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“I know, and I wouldn’t insult him by offering it. I see a win-win for all of us.”
Molly smiled. “How so?”
“Well. I don’t want to go big scale. I just want to cultivate a few vines, make a few bottles of wine.”
She laughed.
“You know what I mean. I want to keep it small scale, a boutique label. And that’s pretty much what Chelsea and Grant are doing with Zosca—and don’t forget that they already have Zosca. If they take on Dawson Dale, it’d be a big expansion for them. I’m seeing the possibility of some kind of cooperative. We can help each other out on production, and we can share costs.”
Molly gave him a knowing smile. “That means they can help you with production and the hands-on side, and you can help them out by financing most of it.”
He smiled. “If that’s what they want. I just want to make wine. I want to have a label that we can call our own. That you can serve at Molly’s, and it’ll bring people in because it’s the only place they can get it. Chelsea and Grant love working it every day. I don’t want to be there, because I want to be here with you.”
Molly smiled. “Except most of the time, I’m at work.”
“And I know you don’t want to give that up.”
“Not completely, no. I’m more like Chelsea and Grant. I need to be there. I am willing to take more time off, though. Grady can handle it.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
She gave him a puzzled look. “You’re scheming again, I can tell. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that when we’re ready to have a family—to adopt—I can be a stay-at-home dad.”
Her mouth fell open.
“You don’t like the idea?”
She laughed. “I don’t know what to think. I never thought you’d want to. I don’t know. I’ll need to wrap my head around it, but right now my first instinct is to be jealous! Of you getting to stay home with the baby—and the baby getting to stay home with you.”
He chuckled. “We can both stay home if you want to; we’re lucky, we have that option.”
She nodded. “Yeah, but right now we’re getting ahead of ourselves, first—”
Marcos’ phone rang.
“You should get that.”
“It’s just Ken. He’ll be telling us what time we can go look.”
She laughed. “So, answer him and find out! I’m excited to go and see the place.”
~ ~ ~
When they pulled up outside the main gates to the Hardy estate, Molly looked up the long driveway in awe.
Marcos looked over at her. “What do you think?”
She shook her head. “It’s beautiful. Do you like it?” He kept saying he was happy to live at her place with her, but she wasn’t so sure. Was it fair of her to make him? This grand estate was more his style. It was what he’d grown up with, what he was used to.
“I do. It’s one of the nicest estates around. I’m interested in the land, and I’m interested in how we could separate the house off from the rest of it.”
“Why?”
“Because it’d be crazy to buy it and let it stand empty. There are all kinds of possibilities. The most straightforward would be to put it on the rental market. It has five bedrooms and five bathrooms; it could accommodate groups or just be a high-end vacation rental. Or if we wanted to get creative, we could turn it into a venue for events. It could host weddings.” He raised an eyebrow at her.
Was he asking what she thought he was? Would she want to get married here? She looked up the long driveway again and imagined herself arriving here in a white limousine, or, no, better yet—a horse-drawn carriage. She smiled. Yes. She loved the idea. She wasn’t one of those girls who’d dreamed of her wedding day—at least, not since he’d left—but she could picture it now—here—and she loved the idea.
