Page 68 of A Taste of Chardonnay

Chardonnay smiled. “Perfect!”

“Come on, Jack,” Meadow said. “Let’s see what we have in here.” Meadow hurried into the building with Jack at her feet.

“My dog abandoned me.”

Chardonnay chuckled, not even bothering to try to hide it. “Can you blame him? Christmas decorations are way more exciting than standing out here with Mr. Grinch.”

I snaked my hand around her, leaning against her car and tugging her into me. “Mr. Grinch. I’ll remember that tonight.” I dipped, kissing the place on her neck that made her squirm.

“I can’t wait.”

My lips paused their trail and pulled back. My eyes met hers as disappointment settled through me. “I have the town hall meeting tonight.”

“Right. I can go with you.”

“You got booted from the last one. I’m pretty sure your picture is on the wall by the entrance.”

“It’s not my fault Steve can’t take a little constructive criticism.” She shrugged, her grin unapologetic. “He really thought no one would question his ridiculous plan to turn Vine Valley into the Big Foot Capital of the country. And it is definitely not my fault Albert nearly choked on his cake when I asked if that meant I had to change the name of our Vineyard to Big Yeti Vineyards. Craig knew the Heimlich. Everything was fine. Albert needs to take smaller bites, and Steve needs to be realistic.”

“He did have it coming.”

“See! Even you were on my side.”

I shook my head, unable to hide my smile. “I wasn’t on your side. I just knew there was no way in hell he was going to win that argument.”

Her lips curved up, mischief dancing in her eyes. “You’ve always known when to choose your battles.”

“I’ve just known when to stay out of yours. But seriously, for the town’s sake, maybe sitting this one out won’t be a bad thing. You kind of have a reputation.”

“I don’t know when honesty became a crime.”

“Your honesty tends to turn into chaos, and I’ve had about enough chaos this month. So why don’t you go to my place, get a fire going, strip down to the new set of La Perla I have waiting for you on my bed, and I’ll meet you there when it’s over.”

Her eyes widened, and her lips parted. “You bought me a new set of La Perla?”

I shifted and tugged at the sleeves of my Carhartt. “I told you I would.”

“I didn’t think you actually would.”

“Don’t make a big deal of it. I ripped them. I replaced them.”

“Did you get the same ones?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know?”

“You bought them.”

“I bought red.”

“The cherry or the scarlet?”

“I don’t know. Red.”

“Like the ones you ripped, or a different shade?”

“Red.” I shrugged. “They reminded me of you.”

Her lip quirked, a playful smirk creeping in. “Because of vampires?”

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