Since Tess was sitting beside me on the bus, it was easy to elbow her.

"Ouch," she said.

"It's all over the news," I said.

"Relax," Tess said. "They'll never find you here."

"Us," I said. "They'll never find us us here." here."

"Wow," Rosie said as soon as we stepped off the bus. "Lavender fields forever."

There were rows and rows of undulating lavender, in gorgeous shades of purple, blue, white, and pink, stretching out as far as the eye could see. Most were in full bloom, but some of the bushes had been sheared to a mushroom shape, with bunches of lavender tied into bouquets and resting crisscrossed over the top.

"That's to show a harvest in progress," Rosie said. "Over there is where you pick your own." Sure enough, there was a sign that said U PICK U PICK-$5/TWIST TIE.

"I don't get it," Tess said.

"You get as big a bouquet as you can get the twist tie around," Rosie said.

"Ooh, I love a challenge," Tess said.

My cell phone rang again. I fished in my purse and pulled it out. UNAVAILABLE UNAVAILABLE, my caller ID said.

"Hello," I said.

"You hung up before I had a chance to say what I needed to say," Michael said.

"Fine," I said. "Shoot."

"Okay, well, it's just that I've been wondering if we should give it another try. I've missed you. And, man, I just don't know what to do with myself since I stopped working. I get up, I make coffee, I read the paper-"

"No thanks," I said. "But maybe you should give Sherry a call."

There was dead silence on the other end.

"Sorry," I said. "That was beneath me. Okay, here's the thing. You had your chance, and you totally, irrevocably blew it. I've moved on. And now I'm in the middle of an amazing vacation with some fabulous new friends. So if you'll excuse me..."

As soon as I hung up, Tess put an arm over my shoulder. "We are fabulous, aren't we? And you have a much more interesting social life than I gave you credit for."

"Come on," Rosie said. "Let's go get a snack. We've got twenty minutes before the essential oil distillation demonstration starts."

Tess rolled her eyes. "Yeah, don't make us late for that," she said.

TESS SMILED AT two men who were wearing sandals and white socks pulled up to their shins and talking in some unidentifiable language. "Cute guys around here, especially if you like bald heads and ponytails. Maybe you should ask somebody for a date, Noreen." two men who were wearing sandals and white socks pulled up to their shins and talking in some unidentifiable language. "Cute guys around here, especially if you like bald heads and ponytails. Maybe you should ask somebody for a date, Noreen."

"Or you could," I said. "Though, who knows, if I wandered around by myself, I might meet my soul mate coming out of the Porta Potti."

Tess leaned back on her elbows. "Go ahead," she said. "We'll wait here. Don't worry, what happens in Squid stays in Squid."

We were stretched out at the edge of a huge field of lavender. "It's almost like Dorothy in her field of poppies," I said. "Pretty soon we're all going to start getting sleepy and have to curl up and take a nap."

"And probably get trampled to death," Tess said as a woman tripped over her foot and excused herself. "Dorothy had a lot more personal space in that poppy field."

"They're all great, but I think this is my favorite farm so far," Rosie said. She sat up and looked around. "Look, it's like a series of Monet paintings-everywhere you look, there's a new composition. I mean, whoever owns this farm has vision."

"And let's not forget the business angle," I said. "They sell everything but lavender kitchen sinks in that gift shop."

"And I totally love that picture of Jimi Hendrix over the cash register," Tess said. "Who says brain cells lost in the '60s don't regenerate."

My phone rang. I flipped it open. UNAVAILABLE UNAVAILABLE, it said.

I shook my head. "What," I said.

"Noreen? Hi, it's Rick."

"Rick," I said.

"Listen, I know I'm past the expiration date, but when I didn't see you at group today, it just hit me that I might never see you again. I mean, you sure sounded ready to graduate last time. So, anyway, I was hoping you'd like to go out tonight."

"And do what?" I asked, because I was curious.

"Wii tennis at the senior center?" he said.

I didn't say anything.

"Kidding," he said. "I was kidding. Dinner. A movie. Dinner and a movie. None of the above. Whatever you want to do."

"I can't," I said. "I'm in Sequim."

"What's a squim?"

"It's a town in Washington State. I'm here with some friends at a lavender festival."

"How about next week?"

"Let's talk about it next week," I said.

"So will I see you in group on Monday?" he said.

"Maybe," I said. "Depends on how tired I am. Maybe Monday or maybe Friday."

"Okay, well, have a good time. See you next week, Noreen."

"Different guy?" Rosie said after I'd closed my phone again.

"Mmm," I said.

"You know," Tess said. "I used to feel a little bit sorry for you, but now I'm not so sure."

"Come on," Rosie said. "Even I've had enough lavender for the day. Let's go find a winery."

This time I drove, while Tess and Rosie opened up winery tour maps.

"Okay," Tess said. "We've got our choice of seven award-winning artisan wineries."

"Just pick the closest one," I said. "It's not like we know anything about wine anyway."

"Speak for yourself," Tess said. "Sideways is one of my favorite movies." is one of my favorite movies."

"Okay," Rosie said. "Let's try the 'small family-owned winery on a wooded shoulder of Lost Mountain, in the Olympic foothills.' It's right in Sequim. Okay, head west on 101."

"What a great spot," I said when we pulled into the parking lot. What I was really thinking was what a romantic place to bring a date. The weathered wood building had a secluded, tree-canopied patio tucked in next to it. If I ever came back again, I wondered who'd be with me.

The tasting room was dark, almost like the inside of an oak barrel.

"Have you ever done this before?" I whispered. I wasn't sure whether to pretend to be just looking or to make my way boldly up to the wine bar.

The woman standing behind the bar must have known we were rookies. "Step right up," she said with a big smile. We each paid a small tasting fee and she handed us a menu. "You can choose any five wines to sample. We've got them listed in the best order for tasting, starting with the lightest, pinot grigio, and moving toward our boldest cabernet sauvignon. We specialize in robust reds made without sulfites."

She turned to pour for three women standing next to us at the bar.

"This is so cool," Rosie whispered. "I'm dying to spit in that big brass spittoon."

"Don't waste it," Tess said. "I think they only give you half an ounce with each pour."

We decided to skip the whites and jump right into the robust reds.

"That's what we did, too," one of the women standing next to us said. "You here for the lavender festival?"

We nodded.

"I have a small lavender farm in Massachusetts," Rosie said. "I'm ready to pack it up and move it out here. They're really on to something. You put eight lavender farms together and suddenly there's a culture."

One of the women laughed. "We were just plotting how we could move here from Ohio and start our own winery."

"Nice jacket," Tess said to the one who'd spoken.

"Chico's," she said. "Love that blouse."

"Thanks," Tess said. "J. Jill."

"Ohmigod," one of the other women said. "We found the best Target on the way up. I got these great exercise pants marked down to practically nothing."

"Gotta love Tarjay," I said. I tried to check out their feet to see if they were wearing sneakers and, if so, what kind they were, but it was too dark. "Are you walkers?"

"Kayakers," Chico's Jacket said. "We did three hours of sea kaya-king on Dungeness Bay this morning. Talk about an upper body workout."

"Wow," I said. "We're planning to walk the Dungeness Spit out to the lighthouse while we're here." When she didn't look that impressed, I added, "Five miles each way."

"Over rough terrain," Tess said.

Rosie rolled her eyes. "On our hands."

Everybody laughed. I took a sip of our second wine, a cabernet franc, or cab franc, as I'd know enough to call it from now on.

The tallest of the three women reached for a cracker. "Whatever you do, don't miss the REI flagship store in Seattle while you're out here. It's got a sixty-five-foot climbing wall."

"Only sixty-five feet?" I said.

Day 27

17,777 steps

TESS ADDED SOME MORE LAVENDER HONEY TO HER TEA. "I can't believe we couldn't even stay awake for the puffin cruise last night," she said. "We're a disgrace." can't believe we couldn't even stay awake for the puffin cruise last night," she said. "We're a disgrace."

Rosie took a bite of a tiny doughnut sprinkled with lavender sugar. "These are so good," she said. "No we're not. We just had a busy day. And we've got another one today."

Tess shook her head. "And I still can't believe we haven't found lavender black currant champagne anywhere. Maybe it's a bait and switch."

"Maybe it's a drink," Rosie said. "You know, you muddle lavender and black currants together and then add champagne."

"Too much work," Tess said. "We're on vacation."

"I'm dying to learn how to make lavender wands," I said. I took another sip of my lavender iced tea. "I thought my muslin lavender sachet bag came out great yesterday."

"Boring," Tess said. "I thought this was going to be a little bit more of an adventure, not a crafts session. Although I'm planning on making lavender halos with ribbon streamers on the first day back at school. The kids will love it, and halos couldn't hurt in terms of setting the tone for the year's behavior. I think I'll send the directions to Annalisa when I hear from her."

"Nothing yet?" Rosie asked.

"I'll check again later," Tess said. "Did you see that lavender pasta salad at that farm cafe yesterday? I am so having that for lunch. We might have to tack an extra five thousand steps on today. I was finally back into my old jeans before we left."

"I think I'll go for the lavender chicken tahini wrap this time," Rosie said. "And I really want to try a piece of lavender cheesecake at some point. I'll just throw out my old jeans, if it comes to that."