As if I needed anyone else’s two cents at the moment, my brother appeared at the door. “She can stay in the one of the cottages.”
“Back again so soon?” I didn’t pretend to be thrilled about the fact.
“Totally forgot I needed to pull some samples from the cellar. Was on my way there when I got caught up with Min.” Addressing Brooke, he said, “Sorry. I’m surprised you’re still here. I expected you’d have left already.”
With her spun around in the seat to face him, I couldn’t see her face but had a pretty good idea what it looked like. Precisely zero women looked at Neo as if he were anything but God’s gift to the earth. Truth was, he and Marco and I looked a lot alike. But while I turned some people off by refusing to tolerate anyone’s bullshit, and Marco came off as arrogant, because he was, Neo was our father’s clone. Confident, but not overly so, gregarious and always smiling, he could turn a nun away from the Church.
“I was just finishing up some paperwork. And apparently getting straight to work. Your brother asked me to start today,” Brooke said.
“Who’s working?” Neo asked me.
Monday was the slowest day of the week, so we typically had only one associate, with the rest of us lurking around if needed.
“Perry,” I said.
“I hope you like the smell of weed,” he said to her.
“I’m sorry?” Her voice was sweet when it wasn’t directed at me.
“Perry practically bathes in it.” Neo nodded to the door. “Come on, I’ll show you around. And I’ll take you down to the cottages too.” He gave me a pointed look.
Yeah, I’d thought of the cottages too. But Brooke at Grado Valley two or three days a week was enough. Living on the property? Steps away from me? Talk about a distraction I didn’t need. No, thanks.
“I don’t think any are available for the whole summer,” I told Neo, giving him a look that clearly said I would murder him for this.
“No? Well, we’ll check it out. Come on, before you suffocate in this office.”
She stood, back straight, head high. I’d give it to her, for someone who really didn’t need this job, it was a surprise she hadn’t gone running for the vineyards already. I probably would have told me to fuck off before we even made it to the back office. But not her. Brooke didn’t even give me a backwards glance as she sauntered from my office to follow Neo back toward the tasting room.
I picked up my phone to text my brother.
Do not rent her a cottage.
As usual, he responded almost immediately. Brooke wasn’t the only person with her phone attached to her at all times.
WTF?
It took me all of three seconds before I remembered this was the same brother who put a whoopee cushion on my chair two weeks ago. Neo was twenty-seven going on fourteen. He might be able to blend grapes better than anyone I knew, but he was also an incurable prankster. I basically just gave him the starter fluid for the fire that I told him not to start in the first place.
Just to be sure, I fired off one last text before getting back to work.
I’ll tell mom abt the tat
Speaking of immature. But hey, survival of the fittest.
Sitting back in my seat, I smiled imagining Neo’s expression as he read my text. If our mother knew he’d gotten a tattoo on a recent trip to Vegas for a bachelor party, she’d lose her shit. She might expect such a thing from Marco. But her golden child?
My phone lit up.
Asshole
For the first time today, I smiled.
CHAPTERNINE
brooke
“I’m sosorry you have to go.”