I couldn’t help but notice how briefly flustered he became when he said the word “date.” As far as I knew, we were just friends. But there was still something between us, something unmistakable. Justin appeared to be trying to keep it out of his thoughts like I was.
We approached the front desk and the staff member working it gave us the keys to our rooms.
“Separate, but adjoining,” he said, handing us two key cards.
Separate rooms—that was something for the “just friends” category.
The bellhop took our bags and led us up the grand, wood staircase that went up to our floor.
“There’s a really charming town nearby,” Justin said. “Lots of restaurants and places to go shopping.”
“Sounds amazing,” I said.
“I figure tonight we can have a night out on the town, then tour the vineyard tomorrow.”
“And drink lots of duck wine,” I said.
“Naturally,” Justin said with a smile.
We arrived at the doors to our rooms. The bellhop nodded after setting the bags down and heading off, Justin slipping him a twenty as he did.
“Now,” said Justin as he raised the keycard to the lock of one of our rooms. “There’s only one rule for this weekend, and I’m going to be strict about it.”
I nodded, waiting for his answer. I wondered if he was going to say something like “no hanky-panky.”
“This is my treat,” he said. “You did an amazing job with the show, and it’s not hard to see that you’ve been busting your butt raising Faye. So, the rule is this: I pay, and you enjoy. Got it?”
This was a tough one, and I bit my lip in indecision.
“Believe me,” he continued when I said nothing. “I’ve been around plenty of bratty princess-types who would be expecting me to pay, and you’re not one of them. Which makes it all the more important that you relax and let me worry about all of that.”
I took a deep breath.
“Okay,” I said with a smile. “I’ll do my best.”
“Exactly what I wanted to hear,” he said.
With that, he opened up the door to the first room.
I loved it from first sight. The room was rustic, like the rest of the place, but somehow even cozier. A deerskin rug was on the ground in front of a small fireplace, the bed looked soft and inviting, and the window looked out over the gorgeous landscape. It was like a little Wyoming cabin right in the middle of Long Island.
“This is your room,” he said, lifting my bags and bringing them inside. “That door over there leads to my room.”
“Perfect,” I said.
Justin checked his watch.
“I made reservations for an hour and a half from now, which should give you some time to chill out and take a shower—whatever you need. Give me a knock whenever you’re ready to head out.”
“Are we taking the helicopter downtown, too?” I asked with a smirk.
Justin chuckled. “I don’t know—they might frown on us landing in the middle of Main Street,” he said. “But we could give it a shot.”
I laughed. “Okay, let me get ready,” I said. “I’ll be ready to go before too long.”
“Sounds good.”
Justin stepped back into the hallway, shutting the door behind him as he did.
Once I was alone, I fell back-first onto the bed. It was as soft and warm and exactly as comfortable as it looked. Part of me wanted to curl up with one of the oversized pillows and take a nice, long restful nap. But I remembered that I had the whole weekend ahead of me to rest and relax. Tonight, Justin and I were going to hit the town.
Another thought occurred to me as I lay there, comfortably snug: I wanted Justin there next to me.
My eyes went wide at the thought. I knew I shouldn’t be thinking that way about him, but I couldn’t help it. My mind went back to that night when he and I laid together in Faye’s nursery, when my head was tucked tightly against his chest. He was so comfortable and warm and…perfect.
I jolted up as I thought about it. I knew that was never going to happen, and that I needed to get those thoughts out of my mind as quickly as possible. This weekend needed to be about fun and relaxing and good wine. Not about…those other things.
As nice as they sounded.
I decided to take a quick shower, hoping the hot water would jolt me out of my thoughts. It didn’t work. As soon as I was soaped-up and warm, all I could think about was Justin stepping into the shower, his body looking glorious as hell under the cascade of water. He’d wrap his arms around me, then…
I turned off the water and got out, wrapping a towel around me as quickly as I could and trying my best to put all those naughty thoughts out of my head. I was soon dressed and ready to go, wearing a pair of slim jeans and a light pink blouse, a pair of sneakers completing the look.
Right as I finished tying my laces, there was a knock at the door. I opened it up to see Justin dressed in an equally sharp outfit to what he had on during the trip over.
“Wow,” he said, his eyes taking a quick pass up and down my outfit. “You look incredible.”
I felt a hot blush spread out across my cheeks. Part of me hated how easily only a few words from Justin could make me blush. But another part of me loved it.
“Thanks,” I said. “You’re looking pretty dapper yourself.”
“Dapper, huh?” he asked. “I’ll take it.” A smile flashed across his face as he stepped aside. “You ready to hit the town?”
“Absolutely.”
We left the hotel, a sports car waiting for us in front of the building. It was a deep red color, one that reminded me of the car I’d seen speeding past me back when I was stuck in Queens at the auto shop.
“Very nice,” I said. “Someone’s riding in style tonight.”
“That’s right,” he said, taking a set of keys out from his pocket. “We are.”
“Are you serious?” I asked. “You rented this?”
“Bought it, actually,” he said. “Been looking for a new convertible for a while, and when I laid my eyes on this baby, I couldn’t resist.”
I ran my hands over the paint, taking in the impossibly smooth, cool texture.
“I figured we could take the car back up to the city. I’ll hire someone to fly the helicopter back. Supposed to be great weather all weekend—perfect for top-down driving.”
I clasped my hands together, bursting with excitement.
“Let’s go!” I said, feeling as giddy as a little kid.
“What the lady wants, the lady gets,” Justin said with a grin as he beeped the keys and unlocked the car.
He opened the door for me, and I slid into the seat, the leather interior cool and soft. Justin followed, the car starting up as soon as he sat down.
“Wow,” I said. “Auto-starting engine, huh?”
“Pretty snazzy, right?”
“I’ll say. With my car, I’m happy if it even starts when I want it to.”
The engine growled as Justin revved it. He put the car into gear and pulled out from his spot, catching the eye of anyone who happened to be nearby. Before too long we were racing down the narrow roads leading from the vineyard into town.
With a tap of a button on the dash, the top lifted off and silently slid into the back of the car. The wind hit my face and I closed my eyes, savoring the feeling of the perfect evening air on my skin. Sure, my hair was probably going to be a disaster from the wind, but I didn’t care.
Right then, it was me, Justin, and the road. And that was all I needed.
The next day, we sat in the tasting room of the vineyard, a wine expert doing her best to enlighten us.
“And this is our 2015 pinot noir. The first thing I want you to notice is the richness of the color—a deep ruby red. Go ahead, give it a swirl in the glass.”
I did.
“See those track marks of the wine down the side? Those are called ‘legs.’ You can see they’re moving down slowly, which means there’s a higher alcohol con
tent to this wine.”
Higher alcohol content—now she was speaking my language.
“Give it another swirl and hold it up to the light,” the expert continued. “You’ll see that barely any light gets through. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that this means it’s a heartier wine.”
I shot a glance over to Justin who was seated next to me at the bar. He met my sly glance, flashing me one of his own that suggested he was ready to hurry up and drink.
The sommelier, a trim, middle-aged woman with stylish, Brooklyn looks, went on.
“Next is the smell. Give it a whiff and tell me what you think.”
I gingerly brought the glass to my nose, taking a small sniff of the wine.
“Smells…winey,” I said.
The sommelier chuckled.
“Not like that,” she said. “You really want to get your nose in there—give it a deep, deep sniff. Don’t be shy.”
I turned slightly toward Justin, seeing that he about had his entire face shoved into the wide mouth of the glass.
“Like this?” he asked, his voice muffled through the glass.
I laughed at the sight of him.
“I like your enthusiasm, Mr. Donovan,” the sommelier said. “Now, tell me what you smell.”
He sniffed in a comically exaggerated way before lifting his head back up.
“It smells like…grapes,” he said.
“You’re not wrong about that,” she said lightly, then turned to me. “Go on in, Mrs. Donovan,” she said. “Really get your nose in there.”
“Oh, we’re not—”
Justin and I said the same thing at the same time, then looked over to each other with wide eyes, both of us realizing what we’d said. The sommelier appeared a tad flustered.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just assumed.”
“It’s fine,” said Justin. “Ninety-nine percent of the time you’d be right.”
“You can call me Heather,” I said.
“Sure, Heather. Sorry again,” she said. Then she nodded toward the glass.
I sniffed it, expecting to sense nothing else other than grapes.
But instead, I smelled something. Many somethings, actually.
“I smell…lavender,” I said. “And something else…something chocolaty, maybe with some coffee thrown in there. And some pepper—definitely that. Oh! And vanilla, too.”
Justin and the sommelier both appeared very impressed.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” she said.
“Wow,” said Justin. “Very descriptive. Maybe you’re in the wrong business.”
The sommelier smiled, placing her hands on the table.
“Normally, I’d say this is the part where you spit it out and move onto the next one. But I can tell you two like it.”
“That we do,” said Justin, raising his glass for another sip.
“In that case, I’ll let you both spend some time with the bottle. Go ahead and flag me down when you’re ready for the next one.”
“Thanks a lot,” said Justin.
With that, the sommelier left us to enjoy the wine.
I took a look around the sampling room. It was an old barn, cleared out and repurposed as a large bar. Hundreds of wine bottle had been stacked here and there along the walls, the front of the barn opened up and allowing a lovely view of the vineyard illuminated by the afternoon sun. A couple dozen other visitors were here and there, seated at the bar with us or relaxing in the lounge area in the center of the room.
The vibe was relaxed, the wine was delicious, and the soft music in the air complemented it all. The nice buzz I had going on was the cherry on top.
“Cheers,” said Justin, raising his glass.
“What’re we toasting to this time?” I asked.
“That’s a good question,” he said, scratching his chin as he looked away. “With all the wine we’ve had over the last day, I think we’ve about run out of toasting topics.”
“How about to having another glass of amazing wine,” I said.
“Works for me,” said Justin.
We tapped the rims together and took our sips.
“How’re you holding up?” he asked.
“Perfectly,” I said. “This weekend’s been just amazing so far.”
And it had been. Our dinner the night before in the charming downtown of the nearby city had been wonderful. That morning, we’d had a delicious breakfast courtesy of room service, followed by a tour of the vineyard. I’d learned so much about wine that I knew I’d have a hell of a time keeping it all in my head, but that was okay.
Now we were in the tasting room, ready to indulge.
“Don’t get too crazy,” said Justin. “We’ve still got dinner later tonight.”
I raised my eyebrows playfully.
“You think I’m the type to go crazy?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe once you get a few more glasses of wine in you.”
“I suppose I’ll have to pace myself.” I gave him another smile before taking a sip.
“This duck wine’s some good stuff, huh?” Justin said after taking a sip of his own.
“I’m pretty sure it has an actual name,” I said.
I picked up the bottle in front of us and read the label.
“‘McAllister, Ford and Thorne,’” I said, reading the title above the duck.
“Too many names to remember,” said Justin. “I’m fine calling it ‘duck wine.’”
I laughed. “Works for me.”
A pleasant silence fell as we worked our way through the wine.
“Well, I hope this has been a nice, relaxing weekend so far,” he said. “Because you’ve earned it, Heather.”
“It’s been heavenly,” I said. “It’d been so long since I got out of the city, I was starting to forget there was a world outside of it.”
“That’s the New York effect,” he said. “But you grew up here—you know all about it.”
“I do,” I said. “Even getting out of Queens was like a vacation when I was a kid. Little did I know how much was only a helicopter ride away.”
Justin chuckled.
“Thanks for all this, by the way,” I said. “It really means a lot to me that you’d do this.”
“Happy to give you a break from it all.”
“Though I have to admit,” I said. “I’m missing Faye like crazy.”
“You heard from your parents?”
“Oh, don’t you worry—they’ve been keeping my messages full of pictures and videos.”
“Excellent.”
“And they still want to know all about this mysterious man who’s whisked me away from the city.”
Justin appeared intrigued at that.
“What have you told them?” he asked.
“Only the basics. But the more scraps of info I’ve thrown them, the more they want to know.”
“That’s usually how it goes,” he said. “But that’s good that they’re so curious.”
I was about to say something joking about how I sometimes felt like I never got a moment’s peace from them, but then I remembered Justin’s family situation. He’d probably kill to have family breathing down his neck like this.
We finished our wine, the sommelier returning and walking us through a few more different varietals. I paced myself with these, only taking a small sip of each. After all, I did have an entire evening ahead of me.
Once we were done with the tasting, the two of us made our way back to the hotel. Once we got there, however, Justin stopped in his tracks.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Just thinking,” he said. “You feel up for another helicopter ride?”
“To where?” I asked.
“A secret,” he said. “I’m thinking we can do some dinner to-go, maybe take a bottle of wine with us.”
“Sounds…interesting,” I said.
“It will be. Go pick out what you want to wear, and I’ll let you know when it’s all ready.”
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“That’s it?” I asked. “No more details?”
He shook his head. “That would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it?”
“Never a dull moment with you,” I said.
“And that’s exactly how it should be.”
He gave me a wink and headed toward the car. Moments later he was off down the road, the roar of the car engine fading into the distance.
I couldn’t help it—I was totally excited. I hurried up to my room and went through my things, trying to pick out the perfect outfit. I didn’t have much with me, having only packed for a weekend, but I eventually settled on a nice, light blue dress that fit just right and boosted my confidence whenever I wore it.
Once I had it on, I stood in front of the mirror and gave myself a once-over.
I didn’t look half bad, and there was a smile on my face that I couldn’t get rid of.
Chapter 19
Heather
An hour later, I got the text from Justin asking me to meet him outside. I sprang from the bed where I’d been lounging, having just video-called my parents and Faye, and rushed out the front door.
Justin awaited me out front, dressed in a sharp suit and leaning against the convertible. In one hand was a picnic basket, in the other a bottle of wine.
“A picnic?” I asked, intrigued. “Are we having dinner in the vineyard?”
He shook his head. “Wouldn’t need the helicopter for that, would we?”
“I suppose you’re right about that. So, where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he said simply. “Now hop in, I want to get there before sunset.”
The sun had already begun its dip toward the horizon, and I guessed we had about thirty minutes before it went down completely. We jumped into the car and were off.
Justin zipped us down the road, and we soon arrived at the airport. One of his employees met us near the car and took it off our hands as we approached the helicopter. We climbed inside and, after getting strapped in, were soon airborne.
The helicopter rose up and up.
“There,” he said, pointing toward the west. “Check that out.”
I gasped as I saw what he was pointing to. It was the sunset, more brilliant and colorful than I’d ever seen. The red orb was surrounded by brilliant, swirling colors, the purple above fading into a coal-black night sky dotted with thousands of twinkling stars that were only visible this high up.
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