Moonlight and Roses. Jackie Braun

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СКАЧАТЬ and your enemies closer. Zack wasn’t her enemy exactly, but under the circumstances, neither was he her friend.

      Downstairs, the tasting room had closed a couple of hours earlier and all of the employees had long since gone home. Stemmed glasses had been washed and put up, the hardwood surface of the large circular bar had been wiped down, and any opened bottles of wine properly stored. The security lights glowed softly, giving the large space with its vaulted ceiling and exposed oak beams a more intimate feel.

      “Zack?” she called out.

      “Over here.” He stepped from behind a display of bottles that had been stacked on their sides to keep the corks moist.

      “What are you doing?” she asked.

      “My mom told me never to show up at someone’s home empty-handed, so I’m looking for a little something to go with our dinner.” He flashed an engaging grin that, along with the reference to his mother, made him appear far younger than the midthirties she knew him to be.

      Jaye pointed to the next shelf over. “How about the house red?”

      “It’s good.” He scratched his chin. “But I was thinking of something a little more…elegant.”

      “To go with pizza?”

      Zack shrugged. “Is there a rule against that?”

      “I guess not.”

      “Good. Besides, I feel like celebrating.”

      “Let me guess. Ownership of the vineyard?” Her tone was tight.

      To her surprise he shook his head. “I was thinking more along the lines of freedom.”

      His lips twisted on the last word, as if it had left a foul taste in his mouth. Jaye didn’t press him, even though the cryptic answer certainly made her curious. Freedom from what? Or the more intriguing question: Freedom from whom?

      It was none of her business, though. So she asked instead, “If it’s a celebration you have in mind, then how about our 2004 pinot noir?”

      “Ah. Now you’re talking.”

      He grinned again. This time there was nothing remotely boyish about the way he looked. He was all man, fully grown and way too easy on the eyes. Jaye swallowed. Friend? Enemy? For a moment her traitorous libido seemed interested in drafting an entirely different classification. She chalked it up to long work days and a virtually nonexistent social life, especially when it came to members of the opposite sex.

      “I’ll wait for you outside,” she told him, and hastily retreated, happy to stand alone in the frigid moonlight while her pulse returned to normal.

      Jaye was leaning against his car when Zack finished locking up the building’s main doors. Unless she had appointments that took her away from the vineyard during the day, he’d noted that she walked the short distance from the house to work.

      “Car’s unlocked,” he called. “I should have thought to give you the keys so you could start it up and get the heater going.”

      The air held an extra bite tonight, but she didn’t look cold. In fact, her jacket remained unzipped.

      “That’s okay. I was just enjoying the peace.”

      “It’s like this at night back home, too,” he commented as he drew closer.

      “Like what?”

      He motioned with the bottle of wine to encompass the dark countryside beyond the lighted parking lot. “Isolated and quiet. It’s easy to forget the rest of the world exists beyond the vineyard once the visitors go home for the day and the sun sets.”

      “My dad used to claim I did that even when it was light outside.”

      “A bit of a homebody?” Zack asked as he joined her on the passenger side of the car.

      “I date.” She sounded slightly defensive.

      “I don’t believe I said otherwise, Jaye.” He opened her door. The basic courtesy that was so common on the dates she claimed to go on had her brows lifting. Still, she said nothing as she folded those long legs of hers inside his Mercedes. He wasn’t sure how, but she managed to look graceful even wearing oversize cotton, abused denim and a pair of muddy boots. He took a moment to thank providence for the rubber floor mats he’d installed just the week before.

      “It’s just that I work a lot of hours,” she was saying.

      “Same here.”

      “It’s hard to get out.”

      “At times.” Mira, of course, had enjoyed spending time with him at Holland. He frowned.

      “Not everyone understands the kind of commitment a vineyard requires.”

      “No. Not everyone does,” he agreed. “Of course, there’s a fine line between commitment and obsession.” He moved to close the door, but she put a hand out to stop him.

      “Which are you, Zack? Committed or obsessed?”

      “I’m…driven,” he replied, deciding there was a difference. This time she let him close the door, but the conversation wasn’t over.

      When he settled in behind the wheel, she said, “So, you straddle the line between the two.”

      Straddle? “I…no.”

      “Come on. Isn’t that what driven is? Half obsession, half commitment?”

      He wasn’t sure how she’d managed to put him on the defensive, but he felt the need to explain himself. “I want to make a superior product. I want to prove—” He broke off abruptly. He wanted to prove to his father, to Phillip, come to that, to Mira, that his ideas had merit, that he had worth.

      “What do you want to prove?”

      “Nothing.”

      “You know what I want? I want another Judgment in Paris this time with Michigan wines, specifically Medallion wines, taking top honors,” she said, referring to the 1976 blind tasting of California wines by French judges in which they won in every category against French wines.

      “You aim high.”

      “Anything wrong with that?” she asked.

      “Not a thing.”

      Zack started the engine. They arrived at her home barely a minute later. Thanks to moonlight and clever landscape lighting, he was able to admire the architecture inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, with its wealth of rectangular windows and geometric motifs.

      “I’ve got to tell you, this is a great house.” Zack switched off the ignition and pocketed the keys.

      “Dad liked it.”

      “But not you?” he asked.

      “It’s…big.”

      Something СКАЧАТЬ