“Sure.”
She walked off to get his wine, trying to tamp down her irritation. She went back to the barn and sent Marisol over to the pizza guy to give him a glass of wine. She didn’t want to tempt fate by talking to him again.
By now, more people had started trickling in—they came down the path from the parking lot looking excited, which was exactly how Margot wanted them to look. The signs pointed them to the barn, to check in with Taylor and her guest list to get a wineglass. People could also pay—and join the wine club—at the door.
She joined Taylor at the checkin table.
“Hi, I’m Margot Noble, welcome to Noble Family Vineyards,” she said to the most recent group who came up to the table. “Would you like some wine?”
“I’d love some!” the woman at the front of the group said.
Margot stepped over to the bar and grabbed the open bottle of rosé.
“Why don’t I start all of you off with a glass of rosé? It goes great with all of the food we’re serving, and then you can ease into our other wines. Here’s a list of everything we’re pouring today, all the snacks that will be available, and also all of our wine that’s for sale. Please let me or any of the staff know if you have any questions.”
“Perfect, thank you!” the guest said. She turned to her friends. “See? I told you this was a good idea.”
Margot grinned at the group and poured tastes of rosé for all of them. When they moved on, she greeted the next group.
“Hi, I’m Margot Noble, welcome to Noble Family Vineyards.”
The next hour flew by. She poured rosé until Marisol came to relieve her, then she did a circuit of the party and tried to say hi to anyone she recognized from the tasting room or from around the valley, and introduce herself to anyone whom she didn’t recognize. She snapped pictures and uploaded them to Instagram, with the caption she’d drafted the night before. The food all smelled good, even though there were no burgers and the pizza wasn’t ready. There was nothing she could do about that—she couldn’t dwell on it now. She hadn’t tried any of the food yet; she was too busy talking to have food in her hands, and was too paranoid about getting anything on her dress to eat while standing. She’d brought along an emergency second outfit (another not-as-good-but-still-fine red dress) just in case, but still.
Every few minutes, she looked around for Luke. He was all over the party—chatting with Elliot, who was actually smiling at him; running errands for Taylor; bringing tacos to Marisol; replacing ice in the coolers at the rosé and white wine stations; and eating pizza with Avery. Every time she looked for him, he caught her eye and grinned at her, and she smiled back. That smile of his, the way he always found a way to see her from a distance, cut the tension in her shoulders by at least a quarter.
Wait! Luke was eating pizza! That meant the pizza guy had finally started serving—he’d said it would be thirty minutes late, it had been more like forty-five minutes late, but who was counting?
She was, obviously.
Huh, why was there suddenly no activity over at the tacos? She walked over to check in.
“Margot, I was just coming to find you. We ran out of tortillas—I must have forgotten to pack the rest of them. My sister just left to pick up more.”
She smiled at Luciana, who looked so apologetic.
“It’s okay,” she said. What else could she say? “Thanks for letting me know.”
Thank God for Sydney and Charlie—their food table was the only one that hadn’t had a crisis today. Although did that mean they were going to run out of food soon? Sydney looked over at her and gave her a thumbs-up. Okay. She could rely on Sydney.
She went back over to the barn to take over from Taylor.
“Go get something to eat. You need a break or else you’re going to collapse,” she said to Taylor.
Taylor narrowed her eyes at her.
“I could—and will—say the same about you, you know.”
Margot took the bottle she was about to open out of her hands.
“Go. I’ll be fine.”
Taylor rolled her eyes, but walked over to the line for the pizza. Margot opened the bottle of wine as a couple approached the table. She looked up to greet them, wine bottle in her hands, and froze.
It was Pete. And Luke’s mom.
She’d put Pete on the guest list, and he’d RSVP’d with a plus-one, but somehow she’d forgotten—or blocked out—that his plus-one was Luke’s mom.
Did Luke’s mom know she and Luke were together? She didn’t think so. He probably would have told her if he’d told his mom about them, right? When they’d had that conversation about Elliot? But she wasn’t sure.
She forced herself to be calm. This was more than she’d bargained for today—a day she already had a whole lot to deal with—but she could handle it.
She hoped.
“Hi, Lauren! And Pete! Welcome to Noble Family Vineyards. I’m so glad you could make it today. How’s your wrist?”
Lauren smiled as Margot handed her a glass of wine. She hadn’t even asked if Lauren wanted it, she realized. But then, Lauren took it with a smile on her face.
“Thank you, Margot. My wrist is a lot better, thanks for asking. We can’t stay long—I’m still recovering, and Pete here is a nightmare about making me rest, but I wanted to see the results of his hard work.”
Margot hoped her smile looked normal and didn’t broadcast I’m sleeping with your son! And he’s here! And so are you! Do you know that I’m sleeping with him? I don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure to Lauren.
“The grounds look beautiful, don’t they?” Margot looked at Pete, who seemed embarrassed. “Pete succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. And we have some more plans for after the party.”
Lauren beamed at her, while Pete shook his head.
“Now, Margot, don’t make me blush. Where’s that brother of yours? I have a question for him.”
Margot looked around.
“Oh, there he is, talking to those people in the back.” She pointed to the far side of the barn. That was interesting—Elliot was talking to a group of six people, and he seemed totally engaged with them. She’d expected to see him—if she saw him around the party at all today—hiding behind a stack of wine barrels.
Pete grinned.
“I’ll go say hi to him,” he said, and walked off toward Elliot.
Margot turned back to Lauren. It had been nice to have Pete there as a buffer for this conversation.
“There’s lots of food—right now, there are risotto balls, pizza, the empanadas should be out shortly, and the tacos will be ready in a little while. And that’s our rosé,” she said, gesturing to the glass in Lauren’s hand, like it wasn’t obvious there was rosé in it. “It’s a good first taste, but if you’d like something else, just let me or one of our staff know, and we’ll pour it for you.”
Lauren smiled at her.
“Thanks, Margot. I can’t decide what I want to try first.” She looked over to the other side of the lawn, where the food all was. “Ahh, there they are.”
Margot poured a glass of rosé for another guest who came up to her.
“There who are?” she said as she tried to smile at the other guest and also smile at Lauren.
“Luke and Avery. Don’t they make such a cute couple? I’ve been wanting this for years, you know.”
Margot spilled wine on the table and reached for a napkin to clean it up.
Why was Luke’s mom under the impression that he was with Avery? She’d said something like that when Margot had seen her at the auction, but when Margot had brought it up to Luke on the drive home, he’d laughed it off. But she didn’t say it like something she was just hoping for, she said it like she knew Luke and Avery were dating. Why did she think she knew that?
“Oh?” What else could she say?
She looked over at Luke and Avery. They were standing there, chatting and laughing with Taylor, who had just gotten a slice of pizza and seemed to be making fun of Luke to Avery, who was laughing hard.
“Oh yes,” Lauren said. “Anyway, I’m sorry that he had to leave you and Elliot like that; I hope you know I didn’t tell him to quit! But I’m very grateful to have him up here, even if it does end up only being for a little while.”
Only for a little while?
Margot opened her mouth to ask Lauren what she meant, when someone else stepped up to the table. She wanted—she really wanted—to continue the conversation with Luke’s mom, but her professional instincts clicked on.
“Hi!” she said to the newcomer. “I’m Margot Noble, welcome to Noble Family Vineyards. Can I pour you a glass of rosé?”