Page 58 of Bourbon and Bluebells

His mom gave him a stern look. “But you should know better, Bentley DuPont.” She was trying to sound stern, but she was still smiling broadly. “You know full well that this town has eyes and ears everywhere. When I heard this morning that the two of you were out at Molly’s last night, I couldn’t wait any longer.”

“Sorry, Mom.” She was right; he should have known better than to think that the rumor mill wouldn’t reach them before he did. “The only reason that we went out in public last night was because we planned to call you guys to tell you this morning.”

Alyssa nodded rapidly. “He’s not just saying it. We really were going to call you this morning.”

Russ smiled at them. “It’s okay, sweetheart. We believe you. I’m just glad that it’s all out in the open now.” He turned to Bentley. “And you should both know that we’re both happy about it.”

Bentley felt the tension leave his shoulders. He felt bad that they’d known all along and had been waiting, but he couldn’t feel too bad – not anymore. Not now that he and Alyssa had free rein to see where their relationship would take them without any obstacles in their way.

Chapter Eighteen

As Alyssa walked out of the office building where she’d been meeting with a potential client, she realized that she didn’t even want the job. It was nothing against the client, they seemed like a decent enough team. And it would be interesting work; she hadn’t worked with a marketing company before. Her clients tended to be in the financial and tech sectors. She’d even pointed that out to the CFO – that perhaps he would want to hire someone who had more experience in that industry. But he’d told her that she came highly recommended, and he was more interested in having someone he’d be comfortable working closely with.

She shuddered as she hurried along the sidewalk. She didn’t think he’d meant that the way it sounded – at least, she hoped not. She didn’t like to work closely with anyone. She did what she did because it meant that she could work mostly alone. She did well enough presenting her assessments to entire teams, but she didn’t enjoy working one-on-one with people.

The CFO, Trent Pearson, was a nice enough guy; he was maybe a few years older than her, and he was one of those good-looking, confident types. But she didn’t relish the thought of having to spend a lot of time working with him. He was a bit too full of himself for her liking.

But more than that, she was really hoping that she’d be able to go and work at DuPont Wineries sooner rather than later. She smiled when she thought back to the weekend. Her dad and Ria had definitely surprised her and Bentley; she’d been so nervous at first when they showed up. But now, now she was glad that it had worked out that way. Both she and Bentley had wantedto call them rather than tell them in person, but now she could see that it had been better that way. It had felt great to see how happy they both were and to be able to hug them and talk with them properly.

They hadn’t stayed for long; they’d just had a quick lunch and then flown back to Summer Lake. Ria had explained that she knew it was going to be a long day for Ollie and Reaves because they also had to fly Alyssa back to San Francisco in the evening.

After they’d gone, she and Bentley had talked in detail about what she might do if she did come in to audit the company. From everything that he’d told her, it was a job that she was really looking forward to – and not just because it meant that she’d be able to stay there with him while she did it.

When she got home, she closed the door behind her and leaned back against it with a sigh. She liked this apartment. It was definitely a step up from her old place, but now she wasn’t as invested in getting settled in here as she had been. She was more interested in how she might settle in in Napa. If she went there to work with Bentley, where might it lead?

He’d talked about them having a future together, and she’d love to believe that was possible. But she wasn’t convinced yet. She was a practical soul at heart, and as much as she was enjoying getting caught up in the whirlwind that had been their relationship so far, she didn’t want to set herself up for a horrible fall. She wasn’t going to hold back because of that. Oh no, she planned to go all in. But at the same time, she needed to have a backup plan.

Still, it’d be a while yet before she needed to worry about it. They hadn’t even decided when she might go there yet – she didn’t need to start worrying about when she might have to leave.

She headed straight for the shower to wash off the day. Tonight was one of those nights when she wanted to veg out in her pajamas. She’d already decided that she was going to call and get Thai food delivered. And hopefully, she’d get to talk to Bentley later.

After her shower, she’d just gotten settled on the sofa when her phone rang. She grabbed for it, hoping that it was him. Her smile faded when she saw her mum’s name on the display. She’d have to talk to her; it’d been a while. She wished that they had the kind of relationship where she’d want to tell her mom about Bentley, but they just didn’t. They never had. Her mum hadn’t been much of a sharer before Arthur died. She’d opened up a lot since then. In fact, Alyssa wished she wouldn’t share as much as she did. She didn’t really want to know about her own mother’s search for a new husband.

Not that there was anything wrong with that, per se. She wanted her to be happy. She just didn’t want to hear the details – especially not about her motivation. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t think she’d heard her mum mention looking for love even once. With the men she’d been dating, she talked about what they did, or what they owned. I she talked about who they were was only to mention their. She didn’t talk about who they were as people. Alyssa still hadn’t forgotten that comment about finding a wealthy American to marry so she could get a green card. That just made her shudder.

She pulled herself together and reached for the phone before it stopped ringing.

“Hiya, Mum.”

“Hi, Alyssa. How are you? What’s going on with you? You haven’t called for ages.”

“Sorry. I’ve been busy. Things have been crazy.” It wasn’t a lie. Between moving, and work, and seeing Bentley, life had been crazy for the last few weeks.

“I’m busy too, Lizzie. But I still make the time to call you.”

Alyssa clenched her jaw. It was going to be one of those phone calls, she could tell. “What’s going on with you, then? What are you busy with? Do you want to tell me about it?”

“Oh, you know how it is. I’ve been busy with all kinds of things. There’s always so much to do.”

Alyssa scowled to herself. She reallydidn’tknow how it was. Her mum didn’t work. She never had. She’d been a housewife when Arthur was alive, and Alyssa wasn’t quite sure what she got up to these days. Well, other than hanging out with her group of friends, and all they seemed to do was shop and go to lunch.

Arthur had been a fairly wealthy man. It bothered Alyssa that her mum had probably chosen him over her dad just because he had money. From what she’d pieced together of the story over the years, when her mum fell pregnant with her, her dad was still serving as a Marine. She didn’t know how much Marines got paid, but she doubted that it was as much as a lawyer.

Arthur and her mum had tried to encourage her to follow in Arthur’s footsteps, telling her that it would be a good way to become wealthy in her own right. She hadn’t wanted that, though, and they’d both teased her about wanting to become an accountant. Apparently, in their eyes, it wasn’t just a boring occupation, but it wouldn’t make her as much money either.

She made a face when she realized that her mom was still droning on about her supposedly busy life. So far, all she’d done was talk about a couple of outings with her friends and bitch about how she had to stay home for a whole afternoon waiting for a new fridge to be delivered.

Alyssa shook her head. She was glad that there was an ocean between them.

---