Page 79 of Just for Tonight

“Right.” Darcy is skeptical and doesn’t even bother to hide it.

“If you think I’m coasting, why would your father give me a job?”

“Well, you know.” He smiles again, then changes the subject. I do know and I don’t like it. “Dad’s done a great job building up Rutherford Estate Wines, but I have big plans for the future. You’ll see and immediately agree with me. I just know it. We need to expand and increase our production.”

“Sometimes smaller is better.” There’s a demon inside me, insisting that I say the opposite of every assertion Darcy makes. That he doesn’t even seem to notice is not a happy sign.

“We can have the wedding at the vineyard,” he continues. “Make it a local event and get some publicity out of it. Two families united, kind of thing. It should get a lot of press.”

Only two hours since we met and he’s planned the wedding. Of course, I don’t think the views of the bride are particularly relevant – or maybe even who the bride might be. Bonus that my family have a vineyard, too. It’ll make for a better headline in the papers.

Or was that the invitation?

I am simmering. “Have you picked the date?” I ask, keeping my face averted so my eyes don’t give me away.

“Late August or early September, depending on how the harvest comes in this year. It looks as if it might be an early one. Late September might be a better choice. Hey, and there will be a bit of fall colour, too.”

“That’s soon.”

“No reason to delay once the decision is made,” he says cheerfully. “When the stars align, you have to jump right in.”

I could have kept my mouth shut if he’d stopped there. (Maybe.)

But he doesn’t.

“I mean, you aren’t getting any younger, Mackenzie.”

I turn to him. “But how would I fulfill my duties as general manager if I had a rough pregnancy? Women over thirty often do.”

“You’ll manage. I’ll be there and so will Dad. I’m sure you’ll work out the entire balancing act before you get busy with the kids.”

“As general manager, though, wouldn’t I be your boss?”

He laughs. “Technically, yes, but everyone will know better.”

“And if I told you to do something you didn’t want to do?”

He blinks as if I’ve suddenly switched to Mandarin. “But you’d never do that. We have a plan. You’ll just be making sure we follow it. Really, Mackenzie, no one would expect much of you in that position. It’s just optics.”

With a job in title only, one that was given to me because the heir liked the look of me. With no authority – and no opportunity to use what I know and have learned. What is the point, if I can’t make a difference?

Right. The kids that don’t exist yet.

What if they don’t? What if I don’t get pregnant? What if all doesn’t end well?

I just got here and he’s got us married with family, and I have us divorced already. This is nuts.

“Too bad I like the challenges of actually being in charge,” I say and take a hard turn into a gift shop. It takes a few moments for Darcy to follow, so he has some sense of self-preservation.

“Feeling jet-lagged from the flight?” he asks when he catches up to me. “I always find going west is tougher.”

Ah. We can only disagree if there is something wrong with me.

I take a deep breath, then three more for good measure.

“You seem to have firm ideas about your future,” I say, looking at some ceramic mugs with more interest than I feel.

“Doesn’t everyone?”