Page 31 of Twin Babies For The Grump

It’s only a problem because I think that spending the night up there at the estate house with Owen would be a lot more fun than staying down here. Not wanting to risk that happening, I decide to skip out on anything more than one plastic cup of wine and go off to find Adela for a chat.

No drunken tryst for me tonight… Unfortunately.

Chapter Thirteen

Owen

I’mnotsurehowI feel about the Wine Nights.

Sure, they put everyone in great spirits, but it feels like a waste of product to me. Or maybe I’m being an ass because I’ve not had any fun since I came here. Tess was right, there’s little to do in Napa. Not that I’ve actually tried to go out, go somewhere nice.

I’m still thinking about the whole “bonding with the employees” thing three days later as I’m getting dressed in the morning when Blanc comes charging into the bedroom like a bat out of Hell. Without pausing, she skids through the room in a circle, snatches up my loafer, and vanishes.

I blink. It takes a moment for what happened to actually sink in. Then I jump to my feet and head after her. “Blanc, get back here! That’s Italian!”

The dog is running so fast that she nearly slams into the glass door on the side of the building. With my very expensive loafer in her mouth, she rises onto her hind legs and brings one of her front paws down on the curved handle of the door.

It swings open.

My mouth drops, and I freeze for a few seconds, watching as Blanc, tail wagging, opens the door and lets herself out.

“You have got to be shitting me!” I say.

Tipsy sees the open door and gets to his feet, racing outside after his sister. The two dogs vanish off the porch and, wearing one shoe and my pajama pants, I race after them. It’s early enough in the morning that there’s still dew on the ground.

The whole thing looks picturesque, like a Bob Ross painting, but I can’t really enjoy it while I’m racing after the dogs. Tipsy takes off toward the vineyard, and Blanc takes off for the main work building. I want my shoe back, so she’s the one that I follow.

The door to the shelving house is already sitting up. I’m panting and out of breath by the time I get there. Blanc slips in through the open door, and I catch just the tail end of her fuzzy white rump vanishing inside.

“Blanc, you are so dead,” I grumble, taking a moment to catch my breath. At least I have her cornered now. After a beat, I follow her through the door, pulling it firmly shut behind me so she can’t circle around and escape again. “Blanc!”

“No,” says a familiar voice. A lovely face peeks around the corner of one of the shelf systems. Tess is here. She looks me over, an amused curl settling over her face. “Are you missing something, Owen? Or is this just the King’s new look?”

“Sure, laugh it up,” I grump at her, stepping down the opposite aisle. “Blanc, come here.”

The dog gives a low whine. She finally appears from wherever she had been hiding. Now that she knows she’s been caught, she slinks up to me and drops my shoe at my feet.

Her tail gives a single, pathetic wag.

“What is wrong with you?” I huff, bending down and snatching up the shoe. The leather is soaked with saliva, but the shoe itself doesn’t look like it’s been turned into too much of a chew toy. And fine, I’ll admit.

I’ve got no problem tearing into a teary-eyed employee when they’re human, but it’s a totally different song and dance for me now, looking down at Blanc. Those big brown dog eyes cut straight through all of the walls that I try to push up in front of others and bring me down to a softer level.

Specifically, it brings me down onto one knee in front of her, so I can throw an arm around her neck. “Fuck, stop looking at me like that. I forgive you, alright?”

“I wouldn’t,” teases Tess. “You forgive her once, and she’ll start pushing the line. I watched her run your father ragged. One little treat and she turns into a kid in a candy shop.”

“She wouldn’t run anyone ragged,” I coo at her, before standing up. “You must be thinking of some other white dog. Like her brother.”

“Her brother, who convinced Blanc to steal your shoe? Put her up to it, gun to the head?”

“There we go, now you’re getting it.” I slip my shoe on, grimacing a little bit at the fact that the inside is just as damp as the outside.

Tess smothers a laugh behind her hand and vanishes between two shelves.

I head over to join her. “Isn’t it a little early for you to be here?”

“Inventory,” says Tess, holding up the clipboard that she’s holding. “We normally do it next month, but since that’s when the contest is coming to a head, I figure that we won’t have the time for it.”

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