Ray put the wine bottle back on the low table and gave a wry smile.
"I wouldn't dare compare Winslow's wine to them. That's like comparing the town's high school football team to the San Francisco 49ers."
Satsuki held her sparkling water and laughed, waving her hands repeatedly.
"Mr. Mendoza, I'm not using Bordeaux to outshine Mr. Winslow's wine."
"European wines emphasize vintage and the name of the estate; drinking them always feels like attending a lecture. California wine is different—it gets plenty of sun and rich fruit flavor, making it much more enjoyable to drink."
"To be honest, compared to Bordeaux, I'm actually more used to the taste of American wine."
As she spoke, her gaze drifted back to the glass in Bud's hand.
"Besides, aren't the players of the 49ers also from high school teams?"
Bud straightened his back immediately, holding his cup and shaking it toward Ray.
"Did you hear that, Ray? Later, I'll pass those exact words on to that old man Winslow."
Ray smiled and shook his head, not arguing with him.
Satsuki continued to ask.
"Is that Mr. Winslow's winery far from here?"
"It's a forty-minute drive inland."
"You're harvesting grapes this season, right?"
"Yes, these few days are the busiest time."
Just as Ray finished speaking, Glenn picked up the previous conversation.
"Speaking of Winslow's birthday," he glanced at Bud, "Miss Saionji, you might not know this, but after drinking that day, Bud even dragged Winslow along to sing an entire country song."
"Glenn." Bud's expression was a bit strained.
"Halfway through the song, the dogs in the vineyard started howling along."
Eden also added with a smile: "I can vouch for that. I was right in the next yard that day and heard it crystal clear."
Bud covered his face.
Doris retold the events of that day from the beginning, from how Bud picked out the most expensive bottle in the wine cellar to Winslow's expression when he found the empty bottle in the yard the next morning.
Glenn occasionally chimed in with a word or two, and Eden smiled and nodded beside them. Bud tried to defend himself a few times, but in the end, he could only join in with a wry smile.
Listening along, Ray also began to laugh. After laughing for quite a while, he remembered to pick up his own glass and take a sip.
Then his movements froze.
The bottle of wine on the low table was no longer in the spot where he had just placed it.
It had been moved to the other end of the table, only an arm's length away from Satsuki's rattan chair.
There was still more than half a glass of sparkling water left in front of Satsuki. But beside the sparkling water, there was an extra wineglass from goodness knows where, with a layer of dark red liquid left at the bottom.
She was holding that glass, sipping it little by little.
Ray opened his mouth.
Satsuki raised her eyes to look at him, smiling somewhat guiltily yet with a sense of self-righteousness.
"Just a sip."
She shook the glass slightly.
"To taste Mr. Winslow's grapes."
Ray instinctively looked at Chizuru sitting beside her.
Chizuru was also looking at him. On that expressionless face for the entire evening, there was a rare hint of helplessness at the moment, as if saying: I've already tried to stop her.
Ray thought for a moment, turned his rattan chair halfway toward the sea, and raised his glass.
"Miss Saionji, I've been looking at the sea this whole time and didn't see a thing."
Bud was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter and turned his chair around as well.
"What a coincidence, I was looking at the sea too."
Satsuki laughed so hard she almost spilled the wine in her glass, and then her lips pressed against the glass again.
Even though she had solemnly sworn at first that she would only drink a sip.
It's just that that sip later turned into half a glass, and at some point, that half a glass was topped off a little more.
The bottle was placed right beside her hand, and no one mentioned it again.
Doris continued telling the story of the night of Winslow's birthday, with Glenn occasionally adding a couple of lines, while the sea breeze blew up from below the steps in gusts.
Ray soon discovered that Miss Saionji's alcohol tolerance was probably completely disproportionate to her reputation on Wall Street.
By the time a little less than half of the wine in the bottle was gone, a flush had already risen on Satsuki's cheeks, and her words had noticeably increased.
She first asked Bud which song he had sung that day. Bud waved his hands repeatedly and refused to talk no matter what. She then turned her head to ask Glenn.
Glenn cleared his throat and had just hummed two low lines when Bud gave a soft cough beside him, looking at him with a pleading expression.
Glenn had no choice but to stop and spread his hands toward Satsuki.
Satsuki laughed so hard she leaned against the armrest of the rattan chair.
After a good while, she slowly recovered, but she didn't sit straight again.
Just leaning crookedly on the armrest like that, she kicked off her sandals, pulled her legs up onto the rattan chair, hugged her knees, rested her chin on her knees, and turned toward Doris's direction.
"Doris."
She called her by name, without adding anything before it.
Doris was stunned for a moment and instinctively sat up straighter.
"Yes, Miss Saionji?"
"How much does a house here cost?"
Satsuki stretched out her hand and gestured in mid-air, as if drawing the roof of a house, but halfway through she felt it didn't look right and simply gave up.
"You know... the kind with a yard."
"That depends on where it is."
Doris's professional habit kicked in all at once; she leaned forward slightly, her fingers tapping on her knees.
"In town, away from the sea, three bedrooms with a small yard cost about 160,000 to 170,000. If you can see the sea from the yard, you have to add another 50,000 to 60,000 to that."
"If it faces the bay directly, with the beach right at the doorstep, that's a different price altogether—at the very least it would be—"
She stopped abruptly right there.
Satsuki blinked and waited for a moment, but didn't hear the rest.
"At the very least how much?"
Doris opened her mouth, then closed it again, lowering her head to look at her own glass.
"Why did you stop talking?"
Satsuki raised her chin from her knees and leaned a bit more toward her, leaning so much that the rattan chair made a soft creaking sound.
Chizuru calmly reached out and steadied the back of the chair.
Doris hesitated for a long time before speaking in a low voice.
"...Because if you really want to buy, I'm afraid I'd quote too low."
Satsuki was stunned for two seconds.
Then she buried her face in her knees, curling up into a ball, laughing so hard that even the rattan chair trembled along with her.
After laughing for quite a while, she raised her head, her eyes slightly watery from laughter.
"Doris, you really are a good agent."
"That is the best compliment I've ever heard, Miss Saionji."
Doris solemnly raised her glass, prompting Glenn beside them to laugh out loud as well.
Having laughed enough, Satsuki hugged her knees again and turned her head to look for Ray.
Her gaze first fell on Bud, pausing for a moment as if she had just realized she mistook the person, and then slowly shifted over to Ray.
"Mr. Mendoza."
"I'm right here."
"Mr. Winslow's vineyard..."
She thought for a moment, seemed to have forgotten what she wanted to say, glanced down at the glass in her hand, and then remembered again.
"Can I go take a look after I finish checking the land tomorrow?"
"Of course you can. I'll just make a phone call."
"Call now?"
Satsuki's eyes suddenly lit up, and she was already looking around left and right, as if searching for where the phone was.
Ray glanced at his watch and couldn't help laughing.
"If we call now, that old man will most likely think the county government is on fire. I'll call first thing tomorrow morning and guarantee he saves the best part of the vineyard for you to see."
Satsuki thought about it very seriously for a moment before nodding, as if this were a major matter requiring careful consideration.
"Then I want to buy a case."
She stretched out a finger and held it up in front of Ray.
Holding it up for a moment, she furrowed her brow again and extended her second finger as well.
"Two cases, to take back for my father."
Ray chuckled softly.
"I think he'll be very happy."
"Mr. Winslow will be very happy?"
Satsuki tilted her head to look at him, as if carefully discerning whom he was talking about.
"Both of them will."
Only then did she nod with satisfaction, resting her chin back on her knees, looking out at the darkened beach below the steps, and chuckling to herself, not knowing what she was laughing at.
Chizuru spoke softly beside her:
"Eldest Miss, there's still a schedule tomorrow."
"I know."
"You've already said that three times."
"Then this time makes four."
Chizuru didn't speak again, simply draping a thin blanket gently over her legs.
The night sea breeze was much cooler than it had been at dusk.
Satsuki pulled the blanket up, all the way to under her chin, sinking a few inches deeper into the rattan chair.
Glenn was telling her about his first campaign for county supervisor.
"Later I calculated it once; that summer, just by myself, I cut nearly two thousand pounds of beef."
"Two thousand..."
Satsuki echoed it once, and after quite a while, slowly added the second half of the sentence.
"...That's a lot."
Her eyes blinked slower and slower. Each time she closed them, it took a second or two for her to open them again, and when they opened, they were only half open.
"On voting day, several old ladies specifically ran over to tell me that just for the sake of that plate of steak, they had to vote for me."
"Mm..."
Her head tilted sideways little by little, and just as it was about to touch the back of the chair, she suddenly lifted it up as if startled, blinked twice, and forced herself to look like she was listening intently.
"And then?"
Glenn smiled and lowered his voice a bit.
"Then I won, by over four hundred votes."
This time, Satsuki's lips moved as if saying something, but it was so soft that no one could hear it clearly, and it didn't sound much like English either.
The hand resting outside the blanket slowly relaxed, and the edge of the blanket she had been clutching slid down by a corner.
Her head finally rested against the back of the chair and didn't lift up again, her breathing gradually becoming light and steady.
Glenn said another sentence, waited for a good while, but didn't wait for a reply.
He turned his head and spread his hands toward the others, a wry, helpless expression on his face.
Ray glanced at his watch.
It was almost ten o'clock.
He stood up, and the others stood up along with him.
"Miss Saionji, it's getting late, we won't disturb your rest any longer."
Satsuki opened her eyes dazedly.
"Mm..."
She propped herself up on the armrests, wanting to stand up to see them off.
As a result, the moment she stood up, her body swayed, and before she had taken two steps, she was steadily supported from the side by Chizuru.
"I'm fine..."
She said in a low voice and still wanted to walk forward.
Chizuru lowered her head and whispered a sentence in Japanese in her ear, which Ray didn't understand.
Satsuki muttered something back, also in Japanese.
Then, Chizuru bent down, supporting her back with one hand and the crook of her knees with the other, and scooped her up horizontally in her arms.
When rising, Chizuru first waited for Satsuki's head to rest steadily on her shoulder before straightening her back.
That thin blanket was still draped over Satsuki, and not even a single corner had slipped down.
Satsuki didn't struggle either.
Leaning on Chizuru's shoulder, her eyes were already closed, her cheeks were rosy, her hair was somewhat tousled by the night breeze, and the thin blanket was still draped loosely over her.
Ray and the others stood on the platform, and no one spoke.
Two mornings ago, right there on the television in that county government conference room, this girl had stood on the podium at the Salomon Brothers shareholders' meeting, with Buffett sitting beside her, while hundreds of big figures from Wall Street stood up to applaud her.
For the entirety of yesterday, they had turned the county government upside down for this person.
Now, she was being held like this in someone's arms, fast asleep.
Holding her, Chizuru bowed slightly toward them.
"Thank you all for tonight's hospitality."
Her English was very standard, with a slight accent.
"Eldest Miss had a lot of fun today."
"...You're welcome," Ray quickly said, "it's only right."
Chizuru nodded and turned to enter the small building.
The person guarding the path had walked to the edge of the platform at some point, pulled the door open for her, and gently closed it after she went inside.
...
The path back to the parking lot was very dark, with only a few low lamps along the roadside.
The few of them walked very slowly.
Until they reached a place where the resort's gates could be seen, Bud was the first to speak.
"...Is she really Saionji Satsuki?"
Doris turned her head and glanced at him.
"How many times have you already asked that today?"
"I know."
Bud shifted the suit jacket draped over his arm to his other hand.
"But you saw it too just now."
Doris didn't refute him either.
She looked back in the direction of the small building. The lights on the platform were turned off, leaving only the one at the doorway lit, and the person guarding the path was still standing in place.
"Seriously, Bud, if it weren't for the fact that we were the only table in the entire restaurant tonight, and you could see her people everywhere..."
"When she was curled up with her arms around her legs in the chair earlier, chasing after me to ask how much houses cost, I really thought she was some little Japanese girl on a seaside vacation with her parents."
She thought for a moment and added another sentence.
"The kind that stays in that row of cabins on the beach every summer and asks which ice cream tastes best the moment they step into my office."
Bud grunted, as if he had been waiting for this line for a long time.
"Look, what did I tell you."
Glenn walked at the very back, with both hands shoved into his pants pockets.
"To be honest," he said, "I thought tonight was going to be a very serious reception."
"I barely slept last night, constantly thinking about how I should answer if she asked about the base transfer or how much money the county could actually put up."
He paused.
"Turns out this was the most enjoyable meal I've had in months."
No one answered, but no one objected either.
Ray walked at the very front, and his mood was surprisingly good.
"I didn't expect it either," he admitted, "it's completely different from what I imagined."
Eden walked beside him without speaking the whole time.
Reaching the car, he put his briefcase in the back seat, closed the door, then turned around and leaned against the car door.
"If you guys think tomorrow will be like tonight, you've got it wrong."
The few of them all stopped in their tracks.
"That remark about the port during dinner, do you really think she just said it casually?"
No one answered.
"It was the same in New York. I talked to her for over an hour, and she barely interrupted, only asking one question at the very end."
Eden lowered his head and smiled, as if remembering something a bit embarrassing.
"Just that one sentence. When I got back to the hotel, I went over that blueprint from start to finish again, revising it until dawn."
He shoved his hands into his pants pockets and looked at each of them in turn.
"So, ladies and gentlemen, what you saw tonight was Saionji Satsuki, the one who came to the seaside to play."
"The one sitting across the table tomorrow will be Saionji Satsuki, the one who made hundreds of people on Wall Street stand up and applaud in New York."
"Whoever tries to handle her tomorrow using tricks meant to coax a young girl will be doing a disservice to the town."
The parking lot was quiet for a moment.
Bud lowered his head to look at the suit jacket draped over his arm, sighed, shook it open, and draped it back over his shoulder.
"Looks like I'll have to wear this tomorrow after all."
Eden opened the car door and smiled at him.
"Wear it, nobody's going to advise you to take it off tomorrow."