Page 61 of A Vineyard for Two

She left him there and walked over to greet the first official guests that had pulled into the designated parking area.

It took half an hour to greet everyone, provide drinks and roaming canapés. There was a mixture of small talk and laughter, with awkward silences avoided thanks to the casual banter. For the most part, she and Brookes stayed away from one another. There was no need for the two of them to mingle, and yet, every so often, she found her gaze drifting towards him, and occasionally caught him staring back; and each time, her stomach did a somersault as memories of them together flooded her mind.

‘We should get everyone seated,’ Zoe came up behind her. ‘You okay?’

‘Yes, sorry. I must have been lost in thought.’

‘Do you want to get the serving platters? I think Leo is done with the barbecue.’

Harper made her way outside to where Leo was putting the meat onto the platters, alongside the prawns, and halloumi for the vegetarians.

She couldn’t tell whether they were impressed or not. Their faces revealed nothing, and the conversation until recently had been limited to small talk, some general commentary on the winemaking, but nothing of great importance.

‘It’s a shame Georgia couldn’t be here. She’s always such a joy to be around,’ one lady said.

‘She told us to apologise profusely for her absence, but it could not be avoided,’ Leo said.

‘Is she still driving that Mustang?’

‘Refuses to get into anything else,’ Leo told them. ‘Or let anyone else drive it. Probably a good thing, too.’

The table erupted in laughter.

‘We were hoping to discuss the details with Georgia. Do you know when she might be available?’

‘At the end of the week.’

‘Is there anything that we can assist with?’

‘We’d like to make an offer.’

‘An offer,’ Harper said, raising an eyebrow. She didn’t realise that her tone sounded high-pitched until the words had left her mouth.

‘Yes. I think we’ve seen everything we need.’

Leo gave Harper a look, telling her not to ask questions.

‘Why don’t you have something drawn up and we can present to Georgia?’

‘Can you come into our office? I think that would streamline the process, and Brookes here promised us a tour of the cellar door,’ the woman said, almost purring the words out as she touched Brookes on the shoulder.

‘It’ll be my pleasure,’ Brookes said.

Everyone moved to get up and stepped away from the table. Harper was putting two and two together, and she didn’t like it. As they moved away from the veranda and towards the cellar door, she grabbed Zoe’s arm and pulled her back.

‘What is the offer for?’

‘To buy into the estate.’

‘What?’

‘Georgia is getting older. She thinks it’s time we think about the future. She’s being realistic and maybe a little hasty, but we have to respect her wishes.’

‘What about Leo? What about you?’

‘Leo has other plans. And me, well, you know me and getting my hands dirty. The vineyard has been losing money for years. It needs someone to inject some funds into it. There’s a lot of potential, but potential is useless if there’s no capital behind it.’

‘I thought Leo and Brookes were working together on it. And Hugh’s inheritance — we could use some of that, couldn’t we?’