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Goosebumps, the bad kind, prickle on my skin as Kel continues to stand there, silent. Unease swirls in my belly at the way his signature scowl hasn’t changed since he saw me. Does he not want me here? “Hey.” I tip my head and lean a little to the side, as if I could see beneath his defenses if I could just get the right angle.
“Oh!” Sophie turns her attention to Kel. “Kel, we had the pleasure of chatting with Maggie earlier, she’s an absolute darling.” Sophie looks back at me, all smiles. “You’re a keeper.”
The warmth of Sophie’s praise meets the cold anxiety of Kel’s silence with a nauseating crash in my belly. At least, I desperately hope that's what's causing the nausea. “Th-thanks.” I stammer my words, fighting the need to either cry or stamp my foot like a two-year-old and demand that Kel do something to put me at ease. Oh my god, my emotions are all over the place.
“Oh. Uh. Yeah, Maggie’s great.” Kel shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot, his shoulders creeping up toward his ears. “What are you—I mean.” He clears his throat, the knot in my stomach twisting tighter. “How come you’re here, Maggie?’
I have to clear my own throat before I can answer. “My house was too quiet. I figured if I came out here to work I could get a twofer. A change of scenery and good company.”
“And a great view,” Lauren adds, tipping her wine glass in Kel’s direction instead of out the windows with a wink.
I laugh. “Yeah, the view is pretty great too.” I smile at Kel but he doesn’t smile back. My face drops as an awkward silence lingers between us. Finally I clear my throat and pull my smile back into place before turning back to Mr. Sutton. “So it sounds to me like you did the math and realized that buying Sophie her own winery would be more financially responsible?”
Everyone laughs at my joke, except Kel, and the conversation flows once more. Sophie is charming, Lauren is hilarious, and Theo may be serious, but Jackie is right—the man is absolutely in love with Sophie.
Slowly, as we chat about future plans for the winery, Kel softens and starts adding the odd word to the conversation. One hand is even freed from its pocket prison as he rubs it at the back of his neck in response to a compliment from Theo.
“I have to ask,” Lauren muses, wine glass spinning in her hand. “How on earth did you get Kel to ask you out? He makes himself scarce on the weekends, as a general rule, but Sophie and I have won and lost many a bet, to each other and the boys, watching women ogle him.”
“You take bets on me?” Kel’s voice is thick with outrage. He glances up at Theo, brows furrowed. “I would never—”
Theo claps him on the shoulder, laughing and shaking his head. “I know, I know. Trust me, the girls here have done more to prove your character than you know.”
Satisfied smugness pushes away some of the churning in my gut and I have to ask. “What exactly do you bet on?”
Sophie is the one who answers, counting off on her fingers. “Whether a particularly aggressive cougar will bend and snap her back out to get his attention. How long before a certain twenty-something—that would be my daughter—realizes he thinks of her as a child. How many ladies need ‘help’ carrying a case of wine to the car on a given afternoon.” She shrugs as I laugh. “We’re very good at entertaining ourselves.”
“You know? He never flirts back.” Lauren leans close to bump my shoulder with hers. “And I mean never. And not for lack of trying by the women who come around. Some of the boys too.”
“I must be the only genius who realized that the key was getting a toothpaste stain on your favorite sweater and then ignoring him in favor of his daughter.” I get a small smile from Kel at that, enough encouragement to tell the story of our several chance meetings and Olive’s collapsing treehouse.
I’m still off-balance from Kel’s cold reception though, and my retelling isn’t as hilarious as it was in my head. Every time I smile or say something flirty to Kel, he doesn’t respond. Each one-liner I toss his way falls flat, leaving me less enthusiastic as I continue the story.
“I don’t know that I had much choice in the matter. Olive and Jackie both seem to have decided that Maggie is the best thing since ice cream. Neither of them would leave me alone until I took her out.”
Kel
I regret my words the instant I say them. Hurt flashes across Maggie’s face as Sophie winces.
“You sure seemed to think I tasted better than ice cream when we were in Seattle.” Maggie’s eyes flash in anger and my dick aches with a sudden need to feel those sassy lips around it again. But I suck in air through my nose, forcing him to settle the fuck down.
My face goes hot as Theo, Sophie and Lauren burst out laughing. Without a word, I cross to Maggie, crowding her until she has to step back from the group. If I don’t get her away from my bosses, and my need to kiss her silly under control, I’m going to be out of a job and homeless.
“What?” Fire burns in Maggie’s eyes as she backs away. “It’s true. And no one forced you to do anything.”
I herd her toward the fireplace across the room, snagging her elbow when she doesn’t move quick enough. “I can’t believe you just said that,” I growl under my breath. “Did you seriously just tell Theodore Sutton, my boss, that I ate you out the other night? Did you stop and think for one second about who you were joking with?”
We stop in front of the fireplace, the fire crackling in it warming my face as Maggie squares up with me. She’s mad—that much is obvious—but so am I. Not thinking about her all day ever since Seattle has been impossible. With Theo and Sophie here, it’s taking everything in me not to sling her over my shoulder and take her back to my house, instead of carrying on a professional, grown-up conversation with my bosses. Sunshine Cellars may not be my dream, but I’ll be damned if I don’t take care of it until Nate comes home.
“Would it have killed you to say hello? Act at all happy to see me? Maybe I wouldn’t have said it if you hadn’t pissed me off so much.”
I return her scowl, hands shoved into my pockets so I don’t reach out to touch those sassy lips. “I’m at work. You showed up unannounced. How was I supposed to react to you being here?”
“I sent you text messages.”
“I was working and didn’t check my phone.” I set my weight back on my heels, pulling out my phone and glancing at the screen. Among the flurry of notifications on the screen are some unread text messages, one from Maggie. “Why didn’t you wait for an answer?” Angry, I swipe them all away to deal with later.
Maggie’s spine goes ramrod straight. “You take ages to answer, was I supposed to sit around and wait for you all damn day? Besides, it’s not like I live down the street, it took me thirty minutes to get here, you had plenty of warning. And who doesn’t have their phone on them while they’re working?”
