Page 41 of Drunk on Love

Avery looked sad for a moment.

“Thanks.” She sat up straight and smiled. “I’m glad I have Luke. He’s a good friend.”

Margot took a sip of her own now-cold coffee. Did Avery know about what happened between her and Luke? It didn’t seem like it. She hadn’t given her that smile last night that said she knew, and there was no knowing glance today. But maybe she just didn’t want to make it awkward?

“He’s been a great addition to the tasting room staff,” Margot said as casually as she knew how. “Even Elliot thinks he’s worthy of discussing his wines, and you know how winemakers can be.”

They both laughed, and Margot reached for the bag of pastries on the table and dropped it into her tote bag.

“Speaking of Elliot, I should get to the winery.”

Avery stood up.

“Yeah, I should get going, too. But seriously, Margot—let me know if you have any other questions. Just text or call.”

Margot nodded.

“I will almost certainly take you up on that. And let me know if I can ever return the favor.”

They hugged goodbye at the door of the bakery, and then Margot walked to her car. It wasn’t until she was a mile into the drive to the winery that she allowed a huge smile to break out over her face.

“I don’t know what you’re smiling like that for,” she said to herself. “It’s not like this means anything. It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t on a date with Avery—he’s still your employee, remember? You still can’t do one single thing with that man.”

But the smile stayed on her face for the whole drive.

LUKE GLANCED DOWN AThis phone when he got in the car to drive to the winery on Thursday morning.

AVERY

Mission accomplished

That was all Avery was going to tell him? Of course it was. He wanted to ask for details, but he couldn’t give her the satisfaction.

He couldn’t believe that he’d let Avery “make it clear” to Margot they weren’t dating. Wasn’t he supposed to be pretending that he and Averyweredating, in order to get his mom off his back? What had he been thinking?

He’d been thinking that he wanted Margot to know he wasn’t dating anyone, no matter how pointless it was.

Luke pulled into the parking lot at the winery and saw Pete’s truck there. Right. Today was the day that Pete was coming by to meet with Margot and Elliot.

Pete got out of the truck just as Luke walked by.

“Morning, Luke.” He handed him a paper bag. “Your mom gave me this to give to you if I saw you here, and by that she meant I’d better find a way to see you here and give you that, so I’m glad you made it easy.”

Luke laughed at that. He peeked into the bag to see two sticky buns, and his smile got wider.

“Thank her for me, please,” he said. “If I had known that moving back to Napa meant getting surprise pastry deliveries, I might have moved back years ago.” He and Pete walked towardthe front door of the winery. “And thanks for making the time to come by here.”

Pete shrugged.

“It’s no problem. Glad to be able to give you some brownie points, not that you need them, I’m sure.” That was debatable.

Luke opened the door for both of them. Taylor was already inside the tasting room.

“Hey,” he said to her. “This is Pete Smythe—he has an appointment with Margot and Elliot this morning.”

“I’ll buzz Margot,” Taylor said, but before she could pick up the phone, Margot and Elliot both walked into the tasting room through the front door, laughing about something. Margot had on jeans, boots, and a big sweater, and Luke smiled at the sight of her. She was usually more dressed up than this. He liked those dresses she always wore, but he liked casual Margot, too. But then he’d really liked her in nothing at all.

Fuck.He had to stop thinking about that.

---