CHAPTER FOUR
JOSH LED THE WAY TO a shiny black SUV. A really big one that required a step to make it into the passenger seat. Charity was grateful that her simple navy dress hung past her knees and wasn’t very fitted. The style allowed her to make the climb without flashing any of the good citizens who might be watching.
Josh climbed in next to her, moving with the easy grace of an athlete. He rested his arm on the console between them and leaned close. Too close. With her first breath, she caught the scent of his body—a warm and masculine smell designed to melt the last barrier between her good sense and a free-for-all begging for attention.
He was exactly like the men who had drifted in and out of her mother’s life, she thought, determined not to be sucked into the same pain and heartbreak she’d seen countless times. Showy men were nice to look at, but horrible bets when it came to relationships. How many times had her mother had her heart broken? Ten? Twenty? It seemed as if every few months she found someone new. Someone perfect and shallow who promised everything, then left her shattered.
Charity wanted happily-ever-after. And normal. Something Josh could never be.
“What would you like to see?” he asked, his voice low and slightly suggestive.
She forced herself to stare out the front of the SUV and told herself she was desperately bored. There were a thousand things that needed her attention back in her office. Phone calls to be made, plans to be started, lists to be reviewed. Nothing about her time with Josh was the least bit interesting.
Charity sighed. At least when she lied to herself, there was no one to call her on it. “You’re the local,” she said. “I’ll let you pick the route.”
“Fair enough, but you’re going to need to put on your seatbelt.”
She reached for the strap. “Because it’s the law, right? We’re not going up a mountain or anything.”
He chuckled. “Not on a first date. I like to save the intense stuff for later. To make sure you can handle it.”
She wanted to point out this wasn’t a date, but that would require speaking and his verbal play had left her throat a little dry.
The man was charm personified, she thought, wondering if it was a God-given gift or something he had to work at. With her luck, he was a natural. He probably didn’t even know what he was doing to the women around him. Not that she would tell him.
He pulled into the street, then rolled to a stop at the light on the corner. “You take the interstate into town?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“See much of the area since you arrived?”
“Just what I’ve walked to. I’ve only been in town a couple of weeks. There hasn’t been much time.”
“You don’t get weekends off?”
“I spent my first weekend getting ready for the meeting with the university.” She grimaced as she thought of how that morning had been a disaster until Josh had breezed in, spoken a few magic words and saved the day. Not that she was upset to have the contract signed. It was just that he’d made her feel bad at her job. Or maybe she’d done that all by herself.
“Last weekend, I was getting ready for my meetings this week.”
“I sense a pattern,” he said. “You need to get out more.”
Was he offering? She desperately wanted him to be offering. Which was silly, because she would have to say no to any kind of offer from him. The man wasn’t good for her sanity. Plus, hello. There’d been a woman waiting in his room the other night. A close-to-naked woman obviously expecting her evening to take a turn for the erotic. Josh was a player and Charity had never understood the rules of the game.
Note to self, she thought. She would look Josh up on the Internet when she got back to her room that night. Any kind of crush should be destroyed by the reality of his personal life.
“I plan to be in Fool’s Gold for a long time,” she said. “I’ll see it all eventually.”
He turned two blocks before the sign for the interstate, then headed west. “There are three different wineries growing grapes in the valley,” he said, pointing to the acres of vineyards sprawling to the horizon. “Mostly cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cab franc. Some other grapes for blending.”
He flashed her a smile. “Which takes us to the limit of my wine knowledge. If you want to know more, they do tours every weekend, starting in a couple of weeks.”
As they sped down the highway, Charity could see tiny buds on the bare branches—the promise of grapes to come.
“Most of the wineries were started years ago,” he continued. “This whole valley used to grow everything from corn to apples. Gradually the vineyards are taking over. Something about the soil and the weather.”
“And money,” she said. “For a lot of farmers, there’s more profit in grapes. Wine is very big these days.”