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Just like that, her smile was back and threatening to take over her face. She really did love this man.
Two men in suits climbed out of their car. Who wore suits to go wine tasting? In Houston no less. “They look official.”
“Mm.” Daniel inched closer to her, his gaze fixed on the two men slowly crossing the parking lot.
“Paige Baron?” One of the men extended his hand.
With a nod, she accepted the proffered hand. “How may I help you?”
The man’s attention shifted to Daniel. It took everything in her not to sigh and roll her eyes as they sized each other up the way men sometimes do. “I’m Carl Rawles.” He waited a beat as if his name should have been known to her. “With the Wine Association Award Committee.”
Wine Association? Her heart leaped in her chest as she told herself not to over react. It could be anything. Including bad news. But Daniel’s hand on her back helped to keep her cool and collected. “Nice to meet you.”
He introduced his companion, but Paige was far less interested in who they were than in why were they here.
“The comments about your vintages were impressive.”
Impressive. That was good wasn’t it? Or was that likeinteresting—what you say to a woman when you don’t want to outright tell her that her new dress reminds you of your aging grandmother.
The other man nodded. “Everyone raved about them.”
Raved was good. She relaxed just a tiny bit.
“Normally, you’d receive an official email.”
She cast a sideways glance in Daniel’s direction, curious to see if he was finding this as weird as she was.
“Since we missed the competition here, we wanted to taste your wines.”
Suddenly she had an urge to ask for identification. She could hear every one of her brothers asking who shows up an hour before opening to taste wine? Maybe they were burglars. She did have some very expensive wines. Then again, what burglars wore suits?
“So,” the second man extended his arms and handed her a box, “we wanted to come in person to give you your awards.”
Her stomach dropped to her feet. “Awards?”Plural?
“Your Cabernet won gold.”
She did a silent fist pump and grinned as Daniel’s hands moved to her shoulder and gave a quick squeeze. She’d hoped her Cabernet would place, but gold? She desperately wanted to do a jig.
“Your Riesling, Tempranillo and Zinfandel all won silver. You placed in more categories than any other winery in the region.” The man pointed to the box. “All of the medals are in there.”
She’d gone from wanting to do a jig to hoping her knees wouldn’t give out on her.Any other winery. Wow. “I can’t believe you delivered them in person.”
She’d swear the first guy blushed.
“Well, like I said, normally you’d just get an email and the awards would be sent shortly thereafter, but we really did want to taste the wines.”
Daniel squeezed her shoulders again and she realized the men were waiting for her to offer them a taste. “Sorry. Let’s go pour you some wine.”
She waited for the men to go inside then spun around to face Daniel, holding the door open. She did a very tiny jig in place, let out the softest squeal, and then kissed him on the tip of his nose. Could this day get any better?
Daniel stood in the doorway behind Paige, waving mindlessly at the two men who had walked out the door. Not until they had started their cars and driven out of the parking lot did Paige stop waving.
Slowly her hand dropped to her side. When she spun around and squealed so loud he was pretty sure the two men now speeding down the freeway could have heard her. “I won!” Throwing her arms around him, she squeezed him tightly, still squealing softly.
Caught up in the moment, he lifted her off the ground and spun her around. “I told you before and now there’s proof: you make great wine.”
Her smile settled into sweet contentment. “I do, don’t I?”
