Prosecco and Peonies

by SJ McCoy

  Prosecco

  &

  Peonies

  Marcos and Molly

  The Hamiltons Book Four

  By SJ McCoy

  A Sweet n Steamy Romance

  Published by Xenion, Inc

  Copyright © 2018 SJ McCoy

  Prosecco and Peonies. Copyright © SJ McCoy 2018

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior written consent of the author.

  ISBN: 978-1-946220-39-4

  Published by Xenion, Inc. First eBook edition, August 2018

  www.sjmccoy.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are figments of the author’s imagination, fictitious, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead is coincidental.

  Cover Design by Dana Lamothe of Designs by Dana

  Editor: Mitzi Pummer Carroll

  Proofreaders: Aileen Blomberg and Marisa Nichols

  Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Epilogue

  A Note from SJ

  PS – Project Semicolon

  Also by SJ McCoy

  Dedication

  For Sam. Sometimes, life really is too short. Few. xxx

  Prologue

  Marcos watched Antonio walk back down the aisle with his bride on his arm. He was happy for them. Mary Ellen was a great girl, and she was just what Antonio needed. He believed they had a long and happy future ahead of them. His own marriage might have been a miserable failure, but that was down to him—and the woman he’d chosen to marry. He still believed that marriage was good—when it was right. He cast a glance at his parents. His mom was leaning her head against his dad’s shoulder as she dabbed at her eyes. They’d set the standard for him of what a wonderful marriage should be. They were loving and open. Sure, they had their disagreements, but they played fair. His mom was very Italian; she spoke her mind—loudly at times. She voiced her disapproval and her displeasure, but she didn’t bear a grudge. He’d never known them to go to bed angry. He doubted his mom’s anger could last more than an hour. She always got back to smiling and joking and hugging and kissing, voicing her happiness more often and more loudly than any grievance. His dad was a rock. He’d grown up right here in Napa, but he’d moved to Sicily to be with the woman he loved. In Marcos’ mind, that had been a declaration of true and undying love.

  From his vantage point, he scanned the rows of guests. There she was. Molly. She had her back to him as they all turned to watch the happy couple go by. He’d thought what he and Molly had was the same as his parents. She was outgoing, she let her feelings be known and never hung on to her anger. He shook his head. He’d loved her. But it had ended.

  He smiled to himself as Antonio steered Mary Ellen away from the house. He was taking her around to the garden to show her the Magnolia tree he’d planted there for her. As they disappeared around the corner, the guests turned back and began to chat with each other. He should probably go down there and join them instead of staying up here at the front. This part of his best man duties was over. He didn’t move, though. The rows of guests were filled with people he knew and loved. People he hadn’t seen in far too long and who, ordinarily, he’d love to catch up with.

  He blew out a sigh. This was no ordinary time, though. He was freshly divorced. Fresh out of a job—after admitting that he was in no shape to continue running the family winery in Sicily. If it weren’t for his impetuous brother and his wedding, which he’d announced all of a week ago, Marcos wouldn’t have had to face any of them. He’d planned to get away, travel for a while. Get right with himself and set a new course in life. He knew he had to make his way out in the world, fend for himself and become a success—at something—under his own steam. After his failed marriage and his failure in the family business, he had a lot of ground to make up before he’d be able to look himself in the eye again, let alone feel comfortable around his family and friends. They didn’t expect anything of him. They didn’t see him as a failure; he knew that. But he did, and that was what mattered.

  He watched as they all chatted and laughed, old friends and new ones all mingling with family. Molly didn’t turn and look his way even once. Another dark head did turn in his direction and broke away from the group he was talking to. Jack. His friend from college. They were all here.

  “Hey.” Jack greeted him with a smile. “It’s been too long.”

  Marcos nodded. “I’ve been keeping up on your news. Sounds like the Phoenix Corporation is going from strength to strength.” He smiled. “But it’s not your most important baby anymore, is it? How’s little Isabel?”

  “She’s great. We didn’t bring her. She stayed at home with my mom.”

  “That’s good. I’ll bet she loves her grandma time.”

  “She does.” Jack ran a hand through his hair. “Listen. I’m sorry to hear about your news.”

  Marcos gave him a rueful smile. “Don’t be. Caterina and I were never meant to be. I shouldn’t have married her, and I’m thankful that it’s finally over.”

  Jack nodded. “Is there any chance you’ll stay here?” He shot a look in Molly’s direction, making his meaning clear.

  Marcos gave him a sad smile. “No. I need to get away for a while. Go someplace where no one knows me. Figure out who I’m going to be and what I’m going to do from here.”

  “And you aren’t going to make wine?”

  Marcos laughed. “No. I’m questioning everything I’ve ever done—and, more importantly, the reasons I’ve done it. Lately, I’ve lost any passion I ever felt for wine-making. I’m going to take my time and figure out if it was ever really there. If I loved making wine, or if it was just a part of who I thought I was supposed to be.”

  Jack nodded. “Any ideas where you’ll go? You could come to Summer Lake.”

  Marcos smiled. “Thanks, but I have too many friends there. I love you and Pete and Smoke and Nate, but I need to be alone. I’m thinking I’ll start in Paris. Maybe London. New York. I want some city life for a while.”

  “That’ll definitely be a change, but at least you’ll be making your way back in this direction.”

  “I will. Just because I’m not ready to be here yet, doesn’t mean I don’t want to end up here.” He looked at Molly who was now talking with Cameron’s fiancée, Piper.

  Jack smiled. “Some things are worth taking your time over … to get it right.”

  “I don’t know if I already wasted too much time and got it all too wrong.”

  Jack grasped his shoulder. “Then I suggest you get right with yourself as quickly as you can and then get your ass back here to see if there’s any chance of you making things right with her.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “Aren’t you going to talk to him?” asked Piper.

  Molly shook her head and refused to turn around. “He’s talking to Jack at the moment.”

  Piper smiled. “How would you know? Do you have eye
s in the back of your head? Or are you just aware of every move he makes?”

  “I used to think it was the latter. I used to think I knew him inside out, just like he knew me. It turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

  “Do you believe in second chances?”

  Molly met Piper’s gaze. She’d been asking herself that question ever since she’d heard that Marcos and Caterina were getting divorced. Not that she was about to admit that. She shrugged.

  “That means you do, but you’re afraid to tell me so—or maybe you’re afraid to tell yourself so.” Piper put a hand on her shoulder. “Tell me to butt out, if you like. I know it’s none of my business, but it’s only because I care about you. I haven’t known you all that long, but I do know you’re not truly happy.”

  “Hang on—” Molly started to protest.

  “Just hear me out?”

  She blew out a sigh and nodded.

  “You have a great business—which you rarely take any time away from. You have some great friends—and we all adore you, but you don’t do anything for yourself. You’re content. I know that much. But you’re a bubbly, happy, positive kind of person, and I know you’d love someone to share life with.”

  “Maybe I would, but I’m not an old maid yet.”

  “No, but you haven’t exactly been actively searching for someone to share life with, have you?”

  Molly shook her head.

  “And would I be wrong in thinking that there’s only one person you’d want to share it with and that up until recently you thought that wasn’t ever going to be possible?”

  Molly blew out another sigh. “I can’t tell you what you’re right and wrong in thinking, Piper, because I have no idea what I’m thinking. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I believed that he was happy in his life and his marriage. Not perfectly happy, but content enough that nothing would ever change. I’m still trying to catch up with the fact that he’s left the family business—the business that was more important to him than I was, and he’s getting a divorce from the woman he married—who was also, obviously, more important to him than I ever was.”

  Piper held her gaze for a long moment. “I know it’s none of my business, and I’ll drop it if you want me to, but tell me one thing?”

  “What?”

  “Do you still love him?”

  Molly pursed her lips. “I don’t know. I’ve tried not to for years. It doesn’t matter anyway. Antonio assured me that he’s only here for the wedding, then he’ll be leaving again.”

  “Do you want him to?”

  “Yes. I do.” That was one thing Molly did know. If Marcos was going to come back to spend any time here, if there was a chance of them becoming friends—or anything else—again, she didn’t want it to be now. Not when he was in the final stages of a divorce or when he’d just left Di Giovanni wines. She knew herself, and she knew that if he came back now, she’d want to be there for him; want to help him through his hard times. She also knew that helping him heal the heart that another woman had broken would only break hers all over again.

  She hadn’t managed to sneak a peek at him while she and Piper had been talking, but all the little hairs on her arms and the back of neck let her know that he wasn’t up at the front anymore. He was behind her.

  Piper smiled. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

  “Should I walk on by?”

  Tears pricked her eyes. How could his voice still feel so familiar? And how did he even remember that silly CD of sad songs she’d burned and sent to him all those years ago? Dionne Warwick, “Walk on By.” Damn, that’d been cheesy. But in her defense, she’d been no more than a kid, going through her first—and only—major heartbreak.

  She turned around and shook her head. “No need. I’ve grown up since then. You know that.” She couldn’t figure out the look on his face. Was he sad? Uncomfortable? She had no clue.

  They stood there for a long few moments, just looking into each other’s eyes. He’d been a good-looking guy back then, but he was even more handsome now. He’d filled out—in the shoulders if not the hips. There were lines around his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t like this was the first time they’d seen each other since he left. He came back every now and then. They’d had a few stilted conversations, but this was the first time he’d sought her out.

  “You’ve grown into a very beautiful woman.”

  “Thank you.” What else could she say? “How are you?”

  He gave her a sad smile. “Better than I’ve been in twelve years.”

  She sucked in a deep breath.

  “Molly, I was a stupid, stupid kid, and I’ve regretted leaving you all this time.”

  She stared at him, not sure if he was really saying it or if she was just imagining him saying what she wanted to hear.

  “Can you forgive me?”

  She gave him a sad smile. “I already have. I did that years ago. I wanted you to be happy with whatever it took. There was nothing to forgive. You chose what was right for you—and that wasn’t me.” She said the words and she wanted to believe them, but they weren’t entirely true. She’d forgiven him for doing what he needed to make himself happy, but she hadn’t forgiven him for breaking her heart.

  “It was you, Molly. It was always you. I was just too stupid to see it.”

  Her heart was racing. She’d imagined this conversation a million times over the years. She’d hoped and dreamed that one day he’d realize he’d made a big mistake and he’d come back for her. “We were just kids, Marcos.”

  He nodded. “But we’re not anymore.”

  What did that mean? Was he saying he was coming back? She couldn’t crumble. She couldn’t help him through his darkness. “No, we’re not. We’re both adults with our own lives now. My life is here. Yours isn’t.”

  “I don’t know where my life will be for the next little while. It won’t be in Sicily, and it won’t be here either.”

  Relief and disappointment fought for control over her racing heart.

  “I had to ask you, though. When I get straight with myself, would you mind if I come back here?”

  She held his gaze for a long moment. “What for?”

  “The honest answer to that is: for you. I don’t want to ask anything of you, not yet. All I want is a glimmer of hope. I have some dark times ahead of me, and I want to believe that there’s a possibility, however small, that you could be the light at the end of the tunnel.”

  She didn’t want him to come back here right now, but she hated the thought of him going off who knew where and leaving her waiting and wondering if he’d ever come back. She’d done that once before. All that time she’d believed there was no hope for a future with him. Did she want to spend more of her life waiting and tormenting herself with hope? “I can’t make any promises.”

  “I wouldn’t ask you to. All I’m asking is that if your answer to me is no, never again that you tell me that now.”

  She looked deep into his big brown eyes. In them, she saw sadness and hope, and more than that, she still saw all the love that she’d seen in them when they were kids. She nodded slowly. “I spent years trying to convince myself that that was my answer to you.”

  He reached out and took hold of her hand, making the tears prick behind her eyes.

  “I’ve wished and wished that I could say that, but I can’t. I could never say never again to you.”

  He squeezed her hand, and she could see tears shining in his eyes. “Thank you, Molly. I’m going to leave now before I make a fool of myself. Can I …?” He held his arms open to her, and she met his gaze before nodding and stepping inside them. Twelve years of hard work melted away as he closed them around her and she hugged him back. She was back in his arms, however briefly. Her world shifted on its axis as she buried her face in his chest and breathed in the smell of him.

  Chapter One

  Six Months Later

  Molly leaned against the wall
in the short corridor to the kitchen. She tilted her head back and blew out a sigh.

  “Hey, what’s up?” Grady came through the swinging doors from the dining room and stopped dead when he saw her.

  “Nothing.” She smiled. “I was just taking a minute.”

  He came and put his hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t you take the rest of the night off? I seem to remember that was why you hired me in the first place—so you could take more time for yourself.”

  Molly pushed away from the wall, at the same time stepping away from him. “I’m fine. I just needed a minute.”

  His smile faded. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to overstep. I don’t want to be that employee who creeps you out.”

  She shook her head rapidly. “You’re not. And you know it.”

  His smile came back, lighting up his handsome face. “I just needed to check. I mean, my boyish charms haven’t worked on you yet, so I was starting to think that maybe you find me creepy?”

  “No. I don’t. I’m as aware of your charms as the next girl, but I’m your employer, we’ve talked about this before.”

  He gave her a rueful smile. “And I’ve told you that if me working for you is the only thing keeping you from agreeing to go out with me, then I’ll quit.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want you to quit. You’re a great asset to this place.”

  “I could be a great asset to you, too.” He stepped a little closer again, but she shook her head and moved away.

  “No.” It was getting harder and harder to say no to him. He was a great guy. Easy on the eye, for sure. If you saw him walking down the street, you’d think he was a laid-back surfer. He was all California tan, with his blue eyes and wavy blond hair.

  He gave an exaggerated sigh. “Sorry. I know I’m pushing my luck, but I can’t help it. Are you sure you don’t want to head home? I can close up. You know I can.”

  Molly shook her head. “I do and thanks. It’s not that I don’t want to leave you in charge; it’s more that I don’t want to go home just yet.”