Page 37 of The Charmer's Gambit
“About you? Very.” Much to my chagrin, he plopped it on my head. “Trust me, gorgeous. Your face will thank me later.”
Uh, what? He useddarlin’ so often thatgorgeousshocked me into silence. I’d never heard that word or term of endearment from him.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders again. “I’ll meet up with you in thirty, Joe.”
“You know where I’ll be,” he replied.
“Okay, so what am I doing, and why am I doing it?” I asked as Will guided me around the house toward the vineyard behind it. Several heads popped up as we approached.
Will cupped his free hand over his mouth to holler a “Howdy, y’all!” Several variations of the greeting floated back to us, making my companion chuckle.
“To answer your question, we’re here to help Joe pamper the vineyard. He’s having some issues with birds, so we have to put up some nets to keep them away from the berries. But you’re going to help prune some of the vines. As to the why, hard work is good for everyone. Besides, being part of the environment will help give you a better understanding of why I do what I do, which will be important as we go into these negotiations.”
I frowned at that. “You don’t think I respect what you’ve built.” Not a question, but a statement. Because why else would he feel the need to show me all this?
He shrugged. “I think you’re under the impression this was all handed to me because of my family name, and I believe in showing rather than telling.”
“Right, but you already showed me the original vineyard and explained how you turned it around.” What more was there to understand? I already harbored respect for him and his accomplishments.
“Correct, and now you’ll get an appreciation of what that actually meant.” He guided me down an empty row and stopped at a random place in the middle. “Keep in mind that this is a healthy vineyard you’re about to prune, not a ruined one,andyou have over a dozen people helping. I had two.”
“Okay, but for the record, I do respect what you’ve built.”
He grinned. “Maybe so, but you’ll have even more respect by the end of the day. And as I said, you’ll have a better understanding for our meetings next week. Trust me, the families who own those vineyards will appreciate your knowledge and experience, even if brief.”
Ah, okay, now I understood the purpose of this activity. “They’re afraid of a corporate buyout,” I translated. And he wanted to assure them that wasn’t what he intended. “Got it.”
“Yes, but it’s more than that.” All teasing left his features as he dropped his arm to his side. “I love what I do, Rachel. I care about this industry, and they know it. That’s why they’re agreeing to work with me. They need to know I surrounded myself with employees who care just as much, if not more.”
I brushed my knuckles over his cheek without thinking. Before I realized what I’d done or why that’d been my instinctual reaction to his words, he caught my wrist and brought my palm to his lips. He gave it a nibble, evoking a shudder from deep within.
This man is going to break down every protective barrier I’ve ever created. . .
“You look awful cute dressed as a cowgirl,” he murmured. “It’s giving me all sorts of new scenarios to consider later.”
Heat climbed up my neck. I had no idea how to reply to that, so I focused on his earlier comment about the negotiations. It was a safer topic, more professional, because, yeah, that’s how I was feeling at the moment.
“I might not share your knowledge, but I understand passion. Show me how to use those scissor things so I can impress the people in your world.”
He grinned against my palm. “Pruners.”
“Sure.”
He clucked his tongue. “Oh, darlin’, you have so much to learn.”
“Then you better start teaching me.”
“Already am,” he murmured with another tender bite. “You just don’t realize it yet.” He tugged a glove from his belt and slipped it over my hand, then repeated the action with my other, minus the nip. When he was satisfied with the fit, he put on his own pair and handed me a pruner. It was much heavier than a pair of scissors. When I said that out loud, he laughed.
“They’re sharper too,” he said. “All right, so I chose this spot because it looks like someone pruned up until this point. So you can start here and work your way back toward the entrance. If you finish before lunch, then you can start on the other side of the row and work back to this point. Good?”
“Yep. Question, though. How can you tell the others pruned until this point?”
“Shading. See how thinned out this vine is compared to the one next to it?”
I studied it with a frown. “Not really, no. I mean, they look almost the same.”
“That’s because Joe has done a good job maintaining the vineyard, but you can see where this one was freshly pruned here to maximize shading over the grapes here. And it looks liketwo clusters sprouted off this shoot, so someone trimmed the excess.” He gestured to something light-colored on the ground.
