“Okay, will do. Just . . . chardonnay is the yellowish one, right?”
She felt a brief moment of panic before she saw that tiny crinkle in his eyes. She laughed out loud, and he did, too.
“I almost got you. Admit it.”
She tried to tuck away her smile, but it was impossible.
“You did. What can I say, I’m not at my best this early in the morning.”
He met her eyes and opened his mouth before he shook his head and closed it.
She blushed and turned away. She hated how much she wanted to know what he was about to say.
“Okay,” she said, looking at the computer. “There’s a party of four at eleven. But that’s it until noon, when there’s a party of three and one of four. And then nothing until two, so you can let them linger. But I’ll be in and out all afternoon to help out. And really, don’t hesitate to let me know if you need me.”
He nodded.
“Thanks, Margot. Will do. I think I’ll be okay in here—between you, Taylor, and Elliot, I’ve been well trained over the past few weeks.”
She laughed. They certainly didn’t leave anything to chance with their employees.
“True. But thanks for stepping up, nonetheless.”
She smiled at him, and he grinned back at her. She suddenly realized they were alone in here. She turned away and slipped through the staff-only door and back to her office.
Thank goodness she had these calls today to keep her busy so she couldn’t stay in the tasting room with Luke all day to help out. God, why was she so drawn to this man? It wasn’t his looks—yes, Luke was definitely attractive, but she’d never found that sort of tall, scruffy, nerdy type all that appealing before. She tended to like the clean-cut, well-put-together vibe a lot better. But there was just something about Luke.
At least Luke didn’t know how much she was drawn to him, how much she thought about him. Well, she hoped he didn’t know that. And she thought about that night far too often, especially when she couldn’t sleep and she let herself remember every second of that night, starting from the kiss outside the Barrel, and then that silent, tense, anticipatory walk back to his place, and then that kiss at his front door. She especially let herself remember the way his fingers had brushed against her nipples, and then lingered; the way they’d slipped inside of her, later on the bed, followed by his tongue, and then—
Shit. No. She couldn’t think about this here, now, of all places. Not with Luke so close. Plus, she really did have that call at eleven, and she had to prep for it. Oh, and she had to print the menus for today, right. She forced herself to put thoughts of Luke to the back of her mind, and turned to her computer.
* * *
LUKE HOPED MARGOT HADN’T noticed his moment of slight—very slight—panic when she’d told him that Taylor was gone for the day and he’d be all alone in the tasting room. He’d wanted to beg Margot to stay in there with him, tell her that he wasn’t ready to do this by himself, but his pride wouldn’t let him.
It wasn’t that the general duties of working in the tasting room were beyond him. He was smart, he could follow directions, he could pour wine; he’d graduated magna cum laude from Stanford, after all. He opened the dishwasher to unload it, but the glasses in there were still dirty. Whoever had closed up the night before must have forgotten to turn it on. He powered it on and went to check the appointments for the day.
This job, for the most part, was a lot of fun. But it was the questions all of these people asked! That’s what had made him bite his lip to keep himself from swearing when Margot had told him he was in charge of the tasting room for today. He’d have to find a way to answer things like how many different kinds of grapes were in each bottle of wine; and where all of those grapes were grown, and if they’d had any issues with smoke taint (a horrifying phrase if he’d ever heard it) because of the fires from the past few years; and how many acres, exactly, of vineyards did the Nobles own; and were their grapes grown elsewhere; and wasn’t this Cab Franc a lot more like a Cab Sauv and really, what was the difference between them; and so many other things. And of course, since he was Black, and a man, and many people who came to the winery knew that the winemaker was Black, and a man, they often assumed he was Elliot, and asked him lots of detailed winemaking questions that didn’t stop even when he’d made it clear that he was neither a winemaker nor a member of the Noble family.
Up until now, Taylor or Daisy had always been there to jump in when he’d gotten questions he couldn’t answer—occasionally Margot was around to pitch in—but today he’d just do what he could to answer and call in Margot only for anything extra tricky.
He knew that was another part of it, of course. He didn’t want to have to call in Margot for anything tricky. He didn’t want Margot to have to rescue him from questions he didn’t know enough to answer. He wanted to impress her. But then, would Margot, being Margot, be far more impressed with him if he admitted to what he didn’t know?
He wasn’t used to being in an environment like this. He had no idea how to handle it.
He sighed and looked back down at the appointment list.
“Oh no!” Margot stood at the door, a stack of menus in her hands and a panicked look on her face. He turned around to see what she was looking at. Water, leaking out from the dishwasher. He jumped to turn it off, but Margot had gotten there before him.
“It’s broken,” she said. “Damn it. I’ll call the plumber, I guess.” She sighed. “This would happen on a day Taylor wasn’t here.”
He rolled up his sleeves.
“Want me to take a look at it first?”
Margot stared at him.
“What do you know about dishwashers?”
Luke knelt down in front of the dishwasher.
“My mom owns an inn—I had to figure out pretty quickly how to fix most household appliances.”
Margot let out that low laugh of hers. Thank God his back was to her.
“I honestly don’t know why none of us have ever figured out dishwashers, we certainly wash enough wineglasses every day to need to know this. Between me, Elliot, and Taylor, we know how to fix almost everything else around here, including all of the cars. I think it’s just because the dishwasher hasn’t broken yet.”
He turned around at that.
“You can fix cars?”
She put her hands on her hips, a look of mock outrage on her face.
“Don’t look so surprised at that. Don’t I look like the kind of woman who can fix a car?”
He had no idea how to answer that, but she just laughed again.
“Well, I am—at least, for the easy stuff.” The expression on her face softened. “Uncle Stan taught both me and Elliot about cars, starting with that old truck of his that’s still out there.”
He’d wondered about that old truck. It looked well-preserved, but it had been in the same place since he’d started here.
He turned back to the dishwasher. He opened it and looked around.
“I’ll get the tool kit,” Margot said from behind him. He heard her heels clicking on the wood floor as she went into the back and then quickly came back out.
“I may not need it,” he said. He moved the float switch up and down a few times and then closed the dishwasher door.
“That’s it?” Margot asked.
He laughed.
“I feel like I should pretend there’s a lot more to do here, and it’s super complicated, so I can get lots of praise, but I’m pretty sure the float switch was just stuck.” He looked at Margot. “Okay if I turn this thing on so we can test it out to see if I was right?”
Margot shrugged.
“Might as well, while we’re here to watch it. And we have lots of towels at the ready and are close to the water off switch, just in case.”
Luke pressed the on button and then held his breath. He thought he was right on this one, but it would be just his luck to be very wrong when he was trying to impress a woman. Who was also his boss.
They both stared at the machine as they waited to see what would happen.
“Oh, there you are, Margot, did you get the— What are we looking at?”
He and Margot both turned to see Elliot there, a cup of coffee in one hand and a pastry in the other.
“We’re looking at the dishwasher,” she said. “It’s broken. Or . . . was broken, but Luke may have done some magic with it.” She turned to Luke. “I think it’s not leaking anymore.”
He nodded.
“I think you’re right,” he said.
“You’ve saved the day, Luke,” Elliot said.
“Not just the day, but he also saved me from having to write a large check to a plumber for about three minutes of work,” Margot said. “Thanks, Luke.”
He met her eyes. That warm expression was all the thanks he needed.
Well. He probably could have come up with something better. But unfortunately . . .
“No problem,” he said. “Happy to help.”
Elliot smiled at him and then looked at Margot.
“See? Aren’t I good at hiring? On top of everything else, he’s good with his hands.”