Page 17 of Drunk on Love

“Welcome to Noble Family Vineyards,” she said. “Please take any seat you like—I’m Taylor, and I’ll be right with you.”

Taylor turned to Luke and Marisol.

“I’ll have you guys tag-team with me on the appointments this morning. Just shadow me and listen and take notes; it’s the easiest way for you to learn how we do things here. Luke, why don’t you come with me first? Marisol, you can hang out here and read over our brochures and eavesdrop.”

The day quickly got busy, with groups of tourists coming in and out, the phone ringing, and Luke trying to remember fourteen different things at every moment. Whenever he’d start to really concentrate, Margot walked into the tasting room to greet people, or check in with Taylor about something, or talk to him and Marisol both—always at the same time—about one of their wines. And every time she walked in, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

While Taylor and Marisol were in the corner with a group of four, Margot walked back in, a stack of papers in her hands.

“Luke, Marisol... oh, she’s with Taylor, okay.” Margot set two stacks of forms on the bar, along with two pens. “Here are employment forms for you to fill out, so we can actually pay you.”

She still didn’t quite meet his eyes. That was a good sign, at least, that this was affecting her, too, despite how relaxed she’d seemed.

“Sure, of course,” he said, and took the papers from her. Their fingers touched, just for a moment, and she flinched. Okay, she was definitely not relaxed.

He was closer to her now than he’d been since they were in the car this morning. Was that bruise on her collarbone from him? A moment from the night before flashed back to him. Yeah, he was pretty sure it was. He fought back a smile.

“Let me know, um, when you’re done with those,” she said. And she swept out of the tasting room.

He’d finished filling out the forms by the time Taylor and Marisol came back to the bar.

“Marisol, Margot brought some forms for us to fill out.” He didn’t let himself stop to think about what he was about to do. “I’m done with mine, I’m going to just bring this to her office,” he said.

Then he went through the staff-only door to find Margot.

She was sitting in her office, the door open, looking at her computer screen. He stood in the doorway.

“I finished filling out the forms,” he said. She looked up at the sound of his voice. He kept going. “You probably also need this,” he said, and pulled his passport out of his back pocket.

She reached out a hand, and he walked in and handed her the forms and his passport.

“Thanks.” She looked back at her computer screen, clearly ready for him to go. He didn’t.

“Are we going to talk about this?” he asked.

She finally met his eyes. The relaxed, cheerful mask dropped from her face.

“Close the door,” she said.

He closed it, very gently.

“No, to answer your question,” she said as soon as the door was closed all the way. “Other than to say that one, it obviously can’t happen again, and two, no one can know it happened. Especially not my brother.”

Did she think he was going to spread this around? He wouldn’t do that.

“Of course not,” he said. “Do you want me to quit? I can just leave at the end of the day and not come back. I’m sure I can find something somewhere else.”

Why had he said that? He didn’t want to quit. But now he had to if she said yes.

She lifted a hand to her face and closed her eyes. He waited for her answer.

“No,” she finally said. Why was he both relieved and disappointed by that? “First of all, it would probably violate some sort of employment law if I said yes. And we’ve been short-staffed, it’s been a challenge to hire people who are both intelligent and likable, and my brother actually liked you, which is rare. I’ll feel way too guilty if we lose you because of me.”

“Okay,” he said. He turned to open the door, and then stopped and turned back around. “I have one question to ask you, though. Were you going to text me?”

She looked in his eyes, for one long moment.

“I think it’s best if I don’t answer that question.”

---