Page 49 of Bordeaux Bombshell
“Nate, good to see you. Come on in. Mercedes, I’m heading out after this meeting, unless you need anything from me.” He waves me in, stepping away from the door to speak to the woman.
“No, sir,” she says. “I wasn’t expecting you to stay this late as it was. I have everything under control for the rest of the day.”
His office has the big dark bookshelves and desk that I’ve seen in every fancy office on TV. Picture frames sit in front of rows of books. Sutton’s still outside talking to Mercedes, so I peek ata few on the nearest shelf. There’s a photo of him and Sophie at their wedding, Sophie and a much younger Emma on a beach with flowers in their hair, a couple of kids I don’t recognize playing with his dog.
“Thanks for coming all the way downtown, Nate. And apologies for the mix-up at reception—I usually only work a half day at the office on Thursdays.” Theo joins me in looking at the photos. “My niece and nephew,” he adds, pointing at the picture. “I’ll have to bring them to the winery next time they come visit.”
He clears his throat, indicating I should take a seat before he slides into the executive chair behind his desk. I settle back into the plush leather, feigning confidence I don’t feel. When we spoke on the phone, Sutton didn’t tell me why he wanted to meet. I’ve been trying to figure it out all day and coming up empty.
“I don’t mind,” I offer. “Not very often I have an excuse to wear my good flannel.”
He smiles at that and leans back, folding his hands over his belt buckle. “I’m sure you’re curious why I asked you to come here instead of meeting at Sunshine.”
“I assumed you didn’t have time to drive all the way out there and back.” I avoid driving into downtown—unless I’m going to Sydney’s place—and was once again reminded why I prefer to stay home.
“You’re not wrong. I don’t have time,andI wanted to meet with you alone before I spoke to Sophie.”
Sophie? I can’t say I’ve ever truly understood how and why they bought my home the way they did. But my understanding was always that Sophie was the owner and made all the decisions. So why is he going behind her back?
I shift in my seat, leaning forward, my hands braced on my thighs. “Is everything okay? The harvest is going to be smallerthan normal this year because of the frost, but it doesn’t look like anything else was affected.”
“I can see that I’m making you nervous.” He chuckles. The serious expression on his face relaxes, a small smile replacing it. “Apologies. I’ve been working on being less intimidating—easier done out at Sunshine than here in the office.”
“I think I made the receptionists nervous when I asked to see ‘Theo’ and not ‘Mr. Sutton.’ Is everyone here really that scared of you?” The difference between the aura this man gives off here versus at Sunshine is impressive. I wonder if I could pull it off?
“I prefer to think they have a healthy respect for me, but they generally only see me like this”—he indicates his suit and tie—“as opposed to how you usually see me. Anyway, back to the reason I wanted to meet with you.”
He leans forward, hands resting on the desk as he continues speaking. “Emma showed me the report she wrote up about Sunshine. Thank you for your assistance with that, by the way. I was ready to email her professor about his comment, but she handled it herself like a pro.”
I laugh at that. The nepo child seems perfectly capable of handling a rude professor. But I throw a compliment his way, since I’m still not sure what’s going on here, and Theodore Sutton is a man I would prefer to be on my side. “I would expect so, with you and Sophie raising her.”
Sutton actually blushes at that, something I never expected. “Oh, I’m just the stepdad. Her mother did all the hard work of raising her. Sophie is truly amazing.”
I’ve seen the way he looks at Sophie when they’re out at Sunshine, like she’s the sun and the moon and every good thing on the planet. But the way he’s talking now? The man is deeply in love with his wife, and it hits me like a blow to the gut.
The way he’s talking about her is exactly what I want. It’s like someone took everything I feel about Sydney and put it ondisplay. The tight feeling in my chest that hasn’t left since I woke up alone in bed last week ratchets up another degree.
I clear my throat, but no words come out.
Sutton grins and drums the desk to break the silence. “Right. Well, like I said. I looked at the report, and I have to say, I think you’ve got some really interesting ideas in there.”
That was not what I was expecting. When Emma asked to interview me, I didn’t think about Sutton reading it. I suppose I should have. “Sir, I hope you don’t think I—”
He holds up a hand, stopping me. “Not at all. I asked because I was interested. I bought Sunshine because I wanted to make my wife’s dream come true, not because I had grand plans to build a wine empire.”
With a quiet chuckle, he leans back in his chair once more. “Honestly, I’d rather have a beer nine times out of ten. But I think you’ve got some really great ideas, and I’d like to have my finance guys look at them and flesh out what kind of investments it would take to get some of them going. I’m particularly interested in the idea of a tasting room here in town or across the river.”
My mouth opens and closes a few times, no sound coming out. The thoughts and questions ping-ponging around my brain are all moving too quickly to get one out. In my wildest dreams, I thought maybe he was going to talk to me about making some small improvement to Sunshine, or maybe something he wanted to change.
“I’d also like to look at the arrangement we have with an eye to Sophie and me being a bit more hands off in the future. More like investors than owners.”
It never occurred to me he would drop a blank check like this in front of me. Okay, not really a blank check, but right now it feels a little like it.
“I-I don’t know what to say, Theo,” I finally stutter out. “That would be…well, it would be amazing.”
The more familiar grin I’m used to seeing on his face appears. “If I’m being honest, Nate, I’m not exactly being altruistic with this. Sophie is investing quite a lot of her energy into Sunshine, and while I think she’s enjoying it, I overheard her and Lauren lamenting a lack of time for another pet project she’s been dreaming up. And really, what’s the point of being a billionaire if I can’t indulge my wife’s every whim? Especially since she will never ask me for it.”
Swallowing back my first response—that Sophie’s supervision isn’t required to run Sunshine, since even I know that would be horribly rude—I steer the conversation toward the subject I know he’s always happy to talk about. “What is this new project idea? Not another winery?”
