale goes through, this is where she wants to be. She’ll buy her own land if need be. Her father believes in her and gives her his blessing to start making wine.

Her parents use the preparations for Georgia’s now-cancelled wedding as an opportunity to renew their vows. Jacob finds Georgia with Suzannah, and they go to talk privately. He tells her that Lee has left for Seattle and is happier there without him. When Georgia tells him that she plans to stay and make her own winery, he gives her the original deed for the first 10 acres of The Last Straw. He intimates that there will be a certain contract between them, but essentially, she retains the creative direction of those 10 acres. Then he kisses her.

Six months later, Georgia sits in her new winemaker’s cottage and observes her vineyard. After carefully planning over the winter, she feels ready to take on the challenge. Georgia has transformed all parts of the vineyard and its appendages to her own liking: She had renovated the burnt winemaker’s cottage and painted it a (regretted) dollhouse blue and turned her family home “into something that feels like hers, slowly and surely” (269). Jacob, now her boyfriend, is about to come over for dinner, but in that moment, she takes a breath to anticipate this new chapter in her life.