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“What about your parents? Your dad?” I ask, changing the subject before things get a little too comfortable between us.
“Dad’s retired, and he’s off traveling through Europe with my mum,” Jack responds but offers nothing more. And before I can ask what he’s been up to, he says, “I’ll check in with you in a bit after I have time to look into things.”
“If I’m not here, I’ll be up front in the office.”
Jack gives me a curt nod of his head and leaves, making his way back to his cottage.
I take in a deep breath and exhale slowly, watching him walk away.
“Get a good look at my arse?” Jack calls over his shoulder, his laugh booming across the empty rows of vines.
“Shut up!” I yell back, slapping my hand over my face before I disappear, mortified, into my house.
I slam the door and I hear that Ellen and the kids are back, and she giggles as I storm into the kitchen.
She’s standing poised at the island with a glass of wine in each hand and a smile on her face.
“How’d that go?” she questions, and I can’t tell if she’s teasing or prying.
“About as well as expected,” I mutter, grabbing the glass from her hand and taking a big gulp.
“Dad would kill you if he saw you chug your wine like that.”
“I don’t need your shit, too.” I roll my eyes at her and plop down on a stool, as Ellen grabs the one next to me.
“Is he married?” she asks seemingly out of nowhere, her eyebrows going up along with the corners of her lips. Nosiness must run in the family.
“You’re as bad as the kids.”
Chapter Three
Jack
I’m grinning as I walk back into my cottage. It’s funny how things have turned out, me wanting to look Lulu up while I’m here and her turning out to be my boss and neighbor.
Even better is the fact that I still have an effect on her, too. Good to see nothing’s changed there. It’s certainly gonna make my time here a whole lot more fun.
After I pull on some boots, I walk back to the building containing her broken crushing machine and take another look. Almost immediately I think I know what the problem is, but I also know I can’t do anything about it. Not right now anyway.
Before I leave, I take a look around the shed, the two other crushers she’s got to the side, the logbooks and signs documenting everything that goes in and everything that comes out. She’s organized and methodical about it all, which is good. It’s exactly how you need to be.
Eventually I walk out of the shed and head back to her house, but she’s not there, no one responding when I call out.
I head back up to the main building, the one I know from my time here as a kid that houses the cellar door and tasting rooms and the offices out the back.
“Hey, Lulu?” I call out as I walk inside. “You in here?”
I hear the loud exhale before she calls. “Back here.”
I walk through to the main office and see her standing behind a desk, an annoyed look on her face.
“What, don’t tell me you’ve given up already?” she asks, a look of aggravation on her face as though this would legit piss her off if I had.
I grin. “No, Lulu, I have not. But, I do know what the problem is, so I will be able to fix it. The biggest issue is the grapes, they gotta go.”
“What?” she asks.
“The grapes,” I say shrugging. “I can’t fix it with them in there.”
