So much for dancing around first. But I was prepared for him. Ten years ago, I’d have melted into my seat. At least law school had been good for something.
I sat up, looked him straight in the eye, and gave it to him. I knew one important fact Jerry didn't, and it was time to reveal it now. Since he wanted to get technical with ‘your dad is co-owner.’
“When Dad invested, I was already enrolled in the sommelier certification program.”
“I remember,” he said, in a tone that suggested he wondered where I was going with this.
“I loved it as much as I hated being a lawyer.”
“I’m so sorry you didn’t enjoy it. After all those loans.”
“Tell me about it,” I said, charitably. And then went in for the kill. “Part of his motivation for the investment was me.” Then, to be crystal clear. “My father offered me his share as a sort of gift, I guess.”
“He...” Jerry’s expression changed. He forgot to smile. “He gave you his share? Howard didn’t say anything about that. How? Papers would have needed to be signed.”
“Not ‘gave’ but offered. That’s probably why he didn’t mention it.” Or part of the reason anyway. The bigger part was, even though they were friends, my dad knew Jerry was a shark. “I haven’t accepted yet.”
“Do you plan to?” His tone was totally neutral. I couldn’t read it at all.
“I’m here to figure that out. But I’m leaning toward yes. And if I accept my father’s share, I will be co-owner, obviously. But if you’d like me to wait until it’s official to make that change, I’m fine with that. In the meantime, proprietor will do.”
He was processing.
Rather than give him time to finish, I forged ahead. “And I’m glad you mentioned Brien. I talked to him a bit as well. He’s doing so many jobs, it might be a good time to consider—”
“If you’re going to suggest adding staff, that isn’t on the table.”
And just like that, decision made. As far as he was concerned, anyway.
“Like you said,” I tried again. It wouldn’t bode well to get off on the wrong foot already. “There’s lots to talk about. There are some easy fixes, small changes that won’t cost any money, like bonus tastings for birthdays—”
Rolling his eyes, he cut me off again. “Laila with the extra tastings again. Pretty soon it will be everyone’s birthday and we’ll be giving away the farm.”
There it was. The reason I could not work with—or worse, for—this man. He’d dismissed Laila out of hand. Why? Because he didn’t respect her. And why didn’t he respect her? Because she didn’t have as much money as him, maybe. Or because she was a woman. Or lord knew what other reasons he had, but none of them were legitimate.
“Giving away the farm?” I laughed, though it did come off slightly more sarcastically than I’d wanted. “I don’t know, Jerry. But like I said, it’s a small thing. There are others, like working with our neighbors, that I really want to discuss.”
Before I finished, he was already shaking his head. What the hell could he possibly oppose about working with neighboring wineries?
“I don’t go for all of that cross-promotion crap. This is a business, and in business, you have competitors. Pretending they’re anything else could get you into trouble.”
Get ‘you’ into trouble. Not us. Pronouns were tiny little things, just a few letters long, but they mattered. Big time.
“Ifweget into the same sort of trouble as, say, Grado Valley, maybe that’s a good thing. They’re doing a phenomenal job and work with other vineyards on all sorts of promotions.”
Every muscle in my body tensed, but I’d learned how to become angry without showing it. “In this day and age, I’m not sure many people would agree that cross-promotion is crap,” I said, probably too sweetly.
“In the real business world they would.” Jerry said it with a smile, as if he only half meant it. But I knew better. He was the real businessman, and I was just over here playing dress up because my daddy put me in this chair by investing his real businessman money in Sunset. That second half, unfortunately, was technically true.
Now he was just treating me outright poorly. “Real business world?” I asked as if I had no clue what he was talking about.
Another smile. “You know what I mean.”
I took a deep breath, prepared to unload on him but Jerry beat me to the punch. “Why don’t we continue talking about all this later? I have a few emails to answer. Maybe meet on the deck in an hour or so?”
He leaned down and pulled out his laptop. I stared as he opened it, took out his cord plugged it in. The asshole really was just going to dismiss me like some wayward child.
“If you’re only here for the day, there’s a lot to cover,” I began.