Heard It Through the Grapevine

by Pamela Browning

  He smiled. “So was I. Only, I was going to be a famous writer.”

  “You did get famous, Josh,” she reminded him.

  He groaned. “Sure. But not for my writing. Still, I can’t complain. Eventually, I’ll settle down and write those books I have in mind. My apartment in Judy Rae’s house contains the former library. It would be wonderful to rehabilitate a room such as that into an office.”

  “You live in Boston, Josh,” she reminded him gently.

  “This is true,” he replied, looking pensive.

  On their way back toward town, they stopped at a conveniently placed park bench to take a break.

  Gina leaned back and lifted her face to the sun. The Mayacamas range rose in the distance, and the river purled between its banks. “I haven’t done this in a long time. It’s good therapy when I’m stressed. I should do it more often.”

  Josh was sitting with both arms spread wide, one hand cupping her shoulder. “Tell me about the stress,” he said.

  She sighed. “Oh, it’s the winery. Today they’re having an emergency meeting. I can’t help worrying.”

  Something in Josh seemed to go on alert. He sat up straighter and uncrossed his legs. But she dismissed it as merely changing position.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.

  “I hope Uncle Fredo can find money somewhere for improvements instead of selling the business. I can’t imagine anyone but Angelinis working at Vineyard Oaks.”

  “Do you think Fredo wants to sell?”

  “No. He’d never want that. He might have to, that’s all. And if Vineyard Oaks is sold, a lot of people will have to find other jobs.”

  “What are their prospects? Where could they work?”

  Gina considered this. “Nick, my sister’s husband, could probably find a position somewhere else. He’s a good wine-maker. Barbara works free, so it’s not like she’d be losing income. But Uncle Fredo—the winery is his passion. And David, who has worked in the warehouse his whole life—he has a mental handicap. What will he do? And all the Mexican migrant workers who help in the fields, and Martin, who oversees their work, and Bobbi, who loves interacting with people in the tasting room. Ronnie recently became head of the sales force, and he was so proud when he took over the department. His wife is expecting their third child. He wouldn’t be happy anywhere else.”

  Josh was quiet for a long time. “Well. At least you don’t have to worry. Your work doesn’t depend on the winery.”

  “Oh, but it does. Tourists on their way through the valley on wine-tasting tours often stop at Good Thymes after they visit Vineyard Oaks.”

  “If the winery had new equipment and could expand, that would help you, right? No matter who owned it?”

  She didn’t like the tone of his question. “I wouldn’t feel right benefiting from the sale of Vineyard Oaks. Not when my family members who once worked there are hurting.”

  “What hurts one of you hurts all of you?”

  “Exactly. That’s the way it is with our family.”

  After she said that, she detected a quietness in Josh, a thoughtfulness. A wariness, perhaps, and she didn’t know what had brought it about.

  She was glad when he changed the subject. “Let’s walk a bit more.”

  They got up and continued along the river path. Gina kept mulling over the problems at the winery, and after a while, Josh took her hand. “I want to talk to you about something,” he said.

  She pulled herself back from her thoughts. “Something serious?”

  “I was wondering if someday soon you could come to Boston with me to meet my family. I could show you my town house, and we could do some sightseeing.”

  The sun working its way through the branches of a twisted oak tree beside the path played across his features as she looked up at him.

  “I—I don’t know,” she said haltingly.

  “My parents would love you, Gina,” he said. “So would my friends.”

  The idea of meeting his parents was daunting because she pictured them as quite different from her own warm, welcoming family, but aside from that, she had responsibilities. “How can I leave here? I won’t have time with this bachelor auction coming up, and there’s always my garden, and I’d have to find someone to fill in for me at Good Thymes.”

  “All solvable problems,” he pointed out. He raised her fingertips to his lips and kissed them one by one. They stopped walking beside a big rock sheltered by an enormous oak tree.

  “I don’t know, Josh,” she said.

  He reached for her other hand so that he was clasping both. “It’s important to me, Gina. I’m not sure you know how much.”

  “I—” Her eyes searched his, saw depths there that she had only imagined before.

  “I’m falling in love with you, Gina Angelini.”

  She stared. It was all she could do. And she took in his eyes, so expressive and so sincere; his lips, softly parted now; his dimple; his strong chin. She swallowed hard, wondering if she had imagined his words.

  “Did you hear what I said?” he asked gently.

  “I actually thought I heard you say that you’re falling in love with me.”

  “I hope you feel the same way.”

  She closed her eyes. This was when she was supposed to reciprocate in kind. She was expected to say the magic words, I love you, and everything would fall into place. Yet she knew that sometimes things didn’t work that way; you wore your heart on your sleeve and then someone punched you in the arm.

  “It’s too soon,” she said with bewilderment. “How can I know if what I feel is love?” Last time, she had let her emotions run away with her heart. This time, she wouldn’t allow that to happen.

  “I know what I feel, Gina. There’s no mistake on my part.”

  “You’re away from home, you’re having a vacation, and I’m sure the Napa Valley seems like a romantic place,” she said.

  “It does, but that’s not why I care so much about you. I want to take you back to Boston, let you see what it’s like there. What I’m like there.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Josh. I belong here. I always have.”

  “I understand why this place is important to you. You have your business. You have your family.”

  There was more to it than that. She wondered if she could make him understand.

  “Josh, the soil here loses water very quickly. Because of that, the roots of the vines burrow deep down to find moisture. I am like those roots. My family is the soil, and I’ve grown deep down to find what nourishes me. It is their love, and their caring, and their concern. Take me away from that and I would die.”

  “The vines also need lots of sun. I could be that for you.”

  He had never been more earnest, and she was touched. “Josh, I wasn’t expecting this,” she said.

  “Neither was I. But I thought you should know how I feel.”

  “Of course,” she said.

  “Now that it’s off my chest, suppose we go back to your place and check on dinner. I don’t want to be late for Frankie.”

  “You’re on,” she said, able to return his smile.

  The conversation had given her pause. If she went to Boston, not only would she feel out of place, but the differences in their two worlds would be readily apparent. Wasn’t it better to enjoy what they had, while they had it?

  They walked arm in arm back to the cottage, not saying much. But then, they didn’t need to speak. Enough had already been said for one day, at least.

  GINA HELD THE LAST MEETING of the bachelor auction committee at her shop two days before the auction. She had seen Josh a couple of times since the weekend: once when he brought lunch to Good Thymes and sat with her outside to eat it, and again on the day that she was busy helping Mia with her science project. They talked on the phone every day, sometimes twice. And she thought about him all the time—his empathy when he’d listened to her concerns about the winery’s future, the simple pleasure she found in their claspe
d hands swinging between them. She had more erotic thoughts, too, such as the softness of her breasts as they molded to the curves of his palms, the hammering of her pulse in her ears and the slick friction of their bodies when they made love.

  “Gina? Are you listening?”

  She forced herself to pay attention to Shelley, who was going over their committee expenses.

  “Of course I am. A five-hundred-dollar deposit for the hotel, which has been paid, and a donation of cocktail napkins from the Winegrowers Association. Doesn’t that wrap it up?”

  “That’s it for the expenses, but I thought you might want to hear what Kasey’s written for the bachelor profiles for the program.”

  “Didn’t we go over that last week?” Claudia asked.

  Shelley shot a covert glance at Gina, who kept her head down. “All but Josh Corbett’s,” she said.

  “Read it, Kasey,” said Emily. “Josh is going to be a big hit with the women, I’m sure.”

  Kasey made a show of shuffling papers and clearing her throat. “Okay, here goes.”

  “Hey, let’s get on with it,” murmured Claudia. Gina spared her a keen look. She had an idea that Claudia herself might want to bid on Josh.

  “He says, ‘I like picnics, street markets, women who don’t capitulate right away and the scent of lavender. When I finally find a woman who is right for me, I’ll move heaven and earth to be with her,’” read Kasey.

  As Gina listened, she felt a stab of dismay. Josh had told Kasey the very things that the two of them had done together as an inducement to other women to bid on him? After he’d told her he was falling in love with her? She kept her gaze focused on the paper in front of her, but her hand came up to fondle the amber heart at her throat. She hadn’t taken it off since Josh had put it there.

  “Okay, keep going,” said Claudia with interest.

  “‘The lucky woman who outbids everyone else for a date with me will be serenaded by a gondolier on the Napa River as we sip wine served with the finest cheese. Afterward, we’ll eat in the private VIP dining room at Nando’s Restaurant in St. Helena, followed by a drive back to Rio Robles in our limo. Then, if we’re lucky, there will be time for a walk in the moonlight and plans to see each other again very soon.’”

  Had Josh given this information to Kasey before he’d decided he was falling in love with her? She didn’t want to ask Kasey when he’d provided it, in front of Claudia, Emily and especially Shelley, who might pick up on her concern.

  “Wow,” said Claudia, sounding impressed. “This guy pulls out all the stops.”

  “I should say so,” Kasey replied as she handed a copy of the bio to Gina.

  Gina had heard enough. “All right,” she said. “Everyone be at the Majestic Hotel’s ballroom at least an hour before the auction begins. Thanks for all your hard work.”

  “Oh, it was a pleasure,” Kasey said. “Any time you need help recruiting handsome bachelors for this event, be sure to call me.”

  They all laughed as they got up to leave, but Gina wasn’t amused. Fresh in her mind was the new intimacy that she and Josh shared, the warm light in his eyes when he spoke of Frankie, his invitation to visit Boston.

  Gina lingered for a moment in the doorway, watching her committee members disperse to their cars. It didn’t escape her notice that Claudia’s hair bounced as she walked, a long curly cascade of auburn. Not until that moment did Gina realize that Claudia reminded her of Tahoma.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The night of the bachelor auction, Gina arrived at the hotel early. She checked to make sure that the hotel’s staff were doing their job, paused for a few words of encouragement to the phone volunteers and went to assure herself that all the bachelors had arrived.

  “Everybody ready?” Gina asked brightly as she entered the room set aside for them backstage. She received fifteen affirmative answers from fifteen attractive guys. None compared with Josh Corbett, who stood leaning against a wall with his arms crossed over his chest and one eyebrow raised in silent greeting.

  As the mistress of ceremonies, Gina intended to maintain a professional demeanor, but it wasn’t easy when every nerve in her body went on alert at the sight of him. He looked especially wonderful in his evening wear.

  “All right,” Gina said in a brisk tone as she adjusted the papers on her clipboard. “You’ll walk down the runway in alphabetical order. I’ll read your biography to the audience, and you have a few minutes to make an initial impression. If you feel inspired to break into a few dance steps, that’s fine. The livelier the better.”

  “That’s what I say about my women,” Josh whispered as she hurried past him.

  “Hush,” she hissed.

  Josh only lifted his other eyebrow and treated her to a wicked smile. She hadn’t confronted him about the bio that he’d given to Kasey; she hadn’t had the heart for it. All she knew was that she was going to be instrumental in getting him a date with someone else, and that was the last thing in the world she wanted.

  It’s for a good cause, she reminded herself. She’d been telling herself that for the past week, not that it did any good.

  “Are you going to bid, Gina?” asked one of the bachelors. He was a local firefighter who had received a certain amount of fame for posing naked for a calendar.

  “Not a chance. I’m the emcee, remember?” She aimed a cheerful grin at him and moved on.

  “Too bad,” one of them said, but it wasn’t Josh. She didn’t dare look at him as she left the room, but she knew he was watching her. She’d bid on him if she could. In fact, now that this event was about to happen, she’d bid every cent she had to make sure he didn’t go out with anyone else. But she wasn’t allowed to bid, so there was no way.

  She was pondering her conflicting feelings about tonight’s situation when she almost bumped into Shelley.

  “Did all the bachelors show up?” Shelley asked.

  Gina waved her checklist in front of Shelley’s nose. “After hanging out in that room for ten minutes, I feel as if I’ve OD’d on testosterone. All of them are here.”

  “That’s good. The phone lines are a go, and the volunteers are ready to roll. We’ve got about three hundred in the audience.”

  “Okay, Shelley. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this auction pays off. Are you planning to bid tonight?”

  “No, Rocco and I are officially a couple,” Shelley confided, her pleasure evident.

  Gina beamed at her. “That’s wonderful news, Shell. Is Rocco coming tonight?”

  “He’s picking me up afterward. I’ll be too busy to pay much attention to him until this thing’s over. Say, I love your dress. Is it new?”

  “I bought it the other day.” It was a red chiffon halter top with a long skirt that clung to her figure and belled out at the bottom, bought because Josh liked her to wear red.

  “It’s a great choice for the shoes,” Shelley observed. “I sold them to you, remember?”

  That had been a long time ago, before Shelley moved to Oregon. “I remember. I bought them for the Mr. Moneybags show.”

  “I’m glad they’ve worked for you. You look fantastic. See you later.” Shelley bustled off toward the bar.

  It was almost time to begin. Gina checked her watch, cued the band, and when they began to play, she marched out, her long skirt swirling around her ankles.

  “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” she said. “Welcome to the third annual Rio Robles Bachelor Auction to benefit the Nicholas Sorise Jr. Teen Center.”

  The audience consisted of many single women and a lot of married couples. A number of single men were there to egg on their friends, and Gina spotted several of her cousins in the crowd.

  She sped through the preliminaries, knowing that people had come to see the bachelors. In fact, an air of suspense hung over the proceedings, and she almost breathed her own sigh of relief when it was time to get started.

  “We’ll proceed in alphabetical order,” she declared as the band struck up a lively son
g designed to make the bachelors’ introductions move along at a fast clip.

  “Our first bachelor is Don Allisandro,” she said as he appeared at the head of the runway. “Don is twenty-nine years old, and you may recognize him as one of our public defenders in the Napa Valley. He likes a good cabernet, sleeping late on Sundays and women who can cook a saddle of lamb—not necessarily in that order.”

  “Whooeee,” called one of the women in the back of the room. “What a stud!”

  Don had begun his walk into the part of the runway that bisected the audience. He must have liked that comment, because he gave it a hearty thumbs-up and did a little boogie step, which made everyone laugh.

  “Don’s dream date is a trip to Morro Bay, where you’ll watch the sun set as you feast on a fine bouillabaisse. After that, he suggests a slow ride along the coast highway and a visit to a cozy little nightclub where they’ll be holding a table for two.”

  She interviewed Don for a few minutes. He obliged his admirers by grabbing the microphone and reciting a bit of poetry he said he’d composed himself. He departed after a soulful wink at someone in the audience—Gina’s cousin Donna, as it turned out.

  Gina waited for the applause to taper off before she introduced the next bachelor, who was Josh Corbett.

  His walk was supremely confident, with one hand in his pocket and a cheerful grin on his face. He treated Gina to a long look, which she returned. She couldn’t help thinking that she’d tear up his bio and beg him to back out of this obligation if it were remotely possible. Which it was not, at this stage of the game.

  She tried to keep her eyes on the sheet of paper in front of her as Josh began his saunter down the runway in time to jazzy merengue music. Compared with the other bachelors, Josh seemed so urbane, so experienced, so sophisticated. A lot of women in this audience would bid for an evening with him; she was sure of it.

  “Josh Corbett is well known as Mr. Moneybags from the TV show of the same name,” she began. “He—”