by Jan Moran
“I think the wine has gone to your head,” she said wriggling out from under him, running, like she always did when he got too close.
Maybe it had. Maybe being back home and dealing with the aftermath of what his father had done to the winery was making him hope for something to be easy in other areas of his life. Nothing would ever be easy with his family, but falling for Courtney was the easiest thing he’d faced in months.
In his entire life.
She moved across the room to the table where her shirt was draped over his on the chair. “I think the rain has slowed. We can probably make it back without being pelted to death.”
“Why do you do that?” he asked.
“Do what?”
“Run when things get too…personal.”
“I’m not running,” she insisted. “You said it yourself. This is a hook-up. It was fun, great even, but we both know it’s just complicating things.”
“I didn’t say this is a hook-up.”
“Yes, you did,” she chuffed again. “You said you had no intentions of hooking up with anyone.”
“Right, but I didn’t say this was a hook-up. This thing, it’s, I can’t explain it, but it’s not a damn hook-up.”
He fought back the frustration and crossed the room to where she was struggling to get her shirt on. “Don’t run,” he said, putting his hands on her arms to still her battle with the wet cotton.
She stilled but didn’t meet his gaze. “This is happening too fast for me. I have school and the rescue and work, and…” she turned away, mumbling with each step, “I’m making all the same mistakes again.”
“What mistakes?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she murmured.
“It’s not nothing. What mistakes?” he demanded.
She turned and scowled at him and hell if it didn’t turn him on and piss him off all at the same time. “This, us, you. I’m, you’re…my boss.”
Between her rules and the whole boss issue, the woman was stubborn, but he wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. “I told you I don’t care about that.”
“No, but I do,” she yelled. “If you fire me, you lose nothing, but I have to start over, find a new job, maybe even move.”
Once again, Aiden closed the distance, cupping her face in his hands and forcing her to look at him. “Courtney, I’m not going to fire you.” That’s when the light dawned. “When you were in high school, the older guy, was he your boss?”
Her eyes widened, answering the question. He pulled her into his arms and held her. She didn’t resist even though she didn’t embrace him back. “Honey, I’m not going to fire you.”
“It’s easy to say that in the throes of passion,” she muttered.
He stepped back, lifting her chin so she could see the truth in his words. “I promise you. Whether this is just one night,” and damn, he hoped it wasn’t, “or if we see where it takes us, I promise you will not lose your job.”
Chapter 10
Pete Mitchell stood with his arms crossed, scowling. It was a response Aiden was growing accustomed to.
“You and I alone cannot harvest the vineyard,” Pete growled, turning around to signal the endless rows of vines that would soon need attention. “Stop being a douche and ask for help.”
“Who am I going to ask for help? I’ve been gone for more than a decade. No one knows me, no one trusts me. My father burned all the bridges my grandfather forged.”
Pete didn’t relent, showed not an ounce of sympathy. “When the hell did you turn into a whiney little bitch? Grow a pair, would you?”
“Jesus, Pete.” Aiden scrubbed his hand across the stubble he hadn’t had a chance to shave in the rush to get Courtney home that morning. His friend was right, he had turned into a whiney little bitch.
Pete laughed, and Aiden wanted to punch him in the face. They’d been best friends since childhood, both of them spending most of their time running around the vineyard as kids, then bringing girls to the most romantic spots when they were teens. Pete’s dad was the master winemaker, but when Pete returned from the army, short one leg, he still preferred the physical labor the grounds required over any of the other jobs at the winery. “Listen, I’ve got some buddies who would be willing to help.”
“I can’t pay anyone.” He had bottles no one would carry, a store he hadn’t yet hired someone to manage, and a restaurant that may never see food again if he didn’t pull his head out of his ass.
“You don’t have to. The guys love giving back. Hell, I bet Skye would even snap some pictures of this place, you know, for your website and shit. She’s really good. She did that calendar to raise money for a service dog foundation one of my buddy’s works with.”
Now it was Aiden’s turn to laugh. The calendar was…a bit off the wall. Pete and his army buddies had posed naked, but they’d raised thousands in doing so. “The one where you put it all out there?”
“Don’t be a hater. You’re just jealous of these guns.” Pete flexed his biceps, blowing across them as if clearing the smoke from a barrel. “You need a lady friend, my man. Ease some of that tension you’ve built up since you’ve been back.”
Lady friend. Aiden grunted, not ready to go public with whatever was happening between him and Courtney. Pete would accuse him of being pussy-whipped, and hell, maybe that was his problem. He hadn’t been with a woman in two years, not since he decided meaningless hookups with random women wasn’t doing a thing for him. That was after Dee put him through the ringer, but even in the months they’d been together before he caught her cheating, she’d never made his heart race the way Courtney did.
“Shit, you got one, don’t you? Anyone I know?”
“Shut it. We need to focus on the plan. How many buddies do you have to help out?”
“Clint, Shane, Chad, and Skye, but you know my mom and dad will help too. They love the harvest. We should probably avoid asking your mom. Wouldn’t want her to break a nail.”
Vanessa had never once helped in the vineyard. Neither had Abby. Vanessa claimed it was a man’s job and Abby grabbed right ahold of that excuse as soon as she could talk.
That was eight people, still not enough to work the over eighty acres before the grapes turned. “We need more.”
“Skye’s guy might help, and she’s got a couple brothers. Chad’s wife just had a baby, so she’s out. Clint and Shane are solo.”
“Well, we’ll have to make due. It’s going to be a couple of long ass days to strip all the vines.”
“I’ll ask around. We’ve got a couple weeks. I’m sure we can round some more people up. Now tell me whose vineyard you’re already stripping?”
“You have the attention span of a puppy and you gossip like a grandma.”
“A year in a military hospital will do that to a guy.”
“Oh, now you’re throwing the sympathy card,” Aiden joked.
“Works on the ladies. Speaking of…”
“Not talking about my sex life, so move on.”
“All right, be that way, but when I hit on your lady friend and win her heart with my abundance of charm and good looks, it’ll be all your fault for not letting me know she was already yours.”
Aiden shook his head. “If you’re relying on your charm and good looks, I’ve got nothing to worry about.” Eying his watch, he realized he was late for an appointment with his mother. The last thing he needed to do was keep her waiting. He’d never hear the end of it. “Gotta go, man. Let me know ASAP if your friends are up for this. You know how much work it is.”
“I’ll call ‘em now, get a jump on it. Hey, you can meet some of them tonight. We’re hitting karaoke at Madigan’s Pub to celebrate Amber’s first race. You should join us.”
No, hell no. Aiden didn’t mind karaoke on occasion, but tonight he wanted to see Courtney. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Bring your girl,” Pete said, slapping Aiden’s shoulder before he stepped off toward the grounds keeper’s barn.
Courtney didn’t st
rike him as the kind of girl who would enjoy karaoke. She was too focused, too determined, and too damn busy.
Aiden jogged toward the main building, keeping his focus on the ground instead of looking up to see if his mother was peering out the picturesque windows of his office. That office was a monstrosity, a symbol of how his father had taken the winery down the wrong path and left Aiden in a financial hole he was beginning to doubt he could climb out of.
Since it was Courtney’s day off, she wasn’t at the desk, but even walking by, Aiden could picture her laid out beneath him, the way she bit her lip, trying to hold back, and how her eyes widened and she cried out when she let go. She was beautiful and sexy, yet still adorable with that feisty take no prisoners attitude. He’d rather be heading into a meeting with her, even if it meant butting heads, but instead, Aiden had to face his mother.
“Mom, sorry I’m late,” he said when he walked into the office, not at all surprised to find her standing in front of the windows with her arms crossed. “Pete and I were coming up with a plan for the harvest.”
“That’s good. You’re going to need help since you fired everyone.”
He hadn’t fired everyone, just the criminals and illegals. “What did you want to see me about?” he asked, unwilling to get into a blame-game.
“Weddings,” she said, turning from the window to face him, her posture still defensive. “Courtney put the idea in my head, so I can’t take full credit, but it is a great way to generate income for the winery. We could also turn this office into a function room and rent it out. You don’t need all this space.”
Aiden had been thinking about events and weddings, but he hadn’t had time to put the idea to plan. Now his mother would take full credit for it, giving her more reason to believe Aiden couldn’t save the winery on his own.
“Sounds good,” he said, because as much as he wasn’t willing to engage in the blame-game, he was less willing to start an argument about who got credit for what. He’d always lost at both plays and had no reason to believe the odds were in his favor now.
“I’d like to be the wedding planner,” she said.
“Great, Mom. Sounds good.”
“Is that all you’re going to say, sounds good?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know, you could show a little excitement. You ran off and left your father to run this place all on his own and now you seem resentful for all the work he put into it.”
“Work? Mom, he ran it into the ground.”
“He did not. Look at how beautiful this building is now. It’s not the rustic shack your grandfather refused to upgrade.”
“No, it’s a polished, cold stone that will take my whole life to pay for. Do you even know how much money Dad dumped into all the renovations?”
“You have to spend money to make money, that’s what Neil always said.”
“The winery made money when grandpa was alive. It’s been in the red for the last five years. How can you not know that?”
“You’re exaggerating. You’re just upset that you weren’t a part of the growth.”
Growth. Aiden had yet to identify any growth. “I love the wedding and events idea. I even love the idea of turning this office into a function room. I’ll start moving down to Grandpa’s old office as soon as I have the time. Put together a pricing and scheduling plan and let me have a look at it before you put it out to the public, okay?”
Not that he didn’t trust his mother, but, well, he didn’t, not when it came to business. Like everyone else, she had to earn his trust in that department. After all, she’d been here when Neil decided to spend more than the winery made on unnecessary refurbishments and upgrades.
“The new chef is coming in soon. I need to get ready for her.”
~~~
Aiden was ready to lose his mind. Karaoke was the last place he wanted to be, but since Courtney had ignored his texts all day, only to respond ten minutes ago that she was busy, he figured it was karaoke with Pete or staring at the ceiling all night.
At least she said she’d see him tomorrow.
At work. Because he was her boss.
With a beer in one hand and a shot in the other, Aiden made his way over to the booth where Pete and his friends had crowded in. Madigan’s was packed, which seemed strange for a Tuesday night in a small town like Lilac Ridge, but in addition to karaoke, it was dollar shots from eight to ten.
Aiden needed a shot…or ten.
He wasn’t sure who the guy was who had opened up his heart to Courtney last night. That wasn’t his style, not even with Dee. He’d always been careful to keep his distance since he knew he was just biding time until returning home to run the winery. Women not interested in wine weren’t going to go for a big move like that, so casual was his best play.
Until Dee.
She was different, not a wine drinker, but interested nonetheless, not unlike Courtney. Like Courtney, Dee had an agenda. At least Courtney’s was transparent. She wanted the marketing position. Aiden got that, he just couldn’t afford to pay her for something he could handle on his own. Dee, though, her agenda hadn’t been transparent. She’d been after Aiden’s roommate all along. He hadn’t figured that out until he caught the two of them in the break room, Dee’s skirt hiked around her waist, Kyle’s pants dropped around his ankles.
Aiden had moved on, out of ski patrol and into search and rescue, where the demands of the job didn’t allow for anything more than casual relationships. Dee and Kyle’s betrayal had become a distant memory, one he wasn’t even bitter about anymore since it gave him the motivation to take the leap he’d been too chicken shit to take before then.
Now his SAR days were behind him. Once he got the call from Abby that their dad had died, Aiden knew his place was here in Lilac Ridge. He just hadn’t realized what he was coming back to. A building in shambles would have been easier to deal with than one too much money had been dumped into. How his father didn’t know half the employees were stealing was another mystery.
“You going to nurse that bitch or throw it home?” Clint Avery, one of Pete’s old army buddies asked. “I don’t like to drink alone.”
“Salute,” Aiden said and tossed the Jameson to the back of his throat. He took a moment to enjoy the smooth warmth easing down his throat, but the taunting look from Clint prompted Aiden to chase the shot with a long drink from the pint of Guinness. The glass was half empty when he returned it to the table and Aiden already knew he was going to have a hell of a hangover tomorrow.
Karaoke was in full force, the sounds of off-key singers wafting through the pub. Aiden didn’t pay it any attention, trying to focus on the banter at the table. Amber, his human resources director, and Pete were the only two he knew before tonight. Everyone else in the group was part of their running group, Clint being the only name he could remember.
“Thought you were going to bring your girl,” Pete teased.
“Fuck off,” Aiden retorted.
The shift in beat from modern pop to the smooth jazz of Nat King Cole drew Aiden’s attention to the karaoke stage.
“Hey, isn’t that your new receptionist?” Pete asked.
As Courtney hit the first note, Aiden’s eyes got so wide they threatened to pop out of his head and roll across the floor. Adorable, feisty, and could sing jazz?
Shit. He was in trouble.
“Guess you didn’t know she could sing,” Pete chuckled.
Aiden wanted to tell him to fuck off again, but instead focused on the sweet melody from a song he’d always enjoyed.
When the song finished, Aiden slid out of the booth and made for the bar. He needed another beer, maybe even another shot, but that was also the direction Courtney headed.
“You didn’t tell me busy meant karaoke,” he said as he came up next to her.
She jumped, something Aiden shouldn’t have been so satisfied with since he didn’t make it a habit to sneak up on women. “Aiden, hell, give a girl a heart attack why don’t
you.”
“Hey, I’m just up here to order a drink.”
He signaled Sean, the bartender, for another round. After paying — for Courtney’s Coke, too, — Aiden held up the whiskey in toast. “Here’s to being unforgettable.”
Without tapping her glass, he threw the shot back, this time not savoring it before he chased it with the stout.
“This has been planned for a while,” she said, not touching her drink. “I’ve been so busy, I forgot about it until Cyn came home from work.”
Sounded like a convenient excuse. “So you’re not avoiding me,” he said, sarcasm sluicing across his tongue.
“Doesn’t do me any good to avoid you given that I work for you,” she said, the sarcasm equally as thick as she threw the fact he was her boss out there again. “Thanks for the Coke. I need to get back to my friends.”
“Just tell me one thing, why’d you pick that song to sing?”
“Because it’s my favorite song,” she said and spun around, her ass swinging with an abundance of sass.
Aiden uttered a string of curses and finished his beer, ordering another round before he wove through the crowd back to the booth.
He didn’t want to be pissed off. He’d spent one night with Courtney. One. They had no commitment to each other, yet the fact she just went on with life like last night meant nothing scratched at every nerve in his body.
Courtney was a distraction he couldn’t afford. The winery needed his full attention and he’d be doing himself a favor to remember that.
That’s why he threw back the shot and chased it with a few long chugs from the pint.
~~~
“Are you going to keep watching Hottie McBossman from across the bar or are you going to go talk to him?” Cyn said.
Courtney drew her attention from the man who was drinking far too much and pinned Cyn with her best shut your trap glare.