Page 46 of A Vineyard for Two
‘It’s a bit early.’
‘It’s after lunchtime.’
‘Brookes.’
‘It’s a glass of wine. We’re in a winery. We’ve worked half the day.’
‘There’s still so much to do.’ She wouldn’t have minded a glass, but that would require spending more alone time with Brookes. She should have gone outside and back to work on the garden, but instead she accepted and he opened the bottle and poured two glasses.
Harper took the glass, swirled it, then sniffed, before putting the liquid to her lips and tasting it. There were hints of vanilla and plum with earthy notes, and the taste lingered on her lips long after she swallowed.
‘Not bad, hey?’
‘Not bad at all.’
‘It will be a good one to serve at the Christmas in July feast,’ Brookes said.
‘Which reminds me, I have to meet with Georgia to discuss the menu options,’ she said. ‘I’ll finish up in the garden and head back to the family estate.’
‘It’s okay to take five minutes to rest, Harper.’
‘We still have a lot that needs doing. Five days isn’t a long time at all. Well, four, given that today is almost over.’
‘We’re grown adults, we can have a drink together.’
‘Brookes, I…’
‘You don’t want to talk about it.’
No, she didn’t want to talk about. She didn’t want to think about it either and yet it consumed her mind, even when she was focusing on other things. Talking with other people helped. That got her mind off it, but as soon as she was alone, the thoughts came rushing back. The touch of his fingertips, his lips on her skin. The heat came rushing back, and the wine wasn’t helping.
‘The wine will go well with duck.’
She noticed the disappointment on his face as she changed the subject. Talking about food was safer and kept her mind off the night she’d spent in his arms. It had felt so good, so why did she still continue resisting him?
TWENTY-FOUR
Brookes remained in the cellar door finishing his wine as he lifted boxes and rearranged the glasses and bottles. Moving around and being productive kept his mind in check and stopped him overthinking the situation with Harper. The woman drove him crazy but in spite of that, he wanted her even more. He forced himself to think of something else, and when that didn’t work, he started counting the wine bottles. At least that way he wasn’t making up conversations in his head. Why couldn’t he just be honest with her? Tell her how he felt and be done with it? Probably because putting his heart on a silver platter to be cut up into little pieces didn’t sound appealing. She’d done it before, she could do it again and he didn’t want to go through that, because this time it would hurt even more. Before he said anything, he had to be certain she wanted the same thing.
He stopped counting when he got to three hundred boxes. Each box contained a dozen bottles, giving them over three and a half thousand bottles of wine. Plenty to last the season, maybe even two, depending on how busy they got. With the two acres of vineyard, they’d be able to produce double the amount next season provided the variables were right. The opportunity here was astronomical, he just needed to make Harper see it too.
He locked up the cellar door, then did the same with the inn. Twenty minutes later he was pulling up in front of the driveway where Georgia stood with a hose watering the herb garden. The sun was setting behind the house, giving the sky a tinge of orange, red and pink.
‘You just missed her,’ Georgia said turning off the hose.
Damn it. Was she really that determined to avoid him? ‘Do you know when she’ll be back?’
‘Didn’t say. I assume a little later. Girls’ night out or something like that. They invited me, but I figured they could use some solo sister time. Zoe drove them into town.’
He checked his watch. It was a little after five.
‘Brookes, I know what you’re thinking, and I know it’s hard for you. It’s hard for all of us. We want her to stay permanently. But we both know Harper is not one we can force anything on because that’s exactly what will push her away. Harper needs to find her way back home on her own. Nothing I or you or anyone else says is going to make her do what she doesn’t realise she wants to do.’
Brookes put his hands to his hip and shifted his gaze before returning it to Georgia. ‘You think she wants to come back?’
‘I think she’s scared of coming back. Something pushed her away from us, something else will need to bring her back. I don’t know what that is. Maybe you do?’
He’d thought about it a lot the past few days. He still didn’t have the full story of why she left. It might have been career aspirations six years ago but it was something else now. The more he thought about it, the slashed tyre and brick though her window, were acts that may have been premeditated, and not a first. Had someone scared her out of town six years earlier? It seemed ludicrous but then again nothing else made sense.