Beach Reads Box Set

by Madden-Mills, Ilsa

  People like them were my favorite part of my job. I handled more than weddings, and I certainly had my share of first-time nuptials. Those were lovely, too. But there was something special about those second-chancers. They reminded me that love could surprise anyone, and it was never too late for a happy ending.

  I took a sip of coffee and winced. It had gone cold. Gross. Glancing down, I noticed a spot on my white t-shirt where I’d dripped some. I wondered if I’d been walking around in a dirty shirt all morning.

  Oh well, fuck it. It was too late to worry about it now.

  I put the traitor coffee down—I’d have to get more later—and dug around the mess on my desk for another shirt. There was one beneath a bent spiral notebook, so I tugged it out and gave it a look. No stains. Sniffed it. Smelled fine. I pulled off my offending t-shirt just as Cooper stuck his head in my office.

  “Zo—what the fuck?” He turned around. “Zoe Marie Sutton, why are you getting naked in your office?”

  “I’m not getting naked,” I said, laughing at his attempt to call me by my full name. “I got something on my shirt so I’m changing. And my middle name is Elizabeth.”

  “Zoe Marie sounds better. And have you heard of doors?” he asked. “They do this amazing thing where they close so people don’t see you in your bra.”

  “Who wouldn’t want to see me in my bra?” I pulled on the clean shirt. “I have great boobs.”

  “True,” Cooper said. “You do have an excellent rack.”

  I laughed. Technically, Cooper was my ex-brother-in-law. Also my boss’s son, and my co-worker. But mostly he was one of my favorite people on the planet. The little brother I’d never known I wanted.

  “You can look now,” I said. “Although I don’t know why you’re being weird about it. You’ve seen me completely naked. More than once, if I recall.”

  “Yeah, and it’s awkward every time you give me a goddamn boner.” He came in but didn’t sit in the chair on the other side of my desk. Cooper rarely sat down. “And I think I’ve only seen you naked once.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “There was that one time you walked in and—”

  “Stop it, Zoe; I don’t need to be reminded.” He made a show of adjusting his dick. “Since technically we’re not related, I’m not immune your hotness. Even though I’m not the least bit sexually attracted to you.”

  I smirked. “If you’re not sexually attracted to me, why is just the memory of my naked boobs giving you a chubby?”

  “I’m a guy,” he said with a shrug. “Nice boobs equals hard-on.”

  Cooper was way too cute for his own good. He did that messy-haired, ripped abs thing quite well. People never expected him to be the farmer in the Miles family. Although he looked like a pretty boy who ought to be posing in front of a camera—except for the dirt perpetually beneath his fingernails—he spent his days working in the fields. He took care of the vineyards like they were his babies.

  Adorable as he was, I’d never seen Coop as anything other than a brother. And despite the way he joked about my boobs making him hard, he saw me the same way. We just had fun messing with each other, and sometimes our banter got a little raunchy. Another reason I loved him.

  “Did you come up here to talk about my boobs, or…?” I asked.

  “No,” he said, and wrinkled his nose.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well…”

  “Just get it over with, Coop,” I said.

  “Fine. But I want you to know ahead of time, this is all Leo’s fault. So if you’re going to get feisty with anyone, go find him.”

  “Get feisty?” I asked. “Why would I get feisty with Leo?”

  He grabbed the chair and tilted it backward, rocking it on its back legs. “Roland’s coming home.”

  It took every bit of self-control I possessed not to let my face—or body—react to the sound of my ex-husband’s name. But I was determined to remain unaffected, and the first step in achieving that was to show no emotion.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know the whole story,” he said. “Leo said something about things being worse than he thought, and we need Roland to help us sort it out. I guess something’s going on with Dad.”

  Cooper’s parents, Lawrence and Shannon, owned Salishan Cellars, the winery where I worked as the events manager. I’d come back here to Echo Creek after I left Roland, and much to my surprise, Shannon had offered me a job. Considering her oldest son and I were getting a divorce, it had been unexpected. But I’d worked for them before Roland and I had moved to San Francisco, and Shannon had been thrilled to have me back after my personal life went nuclear.

  I was grateful to the Miles family for not ostracizing me just because I was their son’s ex. For a lot of people, working for their ex’s family would be a nightmare. For me, it was a godsend. And it didn’t really matter that Roland’s family and I were still close—that I worked for them, saw them daily, and was good friends with all three of his siblings. It didn’t matter because Roland was never here.

  San Francisco wasn’t all that far, but Roland might as well have lived on the other side of the planet. He never came home.

  “I’m confused,” I said.

  “You and me both,” he said. “Leo won’t tell me what’s going on, but he wouldn’t have called Roland if it wasn’t serious.”

  That was very true. Cooper and Leo didn’t exactly get along with their older brother. Roland had always resented the family business, but Cooper and Leo loved it. They lived and breathed this place, and I didn’t think they’d ever understood how Roland could just leave.

  I took a deep breath. I didn’t love the idea of Roland being here, but it wouldn’t be the first time. He came home to visit occasionally, though it had probably been at least a year and a half since I’d last seen him. Sometimes I wondered if it was me that kept him away. But of course, even when we’d still been married, he’d never wanted to come home.

  “Look, I don’t hate him or anything. We can get along just fine.”

  “Yeah?” Cooper asked.

  “Yep,” I said. “Not a big deal. I’ll be too busy to notice, anyway. I have a shit-ton going on.”

  “Good, because he just got here and he’s downstairs.” He dashed out of my office.

  “Now?” I called after him. “Coop?”

  Fan-fucking-tastic. I had eight billion things to do, but I had to go make nice with my ex-husband. Now, apparently.

  I wasn’t lying to Cooper. I didn’t hate Roland. The man knew how to push my buttons better than anyone in existence. But I’d never hated him. Not even when I’d first left. And four years later, I still didn’t.

  However, I didn’t exactly want to spend time with him either.

  But I figured I should get it over with. He’d be here for a couple of days, at most, and I was sure he’d be busy with whatever Leo had called him here to do. He’d probably just be locked in an office with his parents, and I wouldn’t have to see him more than once or twice.

  I stood and tightened my messy excuse for a bun, then went downstairs to get the obligatory greeting out of the way.

  The Big House, as we all called it, was just that. Big. It was the winery’s showpiece, with the main lobby, tasting rooms, and our biggest indoor event venue downstairs. The second floor had a smaller event space, and several offices—mine; one for Jamie, who did the winery’s marketing and helped me with events; and a couple that weren’t being used.

  Shannon and Lawrence both had offices in the building next door, which had been the original winery. The Miles family home was also on the winery property, though only Lawrence and Shannon lived there now. Cooper lived in town with his friend Chase, and Leo lived in one of the small guest houses on the property. Brynn, the youngest and only girl in the Miles clan, was going to college about half an hour away out in Tilikum.

  I went down the wide staircase and paused when I caught sight of Roland. He stood in th
e lobby, leaning against the front desk. True to form, he was dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt with the sleeves cuffed, showing his forearms. His dark hair was a bit different and his stubble a little thicker—it was a good look on him. He had his phone out, which was not at all surprising. The guy was always working.

  His attractiveness annoyed me. Mostly because I didn’t want to see him as sexy anymore. I wanted to be indifferent to him. To be unaffected. Maybe time would take care of that eventually, but it hadn’t happened yet. The first thought that came to my mind was how good his arms looked with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up.

  I rolled my eyes and continued downstairs. Fine, so Roland was attractive. Gorgeous, even. He was lean and muscular—I could tell he still worked out by the lines of his shoulders and chest. And those arms—god. Beautiful blue eyes. Thick dark hair. A few days’ growth of stubble on his chiseled jaw.

  It wasn’t what was on the outside that was the problem. Never had been.

  “Well, look who’s here,” I said.

  He looked up from his phone, a flicker of surprise crossing his features. “Oh, hi Zoe.”

  We eyed each other for a moment.

  “You have something on your shirt,” he said.

  I stretched my shirt out and inspected it. He was right; there was a tan coffee splotch near the bottom. “Goddammit. I thought this one was clean.”

  “Guess not,” he said. “How’ve you been?”

  “Fine,” I said with a shrug. “Busy. You know, the usual. You?”

  “Yeah, fine. Busy.” His phone buzzed in his hand and he looked at the screen. “Shit. I have to take this.”

  I watched him walk outside, putting the phone to his ear. Heard his voice as he started to talk. Short, clipped words that I didn’t process.

  Well, that was anti-climactic.

  With a scowl at no one in particular, I went back upstairs to my office. I guess I should have been glad I didn’t have a contentious relationship with my ex. It was the same every time I saw him. A brief hello. Sometimes a few words, usually small talk. When our marriage had first ended, we’d had a few fights—mostly on the phone. But since then, there was just distance. A cool acceptance that this was how things were now.

  It made me a bit sick to my stomach. I pulled at the hem of my shirt and rubbed my thumb across the coffee stain he’d noticed. Things felt awkward between us now, and I kind of hated it. There had been a time when Roland had been my best friend. The one I’d turned to when I was happy, or sad. The first person I told when I had good news. I’d once thought he was my soulmate. The person I was meant to spend the rest of my life with.

  Now we were basically strangers.

  How could that happen in just a few short years? We’d dated for three before getting married. And our ill-fated marriage had lasted another six. Almost a decade together, and what did it mean now?

  Nothing to him, apparently.

  That shouldn’t have still hurt. After all, I was the one who’d left. I’d packed up my things and moved out. And I didn’t regret my decision. Roland had cared about his career far more than he’d cared about me. I had become nothing more than an accessory. Someone to hang on his arm and look pretty at corporate events. When he hadn’t needed me to play the part of the good wife in front of his colleagues, he’d barely remembered I existed. That had been no way to live.

  I sighed and picked up my phone, flipping to my calendar. I had a client meeting in half an hour, so I needed to go home and change. It was one thing to run around in jeans and a dirty shirt when I was hauling twinkle lights and garlands out of storage, quite another when I was meeting with a client.

  I’d simply have to push thoughts of Roland out of my mind. And hope he didn’t stay in town long.

  3

  Roland

  I ended the call—being away from the office was going to be such a pain in the ass—and put my phone back in my pocket. I wondered where Cooper had gone. Since arriving about fifteen minutes ago, I hadn’t seen anyone else. I didn’t expect to see Leo. He rarely came out of his cave. Cooper had met me when I first got to the Big House, but before I could ask where to find Mom and Dad—and what the hell was going on—he’d told me to wait and gone upstairs.

  As soon as he’d come back, he’d rushed out the door again. A minute later, Zoe had appeared.

  Seeing her had been fine. She’d been cordial, and so had I. No problem.

  It had been weird to feel the urge to move closer and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Like an instinct I no longer needed but hadn’t lost yet. And yeah, she looked good, even if she was wearing a stained shirt.

  Of course, Zoe always looked good. She had blue eyes that contrasted with her brown hair. High cheekbones. Full lips. She cleaned up nice, when she tried. But there had always been something appealing about messy Zoe. That girl with careless hair and clothes that didn’t match. Little tattoos on her wrists and a tiny stud in her nose.

  I let out a breath and shook my head. No point in following that train of thought. It didn’t matter how beautiful Zoe was. I wasn’t here to see her, anyway.

  Cooper reappeared. He was dressed in a faded Salishan Cellars t-shirt, worn-out jeans, and work boots. He adjusted his cheap sunglasses. “So, everything okay?”

  I knew what he was really asking, but I wanted to ignore anything having to do with Zoe right now. “Other than the fact that I still have no idea what the fuck I’m doing here, yeah.”

  He nodded. “Cool. I don’t know what Leo’s doing. I guess we should go find Mom.”

  “Is Dad around?” I asked.

  “I think so,” Cooper said. “Haven’t seen him today, though.”

  “Does he know I’m coming?”

  “That’s a good question,” Cooper said.

  I let out a sigh. Great. This should be fun.

  We walked across to what was now known as the Little House. It had been the original winery until they built the Big House about ten years ago. Guests didn’t come here anymore, which was a good thing. The remodel had been half-finished for years. The former lobby was cluttered with construction materials, and big sheets of plastic covered one of the walls, which had been torn down to the studs.

  I’d known when my dad had started work on the building that it was a bad idea. Mom had agreed, but Lawrence Miles had a tendency of doing what he wanted.

  The second floor looked the same as it had last time I’d been here. Dad hadn’t done any demo up here, so the walls were intact. My mom, Shannon, was the head winemaker, so I wasn’t sure how much time she actually spent in her office, but that’s where we found her.

  My mom had long dark hair streaked with silver and she always wore it in a ponytail. Fine lines around her eyes hinted that she was in her mid-fifties, but she didn’t look much older than forty. She was dressed in a plain black t-shirt and had a pair of dark-rimmed reading glasses perched on her nose.

  “Hey, Mom,” Cooper said.

  She looked up from her laptop and her eyes widened. “Roland?”

  “Yeah, hi, Mom,” I said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” she asked, setting her glasses down. She stood and walked over to wrap me in a hug. Her head only came up to my chest. I’d inherited my father’s stature; Mom was tiny.

  I glanced at Cooper and he shrugged. “It was last minute. Leo called me.”

  “Did he?”

  “Yeah, he said something about the winery being in trouble?” I asked.

  Mom sighed, and her shoulders slumped. Her skin was pale and I noticed faint circles beneath her eyes. “We’ve been having financial troubles for the last year. I think it’s gotten worse, but you know how your father is.”

  I did know. He was tight-lipped and defensive. “Where is he? And where’s Leo? I’ve texted him three times to tell him I’m here.”

  “I’m sure Leo’s at home,” Mom said.

  That was probably true. He didn’t come out unless he had to. But why wasn’t he answer
ing me?

  “I can go check,” Cooper said. I had a feeling he just wanted an excuse to go back outside. He didn’t like being indoors.

  “Look, I disrupted my entire week to come out here because Leo made it sound like there was an emergency,” I said. “Was he messing with me, or are you really on the brink of losing the winery?”

  Mom’s mouth opened slightly, and Cooper made a strangled sound in his throat. “On the brink of… Leo said that?” she asked.

  I brought out my phone and called Leo. He never answered, but I’d leave him a voicemail. I was sick of this already. It was the same old bullshit. No one talked to each other around here—at least not about anything important. They had no problem dissecting the details of my failed marriage over dinner, but sharing information about the family business? Not so much.

  Leo’s voicemail picked up. “Leo, where are you? I’m standing in Mom’s office, she didn’t know I was coming, and I have no idea where Dad is. Why am I—”

  “Hey, Roland.”

  I stopped mid-sentence at the sound of Leo’s voice behind me and ended the call. “I was just leaving you a message.”

  “Sorry.”

  Leo stood sideways, keeping the left side of his face and body tilted toward the hall outside Mom’s office. As a teenager, Leo had been a clean-cut, smooth-jawed football star. Now he wore a shaggy beard and long hair that draped over the sides of his face. He’d served in the Army, and during a tour in Afghanistan, he’d been caught in an explosion. He’d suffered burns down the entire left side of his body. He was lucky to be alive, but the scars were brutal.

  He’d covered most of his left arm and leg with tattoos, but there wasn’t much he could do about his face. Even after several corrective surgeries, the lower part of his face was mangled on the left side.

  “I’ll go find your dad,” Mom said. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  I followed Leo and Cooper down to what had once been the main tasting room. Now it was set up like a farm-style version of a conference room. It had a long rustic table with matching chairs—probably all built by Ben, Salishan’s longtime groundskeeper and handyman. There were framed black and white pictures on one wall—vintage photos of my great-grandparents, who had founded the winery, and my grandparents, who had seen it grow from a tiny operation to something closer to what it was today.