Page 19 of Kisses Sweeter than Wine

“It’s on the counter.” He squeezed Talbot’s arm. “You haven’t responded to my text about coming to the party. Now would be a good time to say yes.”

Talbot nodded. “I’d love to.”

“Wonderful. Bethany, please add Talbot Grant to the list as my personal guest.”

“Not a problem, boss,” Bethany said.

“And stop calling me that.” He shook his head. “You know I hate it.”

“Your mom said that’s why everyone should say it.” Bethany tilted her head and gave him a crooked smile. “And she’s the big boss. We all do what she tells us. If we don’t, she gets ornery.”

“My mother isn’t here today, so Merlot is just fine.” He sighed. He understood his mom believed this would help him gain the respect of the employees, especially when she officially retired. But he thought it was stupid. Everyone knew he and Zinny were in charge when she wasn't around.

“Whatever you say, boss.” Bethany turned and disappeared into the back room where they kept the supplies to make the baskets.

“I guess you’re the boss around here,” Talbot said with a sweet grin as she took off her big hat.

He took it from her and set it behind the counter. He much preferred her without it. He enjoyed being able to see her entire face, but especially her piercing blue eyes. They were big, bright, and full of life. Her gaze sucked him in like a train wreck. Their familiarity terrified him in ways he didn’t want to admit. He pushed that feeling to the back of his brain and focused on all the things that were Talbot.

She was beautiful and intelligent. He didn’t care that she’d put up a giant wall and was incredibly reserved. There was something intriguing about her that made him want to know every detail about her life.

“Not until my mother actually stops coming in and telling everyone what to do.” He looped his arm around Talbot’s waist. “Have you been on a wine tour before?”

“I can’t say that I have.”

“My brother and his wife are in the bottling room. Eliza Jane has a new white wine line. There will be more than this Pinot Grigio that we are revealing at the event, but the others either aren’t ready yet or need to age longer. We’re calling the line Blue River.”

“I understand where River came from because that’s the winery’s name. But why Blue?” Talbot asked.

“That’s Eliza Jane’s maiden name and here’s a little fun fact. My family stole this winery decades ago from hers. This big dark secret was handed down from generation to generation until it landed in my mother’s lap. She couldn’t live with it anymore, so she brought Eliza Jane here to make things right. My brother Malbec fell in love with her and now history has corrected itself.”

Talbot held on to his arm as they strolled through the corridor, past one of the tasting rooms. “That’s such a sweet story.”

“It ended up that way, but let me tell you, it wasn’t fun while we were going through it because that secret nearly destroyed this family. My brother left shortly after college and moved to Napa Valley. Chablis ended up becoming a firefighter, leaving the family business as well. I followed, which set a precedent for younger siblings.” He paused at the bottling room. “For years my mother tried to keep the secret because that’s what she was told to do by her father. It was this weird, gross game and because my mother is a little strange at times, she thought bringing Eliza Jane in and making her head winemaker would solve all the problems. In the end, it did. But we could have lost it all.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Nope, and Malbec and Eliza Jane are ridiculously happy with two little kids.” He tapped his knuckles on the door before opening it. “Hey, guys, we’ve got company.” He guided Talbot into the room.

“You’re just in time.” Malbec held up a bottle. “We cracked one open and are having our own little party.”

“You’ve got to taste… oh. Hi,” Eliza Jane hopped off the bench. “Who do we have here?”

“This is Talbot. She’s staying in the house Lyra used to rent. She works for the woman who’s Georgette’s niece,” Merlot said.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Malbec took down two glasses and poured. “I hope you like a good Pinot Grigio. We paired it with some cheese. My wife really outdid herself with this. I bet it fast becomes our best seller. We need to discuss the price because lowering it a couple of dollars would be a good idea. We can produce this one fast, but the rest of the line, we can—”

“I don’t think our guest wants to hear us talk shop,” Merlot said. “But I agree and I’ll bring it up with Zinny and Mom in the morning.”

“Don’t stop on my account. I find this fascinating.” Talbot accepted the glass Malbec offered and took a sip. “Oh, my. This is fantastic. Price it right and people will buy it by the case.” She lifted it to her nose. “I don’t know much about wine, but working in a hotel and hospitality my entire life, we always looked for decent house wines that customers wouldn’t snub their noses at during happy hour. This tastes expensive.”

“It’s not,” Eliza Jane said. “It’s meant to be a fifteen-dollar bottle or less.”

“The hotel restaurant I used to work at would pick this up in a heartbeat at wholesale.” Talbot reached for a chunk of cheese. “It’s something that we would have been able to give to our VIP guests or as a gift in our bridal suites without batting an eyelash at those prices and thanks to the taste, we wouldn’t be worried that it would go to waste.”

Eliza Jane set her glass down and wrapped her arms around Talbot. “Thank you. That’s about the kindest thing anyone could have said about my wine.”

“Where did you find this girl and can we hire her? Because we hadn’t even thought to market it that way. What a brilliant idea,” Malbec said.

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