“After getting back to Jerry, I’ll probably need it. But if Brien’s coming in, I should touch base with him.”
“How about, after breakfast, I drop you off for a few hours and then pick you back up? We can hit the gym and then,” he shrugged. “Up to you.”
I’d been about to pull the pickup door open when Marco rushed ahead and did it for me. “What is it?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“What is it?” he repeated. “You can tell me anything.”
“I just...I don’t know what we’re doing here. What do I say to your sister?”
“What do you want to say?”
Good question.
Marco reached out to tilt my chin up so I was looking straight at him. “I’ll do whatever you want. Keep it quiet, if you want. But if I had a choice, I’d tell my sister we’re dating.”
“Dating,” I repeated, still unsure how I went from avoiding him to dating him in what felt like light speed.
“Yes, dating.”
His eyes narrowed. “Each other. And no one else.” My heart skipped a beat. “If that’s what you want, of course.”
He was saying that for my benefit, knowing he was usually a man whore. “What do you want?”
The words were hard to get out, but I thought of sitting at KC’s and watching his blond date draped all over him, and knew that wasn’t going to cut it. Even though this was so new.
“You,” he said. “I want you, Rae. In my bed. In your bed. Out to dinner. On Grado’s deck Wednesday night lounging next to me with a wine glass in hand. I want you to shadow me, to learn the ropes, so that we can kick Jerry’s ass when it comes time. That’s what I want.”
To say his words surprised me would be an understatement.
“That’s what you want?” I asked, as if he’d not just said as much.
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes, I do.”
Marco leaned down, took my mouth to his, and kissed me so sweetly I could have melted into a puddle at his feet. So much for hardening myself when it came to this outrageous, outspoken playboy. Maybe it was because, inside, another Marco tried like hell to get out. To get the notice he deserved.
“In that case, I want that too.”
For better, or more likely, for worse.
TWENTY-SIX
marco
“Have you lost your frigging mind?”Cos said.
My shoulders immediately tensed. I’d get no quarter from any of them, least of all my older brother. But I figured it was better to rip off the Band-Aid, so to speak.
Catching him and Min together in the Wine Cellar before picking Rae back up for the gym, I went for it. Told them where I’d been last night and where I was going now. Of course I knew it would be an issue.
And it was.
“Come on Marco, seriously?” Min had apparently just come over from the Barn to talk to Cos about a marketing idea Brooke shared with her. Something about Fall into Wine with a few other vineyards. Obviously, Sunset came up as a potential partner, Min saying she’d reach out to Rae and...now I apparently had lost my frigging mind.
“Before you lose it—”
“We’re not the ones losing it,” Cos shot back. “Rachel is not some chick you can wine and dine.”