For now, I stood up. “You know what? I can see that this isn’t worth your time, and I don’t think it’s worth my time, either.”
Hayden grimaced, looking sheepish. “Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “My brother does this to me every once in a while. Don’t take it personally. Let’s just sit down and try to have a nice evening. I’m sorry I was late, and that I’m not dressed properly.”
I blinked in surprise. Ace was his brother? But I shook my head. That didn’t matter.
“We both know that this isn’t going anywhere,” I told him. “I think it’s probably better that we end this right now. I have important things that I could be doing right now, and you probably have better things to do as well.”
I didn’t wait for his response and just turned and headed for the door.
Maybe I should cut Ace some slack after all. He was just looking out for his brother. It was the kind of thing that Leslie had always threatened to do for me. I didn’t know exactly what Ace thought that his brother and I might have in common, but that was neither here nor there. I could pretend, at least, that his heart had been in the right place.
It just hadn’t worked out between us. That was all that I would say to Ace. Of course, his brother might tell him a different story about how I had stormed out, leaving him sitting there all alone, bewildered about what had gone wrong.
I fought the urge to glance back over my shoulder, suddenly feeling guilty at the thought of Hayden sitting in there alone. Even if this date wasn’t going to go anywhere, would it really have been so bad to have some company for dinner? It wasn’t like Hayden was wholly unattractive. And maybe if I’d at least tried to talk to him, we might have found that we had something in common. There had to be some reason that Ace had tried to hook me up with the man.
But I let those thoughts go. It was the kind of thing that Leslie would have said to me. She would have urged me to give this more of a chance. She would have reminded me that sometimes dates could be fun in and of themselves, even if they never led to anything more. And that was all well and good, but at the same time, why waste a night trying to connect with a stranger that I was probably never going to see again?
Instead, I headed to my mother’s place. That was a much more worthwhile way to spend my evening.
I grinned when I let myself in and found Mom sitting in the living room with her knitting over her lap. She had her eyes closed, but I knew that she wasn’t asleep as she hummed along to the classical music on the radio. She opened her eyes and smiled at me.
“Did I know you were coming over?” she asked. I immediately went to the side table to get her a glass of water from the ever-present pitcher when I heard how raspy her voice was.
“No, it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I was in the area,” I told her.
“And just what were you doing in the area?” Mom asked. “Not just coming to check up on me, I hope. You know that Julie has been taking care of me.”
“I know,” I said. “I still don’t like the fact that you won’t let me get you an overnight nurse, though. What if something happened to you in the middle of the night?”
Mom shook her head. “Having a stranger in the house in the middle of the night would give me a heart attack,” she joked. “I’m used to having the place all to myself since you moved out and your father—God rest his soul.” She sighed and looked away. She could never quite bring herself to talk about what had happened to Dad. I knew there were medical reasons for her illness, but at the same time, I couldn’t help thinking that a broken heart was killing her just as fast as the cancer.
“Now, what were you doing out this way? And all dressed up too.” Mom peered at me. “Oh honey, were you on a date? You didn’t wear that on a date, did you?”
I tugged self-consciously at my dress. “What’s wrong with it?” I asked her.
Mom sighed. “Red just isn’t your color, you know that,” she said. “And besides, that dress hugs your curves. All of your curves. You know there are better fabrics out there for you. Ones that would leave a little more to the imagination.”
I couldn’t help blushing, even though I knew that it only proved her point about red not being my color. I should be used to the way that she talked about my wardrobe choices by now. Oh, she didn’t mean it to be harsh. She just told it like it was, and she always had.
I didn’t want to let it get to me, and I’d thought I looked great in this dress. Leslie had too. But in my heart, I knew I would never be able to wear it again. At least not without a long cardigan to cover up some of those slightly more unflattering curves she referred to.
“It wasn’t really a date,” I told Mom. “I was just meeting with a friend of a friend. And I guess it didn’t go very well.” Mom sighed, and I decided it was high time to change the subject. “You know, work has been a little interesting this week. Apparently the IRS wants to audit us next month.”
Mom’s eyes immediately became shrewd. “That’s only interesting if you suspect they might find a problem,” she said.
I sighed. “Well apparently there might be one,” I admitted. “Charlie says he’s gone over the books again and again and just can’t figure out where the discrepancies are. But it definitely looks like there’s a problem.”
“That’s not good,” Mom said, and I could see the wheels start to turn in her head. Like she was still one of the leaders in the company, coming to the rescue. I felt a pang in my heart. Even if all went well and she lived much longer than the doctors thought that she would, I knew she would probably never take over the company again. When she had first gotten sick and handed things over to me, she told me that the second she was cured, she was going to do everything left on her bucket list.
Now, it was pretty doubtful she would live much longer than a year. But that was something that my mind avoided thinking about.
“Charlie thinks he’s found someone who can help out at least,” I told Mom. “Maybe all it’ll take is an outside pair of eyes to take a look at the books.”
Mom frowned. “Are you sure you can trust someone from outside the company?”
“I don’t know that we have a choice,” I sighed. “We only have a month to get things in shape, and neither Charlie nor I are making any sort of headway on things. And this guy is apparently some sort of wizard when it comes to fixing these things. Charlie says he’s worked with quite a few companies in the past. And you know how much we can trust Charlie.”
Mom sighed and put a trembling hand up to my cheek. “I know how much I can trust you,” she corrected quietly. “I know you’ll take care of this company. I wouldn’t want anyone else to be in charge of things.”
I smiled at her, albeit with an edge of uncertainty. “I’ll let you know how things go,” I promised her, clearing my throat. “I’ll be meeting with the guy tomorrow. If I don’t like him, I’m not keeping him around. Aren’t you the one who always taught me to trust my gut?”
Mom stared at me for a moment, then shook her head. “I sometimes wish that I hadn’t,” she said. “Sometimes, I feel like you trust your gut a little too much. You jump to conclusions about people before you even give them a chance.”
I tried to suppress a sigh. I so didn’t want to come back around to talking about my date, but I knew that that was exactly where she was steering the conversation.
“You know you deserve to have a boyfriend,” Mom continued. “Even if you’re a bigger girl, you deserve one. There’s someone out there for you, and I just know you’ll find him eventually. But only if you’re open to the possibility.”
“All right, Mom,” I sighed. I hated to agree with her about something like this, but I knew if I didn’t, she would only keep pestering me about it. “Let’s get you ready for bed, why don’t we?” I suggested.
“All right,” Mom said wearily, letting me lead her upstairs.
Chapter 5
Hayden
“So how was your night?” Ace asked suggestively over breakfast on Thursday morni
ng. I rolled my eyes at him as I scooped eggs onto a plate for Booker.
“You would know if you’d still been awake when I got home,” I told him. Instead, I’d gotten home the night before to find Ace passed out on the couch while Booker watched a movie on TV. I had smiled and covered my brother with a blanket before bringing Booker upstairs and putting him to bed.
I admired Ace’s work ethic but sometimes wondered if he took on a little too much business as a personal trainer. I knew he liked to keep in shape and help others do the same, but there was a difference between keeping in shape and being exhausted all the time. I swear, some nights he came home feeling more exhausted than I had ever been, even when Booker was young.
But trying to tell him that he was overworking himself, or that he should quit meddling in my life was a waste of time.
“You must have been out late if I was already asleep by the time you got back,” Ace joked.
I rolled my eyes. “No, actually. I basically showed up to the date, she got pissed off that I was late, told me she wasn’t interested in me and walked out.” I glanced over at Booker, but he wasn’t paying any attention to our conversation. Instead, he was playing with his eggs and ketchup. Normally, I would have told him to stop fooling around with his food, especially since he had school, but I didn’t particularly want him to listen in, so today I let it slide.
“Why’d you set her up with me anyway?” I asked Ace, curiosity getting the better of me.
“She’s a beautiful woman,” Ace said, shrugging at me. “And she mentioned that she was single, and I thought that you two might hit it off.”
“Hit it off?” I asked incredulously. I thought back to the night before, looking for some sign that I might have missed. Of course, we hadn’t been in contact for very long, and I didn’t know the first thing about her. But that personality of hers was sharp as a whip. I couldn’t imagine that we would have anything in common.
Thinking back, I almost smiled as I recalled the way that she had said ‘you’re late.’ It was as though she was my boss and I had tried to sneak into the office a few minutes tardy. There had been something sexy about that assumed authority of hers. But at the same time, it wasn’t something I was looking for in a partner.
“So what are you up to today?” Ace asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Why, you have another hot date you want to set me up on?” I asked him.
Ace smirked. “Not yet,” he said. “Just curious.”
“I have a meeting with a company, actually. A work thing. They’re apparently in some trouble and about to get audited.” I frowned and shrugged. “I wasn’t really looking to go back to work or anything, not so soon, but this is to help out a friend of mine.”
“Fair enough,” Ace said. “Good pay?”
“Actually, yeah,” I said, shrugging. I glanced over at Booker again. “Should mean that I get to take some serious time off after this.” I grinned cheekily at Ace, knowing exactly what he thought about that.
Sure enough, Ace rolled his eyes, but he at least didn’t start the conversation we’d had a million times before. “So what kind of company is this one?”
“A winery, actually,” I said, grinning at him. “I’ll see if I can snag you a few bottles of something good.”
Ace snorted. “Since fuck knows you don’t drink that stuff,” he said.
I shrugged, glancing over at Booker again. But this part of the conversation, he wouldn’t understand even if he was listening. I used to drink a lot more—back before I had Booker. That was part of my life before. I didn’t drink all that much anymore.
Arriving at the vineyard later that day, I looked around. I was running a bit late for the meeting Charlie had scheduled with me, but I wanted to take a moment to appreciate how beautiful the area was. Maybe it would make it a little easier to adjust to the fact that I had picked up more work again already if I took a little time to appreciate where I was.
This place sure was beautiful. I took a deep breath of the crisp air and strolled over to check out some of the vines. I could tell they were old from how thick and gnarled they were. I vaguely remembered something about older vines yielding fewer but better grapes—or something like that. I had never really been interested in the theory behind different types of alcohol.
This place was clearly well tended, though. Whoever owned it was doing something right. I just hoped that I could help them fix their books so they could hang on to this place.
Hearing a noise, I turned around and smiled as I saw Charlie strolling towards me. “Good to see you,” he greeted me.
“Good to see you, too,” I told him. I gestured around. “You didn’t tell me you were asking me to work in paradise this week.”
Charlie laughed. “Paradise? I guess that’s one way to describe it. You want a tour of the place?”
“I know I’m already late for our meeting,” I said, with a grimace as I glanced at my watch. “I just wanted to see the place a little before I came inside. But we should get to those books.”
Charlie shook his head. “Just like your father,” he said. “Always too hard-working for his own good. I’m not in any hurry. Let’s take a little walk.”
“Aren’t we meeting with the head of the company?” I asked doubtfully.
“We are,” Charlie agreed. “But it should be all right if we’re a little late. She has plenty of other stuff on her hands at the moment anyway. Honestly, she’ll probably be grateful if she gets a little extra time to get things done this morning.”
“All right, if you’re sure,” I said. “I’d love to see the place.”
“Perfect,” Charlie said. “Of course, there’s not all that much to see at the moment. We brought in last year’s harvest, and it’s fermenting at the moment, so I can show you the tanks that it’s in, but all of that is indoors over there. And it probably won’t look particularly interesting until it’s ready to be casked.”
We wandered around the vineyard for a little while, Charlie pointing out the different areas of vines and explaining the types of wines they made here. He told me all about the unique makeup of the soil and all sorts of things that to be honest, I didn’t really understand. But he did it in such a way that I never felt like he was talking down to me.
Finally, Charlie clapped his hands together. “Well, we’d better get inside for that meeting with the boss. It’s a little chilly out here, isn’t it?”
I laughed. “Yeah, just a little,” I agreed, shoving my hands deeper into my pockets.
We headed inside, and Charlie led me to the office, tapping lightly on the door. “Come in,” came the brisk response. Was it just my imagination, or did she sound frustrated? I glanced over at Charlie, but he didn’t seem perturbed. I shrugged and pushed open the door—and froze just inside the door.
It was the same woman from the night before. She’d changed out of the red dress, and her hair was in a much more casual ponytail, but that face, and the air of authority was unmistakable.
No fucking way.
Chapter 6
Mallory
I stared at the man that Charlie had just brought into my office. Not only was he late—again, my mind supplied—but he was the same man from the night before. The disastrous blind date. Ace’s brother. I stared coolly at him for another moment, but he looked just as surprised as I felt, so I knew he hadn’t known about this in advance. That, at least, made me feel better.
But still, he was the last guy I wanted going through my business books. He was the last person I wanted to go to for help. The last person I wanted to work with.
So I turned a cool gaze on Charlie. “This is absolutely not the guy we’re looking for,” I told him.
Charlie looked taken aback. He looked between the two of us. “Do you two know one another?” he asked, sounding confused.
“I know as much as I want to know about him,” I told him, folding my arms across my chest. I raised an eyebrow at Hayden. “You’re late. Punctuality is important around here. I thi
nk it’s time for you to go.” I turned back to my desk and shuffled some papers, hoping he wouldn’t realize how flustered I really felt.
Jesus, how embarrassing, though. I tried so hard to keep my work life and my personal life separate, and this was what I got. Not that I had much of a personal life to begin with.
I didn’t want Charlie to see this. I didn’t want him to think I was sabotaging my only chance at saving the company from the IRS because of some personal dilemma. But at the same time, there was no way in hell I was going to work with this guy. Not only did we have some personal history that I didn’t want to think about, but there was also the small fact that he didn’t seem to give a damn about anything or anyone else.
Late for our date, late for our meeting. Not the kind of guy that I wanted on my team. Even if Charlie had billed him as brilliant.
I guess there was a part of me that thought that if he were as brilliant as Charlie had said he was, he would fight me on this. He would say something about his tardiness, come up with some excuse. Or else plead his case some other way. But instead, he just turned around and walked out.
I stared after him, wondering just what his angle was. Did he think I was going to get desperate and run after him? Because that certainly wasn’t going to happen.
Charlie frowned at me. “We were late to the meeting because I gave him a tour of the winery,” he said. “Hayden had nothing to do with it.” He paused, “I didn’t think you would mind, given the meeting you had this morning with our overseas distributors.”
I felt momentarily abashed. Charlie was right. I had plenty of work to do coming out of that meeting, and to be honest, it had kept me busy until after the time that I was supposed to meet with Charlie and Hayden. But I wasn’t going back on it now.
“I just don’t think he’s the right guy for the job, Charlie. I talked to Mom about things yesterday, and she thinks we should try and keep this within the business. We don’t know that we can trust someone from the outside. If our competitors got any wind of a scandal, who knows what could happen. The wine industry is cutthroat—you know that as well as I do.”
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