“No, I was just at home—I hadn’t heard from you, so I figured you were busy, and I got that text from Avery.” He looked around and let go of her hand. “Is she here? I got distracted when I saw you, but I guess I should find her.”
Margot looked up at Sydney.
“You’re welcome,” her friend mouthed, with a very smug grin on her face.
Margot tried to glare at her, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her lips.
“Sorry I didn’t text,” she said. “Avery’s not here. I think this is a situation where my friend conspired with your friend to get us together tonight, and I can’t be mad about it at all.”
Luke laughed and reached for her hand again.
“Well, I guess I need to thank them both, then.”
Margot picked up her champagne glass. She suddenly felt very silly about coming here, ignoring her phone, ignoring him. It would have been one thing if she’d made plans with Sydney on purpose, but she’d just done this to prove a point to herself, and to Luke. A stupid point.
“I should have texted,” she said. “I, um, thought we maybe needed a night off. I didn’t want you to get tired of me.”
Luke laughed again, but stopped when he looked at her face.
“You’re not serious?” He looked at her for a moment. “Is that a nice way to say that you needed a break from me? Because if so, you can just say that.”
She shook her head.
“No, that wasn’t it.” That’s why she hadn’t texted him that she had other plans, she realized. Because she’d wanted to see him. “I didn’t. I don’t. But it’s been every night this week, and I didn’t want us to—” She didn’t know how to finish that sentence, not in a way that wouldn’t reveal too much. “I thought maybe you’d be busy. Or that you might want to spend a night in your own bed.”
He laughed.
“Why would I want to be alone in my bed if there was the slightest possibility I could be with you in yours?”
He said it so casually, like it was obvious that’s what he would want. This man made her feel so good.
Sydney strolled up to them and set a glass down in front of Luke.
“Let me know if there’s anything else you want, Luke. I remember you liked Uncle Nearest last time.”
It felt really good, to be here with him at the bar, with his hand in hers, and her friend grinning at them.
“You have an excellent memory,” he said. “And thank you. For the drink and everything else.”
Sydney smirked.
“Anytime.”
Luke looked down at his drink, but Sydney kept looking at Margot.
“Not serious?” she mouthed.
Margot did glare at her this time, and Sydney just laughed.
“What?” Luke asked.
“Nothing,” Margot said.
Seventeen
A WEEK LATER, LUKE lay in Margot’s bed while she got dressed. He was usually up and gone before Margot, but his mom had ordered him to take the day off. He’d already taken full advantage of getting to stay in bed with Margot.
“You look very smug, all tucked in my bed like that,” she said.
He rested his hands behind his head.
“I feel very smug, now that you mention it. That was a very promising start to a workweek, don’t you think?”
She grinned at him.
“I do think.”
They smiled at each other for a while before she turned to her closet.
She pulled on that black wrap dress of hers, and he smiled.
“Ah, your Monday dress,” he said.
She stopped, midway through tying the knot at her waist, and stared at him.
“No one has ever noticed that I wear this dress every Monday,” she said.
“I notice everything about you,” he said.
She stared at him for a few more seconds, an uncertain smile on her lips, before she turned back to the mirror.
“I wish we could spend the whole day together,” he said. “I can’t believe I have the day off but you’ll be at work all day.”
She looked at him in the mirror.
“I wish we could, too,” she said.
He sat up in bed.
“Why can’t we? You’re the boss—can’t you take today off? We could stay in bed all day, or take a road trip. Go down to San Francisco, or to the beach or something.”
Her eyes lit up.
“The beach?” She sighed. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”
She picked up her mascara. She didn’t think he was serious.
“Well? What winery emergencies are going to come up that you can’t solve if you’re twenty or so miles away?” She just laughed. “No, really. When’s the last time you took a day off? Like, didn’t go into the winery at all, didn’t turn on your computer, didn’t take a bunch of calls, for a full day?”
She thought for a second.
“Well, the last day I didn’t go into the winery at all was the day before I met you.”
They grinned at each other.
“See, you’re trying to get me sidetracked here,” he said. “Weren’t you on a work trip then?”
She sighed again.
“Yes. Okay, fine, I was still working that day. I don’t know, maybe sometime in January?”
He got out of bed and went over to her.
“January? It’s June! You haven’t taken a day off in almost six months? Mondays are quiet at the winery anyway. Is Taylor working today?”
He reached for the tie of her dress, but she put her hand on his to stop him.
“Yeah, but with the party coming up, and everything, I just have so much to do.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “Why do you have today off, anyway? Is your mom well enough to drive now?”
He dropped his hand from her dress. Right, of course she’d ask that.
“Oh. It’s . . . my birthday.”
She looked startled.
“Your birthday? Today? I didn’t know.”
He nodded.
“I know—I don’t like to make a big thing about it. But my mom ordered me to take today off, said Beth could cover and could call her if there was a crisis.” He grinned at her. “It already started off great, though.”
“Well, happy birthday.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Glad I could start your birthday with a bang. So to speak.”
He laughed, and so did she.
“Your birthday,” she said again. She bit her lip. He could tell she was thinking. “Well. I guess I will take the day off, then.”
“Does this mean you think Taylor and Elliot can handle everything for one day?” he asked her.
She smiled.
“Well, the last time I left Elliot in charge, he hired you.”
He dropped a kiss on her lips.
“We both know what happened after that. Do you regret leaving him in charge that day?”
He’d said it as a joke, but now he wanted to know how she would answer. Did she regret that? Did she regret sleeping with him that first night, which she definitely wouldn’t have done if she’d been at the winery that day? Did she regret letting Elliot hire him in the first place, so she’d have to work with him? Because despite how much every moment of that time, of having to stay an arm’s length from her, had killed him, he didn’t regret a second of it.
“No.” She pulled him closer. “I don’t regret leaving him in charge that day.”
“Excellent,” he said. “Let’s go to the beach.” His hands went to her waist again. This time she let him untie her dress. “This dress, as much as I love it on you, is not beachwear.”
She smiled at him.
“It’s going to be foggy at the beach, you know.”
He stepped closer to her and slid his hand around her waist.
“That’s okay. We can huddle for warmth.”
She burst out laughing as he kissed her neck.
“The beach it is, then. It’s your birthday, after all. Let me call Taylor. And Elliot.”
In less time than he would have expected, they were in his car, on the way to the Sonoma coast. He kept waiting for Margot to say no, wait, she had a call she had to take at the winery that day, there were VIPs coming that she had to do a meet and greet with, but she seemed content to sit in the passenger seat of his car, with the windows down and the music up.
Granted, she checked her phone more than once, but he’d expected that.
“Speaking of that first night, which we were an hour ago,” he said, when they were on the way, “I’ve been wondering. Were you ever going to text me?”
He felt her eyes on him, but he didn’t look at her. He knew she would tell him the truth either way, but it might be easier if he wasn’t looking at her.
“I hadn’t decided,” she said. “I mean, I was still deciding, when you and Elliot walked into my office.” He waited. He knew she wasn’t done. “But probably not.”
“Why not?” He looked out at the vineyards lining the roads, forced himself not to look at her, tried not to care too much about her answer.
“That night was—talk about taking a break—that night was the first time in a long time I felt like I had a real break. I had a great time with you, but it was more than that. I didn’t think about the winery the whole time we talked at the bar, that whole time at your apartment, not until morning. And you were so . . . The whole night just felt perfect. And I didn’t want to spoil it. To text you and have you never text me back, or for you to end up being an asshole, or not actually like me, once you got to know me. So. That’s why I was leaning against it.”
He wanted to respond to everything she said, argue for past Luke and why she should have texted him, but he pulled himself back.
“Then I’m especially glad that you left Elliot in charge at the winery that day.”
She grinned at him.
“How long do you think you’ll be at the inn, anyway?”