“I don’t think that!” Elliot never raised his voice like this. She always wished he would, wished she could get a rise out of him, but she never could. Until now. “I don’t think you’re stupid, how could I? You run this whole place! And I don’t think you didn’t deserve to inherit the winery!”
The memory came back so sharply she had to fight back tears again.
“I heard you say it! At the funeral. Right there in the hallway. Talking to Jimmy.”
Elliot sighed. He sank down in the chair in front of her desk.
“Oh. I’d forgotten about that. I wish you hadn’t heard that.”
She got up and moved to the chair behind her desk, just to get some distance from him, to feel in command of this situation, at least for a moment.
“Why? I’m glad I heard. At least I knew what I was getting myself into.”
He shook his head.
“No, Margot, you don’t understand. I—”
“You’re not going to try to tell me that you didn’t mean it, are you?” she asked him. “Because I heard you. I could tell you meant it.”
He looked down at his hands for a moment.
“No,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to try to tell you that. I meant it. Then. I was angry then, at Uncle Stan, and yes, at you. I was angry and bitter and grieving and confused. I did mean it then.”
He looked up and across the desk at her.
“But Margot, I haven’t felt that way for a long time. You work your ass off for this place, you understand things I would never be able to figure out in a million years, you understand people. I know that I’ve fought you on so many things, but you’re usually right. That doesn’t stop me from fighting you, but I’ve gotten better about it . . . at least somewhat. Just look at today—yes, you’re right, I didn’t want to have this party, and it was great. Even I could tell that, and I don’t like parties! All of these people were excited to be here, our staff was happy, it was a good day. You should be proud of yourself.” He smiled at her. “Uncle Stan would be. Is.”
The tears started falling from her eyes again, but this time they felt so different.
“But I thought—” She reached for her tissue box. “For the past three years, I’ve thought . . .”
Elliot rubbed his hand over his face.
“That’s why you’ve been so weird and prickly with me. I just thought you didn’t want to hang out with your big brother anymore. I wish you’d said something.”
She wiped her tears.
“Me, too.”
Elliot shook his head.
“But when were you supposed to say something? In the hallway at the funeral, with Jimmy there to overhear you yell at me and me just getting quiet and mean? That would have made things even worse between us.”
She laughed at the accuracy of how they both would have acted, and then sighed.
“I know. But some other time, I should have found a way, instead of just silently seething.”
Elliot stood up.
“Instead of getting mad at ourselves for the past, how about we agree to never do that shit again? Either as business partners, or family?”
She stood up, too, and walked around the desk to him.
“Let’s shake on it.” She held out her hand and grabbed on to his. They shook hands, and then he pulled her into a hug.
“The handshake is for my business partner. The hug is for my sister. I’m sorry, Margot.”
She hugged her brother tight.
“I’m sorry, too, Elliot.”
He took a step back.
“Now—how about we go back out there and finish cleaning up from this great party? There are a bunch of open bottles of wine—I hope it’s okay that I told the staff to take them home.”
She grinned.
“As long as ‘the staff’ includes me. I’ve been looking forward to drinking some wine on my couch tonight all day.”
He put his arm around her as they walked out of his office.
“Well, I’ll have to check with our CEO on that. She’s very strict about these things.”
She laughed as they walked back to the lawn. She couldn’t wait to drink that wine on the couch. With Luke.
* * *
WHEN LUKE LEFT MARGOT’S office, his first impulse was to stand outside of her door and listen to whatever went on between her and Elliot. So he could burst in and protect her from her brother if he said something mean to her? No, Margot would hate that. He made himself leave the building and walk out to the lawn.
But on the way, he texted her.
LUKE
Text and let me know you’re okay? See you later, just let me know when
He hung around outside for a few minutes after he went back out there, helping Taylor pack up, but when Margot and Elliot didn’t come back after five minutes, he looked over at Avery.
“I’m going to take off—did you want a ride home?”
He figured that after Elliot had told him to go home, it might make things even more complicated between Margot and her brother if he lingered just to see how she was doing.
Avery looked surprised, but nodded.
“Let me just finish this.”
She set the last few wineglasses on the counter into a box, and then stood up.
“Let’s go.”
He hugged everyone goodbye, and Avery followed him out to the parking lot. She turned to him as soon as they got in his car.
“Is everything okay? Between you and Margot, I mean,” Avery asked.
He hadn’t expected that question.
“Yeah, of course. Why?”
She shrugged.
“I didn’t expect you to leave until she did, that’s all. And she disappeared a while ago, and then you did, and now you’re leaving and she’s still nowhere to be seen, so . . . I just wondered if you had a fight.”
He shook his head.
“No, we’re fine. Better than fine. She’s just—” He couldn’t tell her about the Elliot stuff. “I was worried about her, I knew she’d be upset, after that thing with the drunk guy, so that’s why I went looking for her. She’s talking to Elliot now, so I wanted to give them some space. I’ll see her later, though.”
Avery sighed.
“Poor Margot. That drunk guy was nothing, there’s always one, I should have told her that when we met to talk party planning. But this was her first big event, of course she would think that was the end of the world. I hope Elliot is telling her it’s no big deal.”
Luke tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“I hope so, too.”
Avery looked sharply at him. Damn it, he didn’t want her to know there was any friction between Margot and Elliot.
“Elliot doesn’t know about you and Margot, does he?”
Well, okay, that wasn’t quite the topic he would have picked, but at least it wasn’t exposing a secret that wasn’t his to tell.
“No, he doesn’t know,” he said. “Margot felt weird about it, because of the whole she-used-to-be-my-boss thing. No one from the winery knows—at least, I don’t think so.”
She raised her eyebrows at him.
“Is that weird for you? That she’s keeping it a secret?”
He shook his head.
“It’s not a secret,” he said. Avery just looked at him. “It’s not! Lots of people know. We go out together all the time. She just hasn’t told her brother, that’s all. It’s complicated there.”
Avery put her hand on his shoulder.
“Okay. I’m just worried about you. I saw the way you looked at her today. And I especially saw the way you looked when she backed away from you when Taylor came over.”
He brushed that off.
“I don’t know what you mean. She’s just been so stressed about this party that it didn’t make sense to deal with anything else until it was over. Plus, I haven’t—”
“Yes, I was just about to say, you’ve let your mom keep believing this ridiculous story about the two of us dating. She came up to me today, and I swear she was about to ask me when the wedding date was!”
Luke laughed.
“Sorry about that. I had no idea she’d be there today. And yeah, I’m going to have to come clean to her soon, I think. About everything.” He sighed. “Especially with this interview next week.”
“Interview? What interview?” Avery asked.
He’d forgotten that he hadn’t told Avery about this yet.
“My old boss is leaving, and Craig—my old mentor there—reached out to me to see if I wanted to interview for the job. They’ve made a bunch of changes there, so I thought it was worth having a conversation. I was kind of suspicious that the whole thing was bullshit, but when I talked to Craig, he talked a lot about how much everyone there liked me, and then Brian’s old boss called to say how great my work had been, and how glad he was that I was interviewing for that job. Granted, it would have been nice if he’d said any of that while I was actually there, but whatever. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about my chances.” He grinned. “Even a little smug, that after everything, they still want me.”
“When did this all happen?” Avery asked.
“Just earlier this week,” he said. “Everything has moved pretty quickly—I’m heading back down there for an interview on Thursday. It would be a big pay bump, and a level up. And it would be kind of fun to prove something to all of those people who thought I wasn’t good enough.”
He hadn’t told Margot about the interview yet. He’d almost told her a few times that week, but every time, something had stopped him.
“Oh wow,” Avery said. “Well, congratulations, I guess. Let me know how it goes.”
He nodded.