“Don’t say it like that,” his mom said. “You know you’re enjoying yourself.”
“I am—somewhat—enjoying myself,” he said to Margot. “But please, don’t let that get out. I have a rep to worry about, here.”
Margot laughed, and his mom just shook her head at him and smiled.
“Your secret is safe with me,” she said.
“Pete, good talking to you,” Elliot said. He nodded at Luke’s mom. “Nice to meet you.” He looked at Margot. “There’s some equipment that I want to check out in the warehouse.”
Margot nodded.
“I’ll meet you over there.”
Then Elliot turned and raced away. Luke’s mom turned to Margot.
“I’ve met your brother at least three times,” she said, a smile on her face.
Margot nodded.
“Yeah, that sounds like my brother.” She smiled at the three of them. “Good to see you all. Luke, see you at the winery.”
She followed Elliot, and Luke let his eyes linger on her, just for a second, before he turned back to his mom. Wait, would she have noticed that, and wonder why he was staring at Margot like that, when he was supposed to be dating Avery?
He looked down at his mom, but luckily, she wasn’t paying attention to him.
“Oh, Pete, look—just the kind of thing I’ve been wanting for the kitchen!” she said, pointing to a clock.
What was Margot doing here? He hadn’t seen her car in the lot—not that he’d been looking for it, so it could very well be here. Had she and Elliot come together? Were they here on some winery business? Maybe, and almost certainly, and why was he wasting time thinking about this?
He knew the answer to that.
* * *
AS SOON AS MARGOT had seen Pete, and Pete had introduced her and Elliot to Lauren, she’d known that Luke was with them. Why, she had no idea, probably just because it felt inevitable, probably because her worst nightmare was for Elliot to find out about her and Luke.
She’d never met Luke’s mom before, but she knew Lauren had always made a point to send people from her inn over to Noble, and Margot always returned the favor. There weren’t that many Black-owned businesses in Napa Valley—they had to look out for one another. But it felt surreal, to stand there and smile and chat with Lauren, all the while waiting for Luke to walk up to them. Lauren had even said something about how she was so grateful to Avery, for getting Luke to move back to Napa. She’d had a little smile on her face when she’d said it. Did she think—or hope—that Avery and Luke were going to get back together?
Margot tried to push away all thoughts of Luke, but that was impossible. He’d looked particularly attractive today, with his worn jeans, an old Stanford T-shirt that was just a bit snug on him, and that part-embarrassed, part-defiant, part-pleased, wholly adorable look on his face when his mom teased him. Damn. This wasn’t good at all.
She shook her head. Whatever. She’d dealt with her attraction to Luke Williams for this long; she could keep dealing with it until he inevitably moved on from Noble and out of Napa Valley. From what he’d said that first night at the Barrel, he wasn’t planning to be in Napa all that long anyway, and she wasn’t going to fool herself that he’d changed those plans because of her. She knew that Luke was attracted to her, but she didn’t think that attraction actually meant anything to him. Men always found her too intimidating as it was; she was sure it didn’t help that she was Luke’s actual boss.
She found Elliot gazing at some equipment, a weird expression on his face.
“I got it,” he said.
“Great,” Margot said without any real idea of what he was talking about.
Forty-five minutes later, she knew all too well. A bunch of equipment from a winery that had gone out of business the month before, all of which had to be packed just so in Elliot’s truck so nothing would break on the drive back to the winery, along with a pile of scrap wood and various other prizes.
“How are we going to get all of this—plus ourselves—in your truck?” she asked her brother.
Elliot shrugged in that way that had always infuriated her.
“I’ll figure it out,” he said.
They spent the next twenty minutes trying, and failing, to figure it out. They tried to do it one way, failed, unloaded everything, and tried and failed again.
Margot stood there, her hands filthy, her hair pulled on top of her head, sweat running down her face, and stared at the pile of stuff Elliot had bought.
“Why do we have to take all of this today?” she asked. “Why can’t we get most of it and then come back for the rest tomorrow?”
Elliot didn’t even look at her.
“We have to get it all by the end of the day,” he said. “And there isn’t time to do two trips from here to the winery and back before everything is closed up.”
That would have been good information for her to know—or for Elliot to keep in mind—before they’d bought all of this.
She wiped her face with the bottom of her shirt.
“Then why didn’t you have me take my car so we would have more space?”
He just shrugged and picked up a pile of wood.
“Wouldn’t want you to get your car all dirty. Don’t worry about this, it’s not your kind of thing anyway. I’ll figure it out.”
Damn it, why did he always have to say things like that? Things that made her feel like she was the interloper who had taken over his winery? She wanted to yell at him, say her car wasn’t even particularly nice, that she didn’t care if it got dirty, that it got dusty all the time driving the roads around here and did he see her stressed about it? And why did he say it like that, that he would figure it out, not that they would, together?
Elliot had asked her to come with him just the day before, and she’d said yes, even though she had so much to do to plan for the party. They rarely spent time together anymore outside of the winery; she’d thought it would be fun, a bonding experience even, a time when they could relax in the car together and work together and feel like they were part of a team. Why had she thought that?
Tears sparked in her eyes, which just made her angrier.
“You know, I’m capable of—”
A car pulled up right next to them.
“Need some help?” Luke asked from the driver’s side window.
“Luke.” Elliot looked relieved. “Just the person we need, if you can spare the time.”
Part of her—the part of her that was frustrated and hot and sweaty and mad and didn’t want Luke seeing her looking as terrible as she was sure she looked—was pissed that Elliot seemed so pleased that Luke was there, like she hadn’t been any help to him at all. But mostly she just hoped that maybe Luke could actually solve this problem, and she could get home at some point, and get in the shower, and be done with today.
Luke jumped out of the car.
“No problem. I just finished helping out my mom and Pete, so I’m all warmed up.”
Margot smiled at him and tried to forget how bad she looked.
“I would say you don’t have to do this on your day off, but I’m too grateful for the help to even pretend.”
And that was true, even though she was also mortified for him to see her so disheveled and sweaty. Her hair was up in a bun, not like, a pulled-together topknot or a sexy, intentionally messy bun, but just a quick double loop with a ponytail holder she’d found in her bag to get her hair out of her face. Her jeans were dirty, her T-shirt was sticking to her body, and she was almost certain her eyeliner was smudged all over her face. Oh well, at this point she was too frustrated to care. Almost.
The three of them managed to load all of the stuff into the truck, and Margot grinned at Elliot and Luke.
“We did it!” she said. That was until she took a step back, and saw the big stack of wood sitting on the far side of the truck.
“Shit,” she said, pointing to the wood.
Elliot sighed.
“Damn. It would all fit in the passenger seat. If only I hadn’t brought you along with me.”
She turned away, but Elliot must have chosen that moment to look at her.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. Sure he hadn’t. “I just meant I wish you had another way back to . . .” He looked from her to Luke. “Luke. Can you drive Margot home so we can put the rest of this in my truck and be done with it?”
Oh no.
“Sure,” Luke said, “but we can also just put them in my car, you know.”
Elliot shook his head.
“I don’t want to get your nice car all dirty, and then you’d have to unload at the winery. You’ve already done enough work on your day off. But it’ll all fit in the truck.” He picked up all of the wood and set it inside while Margot and Luke just stood there. “See? So you can drive Margot?”
Margot wanted to say no, there must be another solution, but to protest now would seem churlish. Especially after how exhausted she and Elliot both were. And, at this point, the last thing she wanted was an hour-long car ride with her brother.
Luke looked at her, a question in his eyes.
“As long as that’s okay with Margot,” he said.
She shrugged.
“Sure. Thanks, Luke. We both really appreciate it.”