Mumbles broke out around the table.
“As far as selling the product once guests are here, Patch has agreed to serve on an as needed basis. His job on the vineyard comes first still so I’m trying not to rely too heavily on him. I know the circumstances aren’t ideal but we will work with what we got until we fully launch.”
I felt a couple heads turn, waiting to see what I was gonna say.
She kept going though.
“But don’t worry. I cover their salaries. And once the launch happens, their pay will be covered by the revenue from the shed.”
I leaned back, crossing my arms, watching her now.
She came prepared as usual.
“Dillon and I will discuss—” I started.
“I wasn’t asking.” She cut me clean. “As agreed, the wine tasting experience is my project. I handle whatever goes on with it.”
There it was. That mouth. That attitude.
I met her eyes then. “It’s on my land.”
“Are you going to charge me rent, Marlon?”
Dillon stepped in before it got messy. “Enough. Let’s get back to the discussion. Where are we with the launch party?”
She broke eye contact like it wasn’t nothing and moved right on.
“We’re on track,” she said, flipping her page. “Vendors are confirmed, staffing is in place, and marketing rollout has already started. We’ve secured influencers and local partnerships to build anticipation leading up to the event. Also of note, I signedon a cleaning crew for the weekdays. This place gets dusty rather quickly and we will have a lot of foot traffic soon. They start in a few days so please advise all staff to stay out of their way where possible. Again, I will cover their salary.”
She sounded… solid. I sat there watching her talk, answer questions and handle pushback from her father without losing her footing.
That did something to me I ain’t like.
“How are you handling all this workload anyway?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes at me. “Well, Mr. Sinclair, after you kicked me out of my office with no equipment, I went ahead and handled renovations for the space so the team could function properly.”
I frowned immediately then cleared it up. “What renovations?”
Her eyes slid to me.
“I redid the entire third building.”
A few heads turned again in whispers but she just shrugged.
“Updated equipment, new workstations, software, layout. The space wasn’t usable before. Now it is.” She tapped her screen, pulling up something to show the table. “It’s going well so far. Staff is responding to it, and a few people have already shown interest in transferring over.”
A pause, then she looked at me.
“Including Lavender.”
I straightened a little. “Why didn’t you tell me you were doing this?”
She didn’t even blink.
“Per our agreement,” she tilted her head slightly, “you said I was the head of the project and could run it as I see fit. So I didn’t think I needed your approval.”
A couple people shifted again. I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the table.
