Page 47 of A Taste of Chardonnay

“You did.” He sat on one of the stools around my island, Jack lying at his feet. The cat was eating a can of tuna I put out for it. Hopefully, it would give Jack a nice reprieve. Fanny wasn’t his biggest fan, and he didn’t like her much, either.

Brady grabbed the bottle of whiskey and glass I put out for him. He poured and held up the glass. “You want any?”

I held up my own glass and smiled. “Already started. You need to catch up.”

“I didn’t know you were such a whiskey drinker.”

“Like a good red wine, it has a complex flavor profile. At least, a good whiskey does.”

“And you’re saying mine is a good whiskey?”

“You know damn well it is. You learned all about the aging process from the best.” He spent a lot of time with my grandfather and Franc in the barrel room.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without him.”

“He would say people can only help you so much. You have to be willing—”

“To put in the hard work,” he finished.

“Exactly, and you have. You should be proud of yourself.”

Never being one to take a compliment, he took a sip of his whiskey and darted his eyes toward the oven.

“What made you buy a pizza oven?”

“I like pizza, and we don’t have a good pizza place in town. I was sick of having to travel to get good pizza.”

He laughed as he tilted his glass, the amber liquid rocking up the side.

“Why is that funny?”

“Even when it comes to ovens, you have a logical explanation.”

“What other type of explanation would I have?”

“Have you ever done anything spontaneous? Like buy a pizza oven without researching every make and model?”

“How do you know I did that?” I did. I wanted to make sure I was buying the one that best fit my needs while also being highly rated by others. I didn’t want to spend the money and hate it.

His eyebrow arched. “Have you met you? You’ve never done a spontaneous thing in your life.”

“Having sex with you on the tasting room floor seems pretty spontaneous to me.”

“Okay, so one spontaneous thing in your thirty-eight years.”

“What about that time I snuck out with you and Franc?” We had pushed Dad’s pickup truck down the driveway, so our parents wouldn’t wake up when we started it. We then drove across town to River Birch Park, where we met up with a bunch of friends. I was fifteen and panicked the entire time, afraid we’d get caught. I had set a timer on my watch to make sure we got home before our parents woke up.

“You were a nervous fucking wreck that night until Franc gave you your first wine cooler.”

“It was terrible.”

“But you drank it.”

It was the first time I had ever been drunk. It was the first time I let my inhibitions go. I started flirting with Danny Becker, and as I got more and more flirty…

“Why did you stop me from flirting with Danny Becker?”

“Because he was an asshole.”

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