“Thank you, Rhett,” Sarah said carefully. “It’s . . . wine?”
“I’m sorry,” he rasped. “Spend so much time with shifters. Forget how to talk to mortals sometimes.” He hefted one of the bottles in a practiced motion and handed it to her. “We all of us did different things with the money. Brandon lives big and flashy and spends it as fast as he can. Danny invested it. Good Boy—no one knows what Good Boy did with his share. But me, I bought a little piece of land up north. I have a farm up there. Some grapes. Some cattle. It’s a lot for just me to handle and one day I hope to find a mate like you.” He blushed a deep scarlet color that made the scars on his face stand out like spiderwebs in the morning sun. “I mean, aww hell, you know what I mean.”
It was more words than she’d heard Rhett say all week. And in a row no less. “Thank you, Rhett. I’m honored.”
“It’s my wine. I don’t have a name for it or even labels. But it’s good and honest.” He took the back of her head in his hand in one quick motion and pulled her close and for a second Sarah was terrified he was trying to kiss her, but instead he pressed his forehead and nose against hers in the same way she’d seen him do with Danny. “I pledge myself,” she heard him whisper. And then he released her like nothing had happened. Everyone nearby gave them weird looks, and Sarah’s discomfort with crowds edged up another notch. She fought the urge to run outside, to find solitude.
“What kind of wine is it?” she asked, focusing on what was in front of her and ignoring the stares. “The bottles are so dark that I can’t tell. Is it a merlot or a zinfandel? I have to say, despite living here for years I know very little about wine outside of Two-Buck Chuck.”
“It’s a white,” Rhett said, his eyes scanning the crowd. “Sort of unique. But go easy on it. I spilled shifter blood on the crops and there’s a little something extra in the wine.”
“Shifter blood?”
“Don’t worry. It wasn’t mine.”
Across the party, her friend Anna was undressing Rhett with her eyes. She was never very subtle.
“You mind if I fuck your friend over there?” Rhett asked.
“Go for it,” Sarah said. “She’s an amazing person. Just wait until after the announcement, okay?”
* * *
CHAPTER FOUR
The announcement was preceded by the passing around of Rhett’s magical wine. Brandon and Good Boy delivered it themselves, pressing glasses into people’s hands with charming bon mots and growls, respectively. Sarah wondered if some of the wealthy business associates at the party would turn their noses up at the unlabeled bottles, but the opposite was true. They took the rough exterior as a sign of hidden depths, not that Rhett noticed. He’d slipped off with Anna into a dark corner.
The wine tasted amazing. It wasn’t too sweet or dry or acidic or watery. The flavor was like drinking spring itself, full of possibilities and joy and beginnings. It went straight to her head, straight to everyone’s heads.
“I’d like to make an announcement,” Danny said. And to the crowd’s credit, they immediately shut up.
On a laptop screen across the room, Sarah’s parents watched from halfway across the country. She’d barely had time to chat with them. A bottle of Rhett’s wine stood on the table between them. They had an idea of what was going to happen and were bubbling with excitement.
Later Sarah would ask Brandon how he’d delivered the wine across country in a matter of hours and he’d just smile and refuse to answer.
“I’ve spent my whole life searching,” Danny began. “I left my small home town and searched for a better way to live and found hints of promise in this magical city. And within this city I searched first for myself, for who I was at heart. And even when I found my calling as an architect, I wasn’t done searching. I built this home, but what is a home without a family? It’s just a building, beautiful and empty. And that was me, until very recently.” He sipped the wine and smiled at the hushed onlookers.
Sarah’s heart pounded in her chest. It was happening. It was really happening.
Danny continued, “It’s no secret that I’ve been a bit of a player.”
“A bit?” yelled a voice from the back of the crowd that Sarah knew belonged to Pretty Brandon. The crowd laughed in agreement.
“I’ve been searching for the one. The one person in all the world who would challenge me, make me laugh, intimidate me with her intelligence and steal my heart away.” People began darting their eyes to Sarah as comprehension slowly dawned on them. A thin blonde woman with the carefully sculpted appearance of a newscaster gasped audibly.