Isaiah’s look was anything but friendly. Not that I’d expect it to be.
“Glad you’re coming with us tonight,” he said to Rae as we walked on board.
“Evening Isaiah.” He didn’t take to my chipper tone well. Ignoring me, he started telling Rae all about the tour, the different itineraries on each of the boats, all the while pretending I didn’t exist.
“So,” she said, finally looking between us. “I take it you two know each other.”
That was the problem with the valley. With Kitichi Falls. If you were local, chances were you knew just about everyone.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Isaiah wasn’t being very charitable. “He dated my sister.”
“Of course he did,” Rae muttered, asking Isaiah more questions. Instead of standing there and letting the man throw daggers at me with his eyes, I moved to an empty spot at the bar built into the center of the boat. A tasting attendant I didn’t know was already collecting slips of paper from everyone.
“Here you go,” she said to me, handing me a paper. Young, likely in college, I wondered if she even knew the wines. Granted, my siblings and I were tasting wines well before it was legal, but most college students weren’t deciphering the difference between pinot noir and cabernet at twenty-two. “You can choose three red and three white, or a dessert wine on the bottom to replace either. The descriptions are there for you to read, but let me know if you have any questions.”
“I’m thinking,” Rae said, coming up beside me. “You won’t have any questions.”
I breathed in deeply as the boat’s engine roared to life. I smelled fragrance notes for a living, but never in my life had one been so sweet to me. Distinctly Rachel.
“Just one. How bad did he trash talk me?”
“Here you go,” the attendant handed Rae a slip. She clearly didn’t know this was the new proprietor, the owner’s daughter.
“Thanks,” Rae smiled, looked as if she were debating introducing herself, and then clearly decided against it.
“Everything isn’t all about you, you know. We talked about the cruise. And Sunset.”
No way Isaiah kept his mouth shut about me. His sister and I didn’t have a good breakup. After I took her to Cos and Brooke’s wedding—big mistake—she got confused. Thought we were the ones who got married. Too serious too soon for me, but she refused to let it go. I’d been one step away from putting a restraining order on the woman.
I checked off my wines, and Rae did the same.
“So what did he say?” I only cared because I wondered how much damage repair I had to do.
Rae huffed, but honestly, it was kind of cute. “He said, ‘Stay away from that one.’”
Not so bad.
“I hope you don’t plan on listening to him?”
Rae’s pencil paused. “I really should,” she said, her eyes locking with mine.
She meant it. Rachel Watson wanted nothing to do with me.
But I wanted everything to do with her. Was it smart? Of course not. A good idea to mix business and pleasure? Hell no. But life was too short to play it safe. To not act on an attraction this strong.
“Why?” I asked.
She made a very unladylike sound and went back to her sheet. When the attendant came back around after collecting the remaining tasting sheets from the twenty or so others on the boat, she collected ours, smiling and moving on.
“You really have to ask?”
Rae slipped. If I wasn’t watching, I’d have missed it. For a split second, though, she allowed me to see the desire in her eyes. Granted, it wasn’t on purpose. Rae didn’t want me to know she was attracted to me, but she was.
I stared at her lips for too long. When I looked back up, the attorney was back. She might not like her job, but Rae had an edge that had been sharpened in law school. I was as competitive as the next guy, but that level of one-upmanship is something I could do without.
“Probably not,” I admitted.
“Ok folks, this is your captain speaking. We’ve successfully pushed out for our Sunset Wine Cruise. For the next hour and a half, enjoy the views, the wine, and the company. If you have any questions, feel free to give my partner in crime tonight a shout.”