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We walk the steps, and as we reach the top level, the doors are opened for us, and just inside the foyer, Kasey greets us. Tall and silver-gray at fifty, he is a good-looking man who is friendly, well-liked, and still manages to be reserved in his personal life. “Fair warning,” he says. “We have a bridezilla in the house. I’d recommend taking cover.”
I laugh. “You are a bridezilla expert,” I say, and as he glances at Nick, surprise in the depth of his stare, Nick offers him his hand.
“Nick Rogers.”
“Kasey Gilligan,” Kasey greets, and the two men shake hands and exchange small talk that doesn’t last. Kasey’s walkie-talkie goes off on his belt.
“Trouble in the garden,” a voice says.
“That’s about the bridezilla,” he says. “I need to go focus her on her vows.”
Guilt over his dilemma and my weekend away washes over me. “Do you need—”
“No,” he says. “I do not need your help. I’m quite capable of running this place.”
“I know that.”
“This weekend gave me hope that you might mean that statement.”
He leaves me no room to argue. In a blink, he’s gone, and Nick glances down at me, arching a brow. “It’s not about how he handles the management of the winery. It’s about the challenge that was my mother, and now the bank.”
“Then let’s go talk about overcoming those things,” he says. “Because my hard limit was made with an artist.” He urges me forward, and I guide him to the stairwell and a path behind it with a second stairwell leading down. The way he pushes me to paint affects me in ways I’ll analyze later, alone.
Once we’re in the basement level, where there is a gift shop and a restaurant, we find our way to a rare vacant table among the fifteen that are mostly occupied, the floral tablecloths and designs in the center my mother’s choice.
“What do you recommend?” Nick asks, grabbing the menu on the table, and I wonder if he knows the way he fills the room, or the way men look at him with envy and the women with desire.
“Any of the five quiche choices,” I reply. “The chef trained in France, and apparently, that’s a thing there. She knows her quiche.”
“Quiche it is,” he says right as Samantha, our waitress, appears.
Nick turns his attention to her, and I watch, waiting for her gorgeous brunette bombshell looks to affect him, but if he notices, he shows no reaction at all. In fact, his hand finds my knee under the table, his eyes looking in my direction more than not.
And it’s only moments after we’ve ordered that, compliments of another waiter, we have coffee in front of us, and I find myself in the center of Nick’s keen blue eyes. “I can’t believe you’ve never been to Paris, considering the wine culture.”
“My parents went. I stayed home.”
Awareness that shouldn’t be possible flickers in his eyes. “They invited you. You didn’t want to go.”
“I wanted to go,” I say. “Just not with them.”
“How bad was your relationship with your mother?”
“I’d say it ranked about where you describe that of yours with your father.”
“And everyone here knew?”
“No,” I say. “We put on a good show.”
“But Kasey knew.”
“Kasey didn’t know until after my father died and I was forced to become the wall between the two of them. Honestly, it’s made Kasey and me closer. He loved my father and was confused by his relationship with my mother as well. I mean, my father was tough, charismatic, and dynamic in business. His willingness to take my mother’s abuse was illogical.”
“Love is blind,” he says wryly. “Or so it seems.” He changes the subject. “I like Kasey, by the way.”
“He’s a good man,” I say. “And a friend.”
“How have you explained the bill collectors?”
