Page 31 of So Right
Chapter Six
After spending the morning in the vineyard, Luke sat at his desk to eat a sandwich. He fired up his laptop and scanned his e-mail. Disappointment nagged at his insides. What had he been hoping for? That Kelsey would e-mail him because she’d somehow forgotten how to text?
He wasn’t surprised given how shaken she’d been yesterday. He still couldn’t quite process what she’d told him, which had been damn little. He wanted to know everything about this abusive asshole and ensure he could never hurt her again.
Which is why he’s in prison, dick-for-brains.
But for how long? It wasn’t as if domestic violence would give him a life sentence. No, those fuckheads usually got out long before they should. And in many cases, they never went to jail at all.
His office phone rang, and he immediately picked up the receiver without looking at the caller ID. “West Arch, this is Luke.”
“Hey, Luke.” The voice was feminine, but not the one he wanted to hear.
“Paige. Hi.” He sat back in his chair and briefly closed his eyes. That’d teach him to answer without checking the caller ID.
“It’s been a while,” she said. “How are you?”
“Great. Just finished the harvest. Busy, busy.”
“Right. How’s it going up there? I remember it being gorgeous in the fall.”
She’d come up to visit several times after he’d moved back—when they’d tried to maintain their relationship long distance. In hindsight, he’d known it wouldn’t work. Rather, that he’d wanted out. But he’d let the distance do the breaking up for him. Shit, was he that big of a jerk?
He sat up and scooted his chair toward his desk. Paige was a nice person, and when he’d told her they could be friends, he’d meant it. He’d never wanted to hurt her. Which was perhaps why he hadn’t handled things well. He’d hoped she would be the one to break things off. But that plan had failed. “It’s going well, thanks. How are things with you? Still liking Westerly?”
“No, actually. I got laid off last month.”
“Wow, I’m sorry to hear that. But you’re great at what you do, and you’re in the right area to find something relatively quickly.”
“It looks that way on paper, but I haven’t found anything yet.” She sounded frustrated, and he felt bad for her. “I’ve actually been looking up in your area. Will you let me know if you hear of anything?”
She was an event planner and had managed the cellar club at Westerly Estate. Before that, they’d worked at the same winery where she’d done the same job. The owner hadn’t liked them seeing each other and because he didn’t want to lose his vineyard manager, he’d let her go. Luke had felt terrible, and he’d pulled some strings to get her on at Westerly. Not that it had been tough because she was great at what she did. But networking was huge in their industry.
“Um, yeah, I’ll keep an eye out.”
“I don’t suppose your winery is hiring.” She laughed. “That wouldn’t be weird, would it?”
Maybe not weird, but definitely awkward as hell. “We can’t afford you.” That was true. They couldn’t really afford any additional staff right now. As far as he knew. He left that to Jamie and Cam. And he wasn’t going to ask. He didn’t mind helping her out, but she couldn’t work here.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said. “So are you seeing anyone now?”
She’d never been one to mince words. He’d liked that about her. He thought of Kelsey and wanted to say yes, but he couldn’t. Not in good conscience. “Not really.”
“Interesting.” She strung the word out a bit. “That’s not a firm no. So maybe thereissomeone.”
He smiled and shook his head. “No, there really isn’t.” Even if there was, he wouldn’t talk about her with his ex. “Listen, I need to get back to things here. It’s good to hear from you.”
“It’s good to talk to you. I still miss you. Sorry, I can’t help it.” She exhaled. “Anyway, if you hear of anything that might work for me up there, will you let me know? I really need a job.”
He felt for her. Truly. And he would see what he could find—maybe in the southern valley so she wasn’t too close. “Definitely.”
“Thanks, Luke. Keep in touch, okay?”
Cam and Jamie appeared at the threshold to his office and stalked inside, each taking a chair near the windows that looked out over the vineyard. Luke angled himself away from them to finish the call. “Sure thing. Talk to you later. Bye, Paige.” He hung up and swung back around.
Jamie’s brows climbed his forehead. “Paige?”
“Yep. What do you guys need?” He could see from their exchanged look that he was not going to dodge the Paige conversation.
