“It must be cool, though. Working together. Your Wednesday tradition.”
“Cool?” Min made an extremely unattractive face but then laughed at her own silliness. “I’m just teasing.”
“Take it from an only child. It’s pretty amazing.”
So she was an only child? I couldn’t imagine life without my siblings. I wanted to strangle at least one of them at any given time. When I was away at college, the distance from my family felt . . . freeing. Until it didn’t. By the time I’d graduated, I missed Grado Valley, and my family. There was never really any question of coming back. Just one of being able to do the job as well as my parents.
Min grabbed a donut, obviously changing her mind. Could have predicted that. “Take one of the cinnamon,” she said to Brooke. “They’re amazing.”
Oddly pleased she didn’t hesitate, I pretended that watching her take a first taste didn’t affect me at all. The “mmm” the treat elicited did it for me.
“To answer your question,” I said to Min, “I have no idea. I’ll make some calls this morning. But if it’s true...” I let the words hang.
“What does it mean, exactly. If it’s true?” Brooke asked.
I couldn’t help but look at her as I answered. “The owners are a bunch of assholes. They don’t play nice with anyone up here, despite the fact that nearly every other owner works together well. When one vineyard or winery does well, attracts business, we all benefit.”
“Sunset,” Min summed up, “is the bane of our existence.”
“And owning the Baker property means they will be able to expand?”
“Right,” Min said. “Which wouldn’t be a problem except—” She and I exchanged a glance. “It’s lakefront. An expansion of their popular Sunset Wine Cruise wouldn’t be great news for us.”
“Because of the dock thing.”
Min seemed surprised Brooke knew about that. “Right. Which means we’re in for some tough discussions. If it’s true.”
Tough was an understatement. Min and I agreed that maintaining Mom and Dad’s vision was an important part of our philosophy. Marco and Neo, on the other hand, didn’t want to get “stuck in the old ways” and pushed hard for changes they thought would bring Grado into the future. The brewery had been a compromise. Dad was against it. Mom felt ambivalent about it. And knowing Marco needed a sense of ownership here, feeling sometimes left out as he did, it had been one of the first decisions I’d made as proprietor. I was already in the shithouse with Dad for that one. Adding docks would be a five-alarm fire.
“In other news, how was your first week?” Min asked Brooke.
She immediately looked at me. And hesitated. “Eventful,” she said, taking a sip of coffee. “But when you start out at a place after making snow angels in the grass, it can only go up from there, right?”
“I heard about that,” Min admitted. “We’ve all been there.”
“Oh,” Brooke said. “I wasn’t drunk.” I gave her a look, so she amended, “Well, notthatdrunk. I’d been tasting away, minding my business, when a little kid went running across the field. She was looking at the sky and didn’t see a log in front of her. I could tell she was going to run headlong into it. Instead,” she shrugged, “I took a bit of a tumble.”
“Oh my goodness, I had no idea. Was the girl okay?”
“Not a scratch,” Brooke said. “Wish I could say the same.” She showed us both the back of her arm. I’d seen the bruise and knew where it came from. Even if I’d totally misconstrued the reason for it.
Shit.
“Do you have time for a chat later today?” Brooke said suddenly to me. “I’m thinking of something and want to hash over it a bit first. An idea.”
Double shit.
“I’m off the property most of the day, but I can catch you afterwards.”
“Sounds good,” she said, as casual as could be. As if she was completely unaffected by the idea of having a private talk later.
“Take what you want,” I said to the ladies, finding my voice. “I have to get the rest of these pastries back to the Cellar before I head out.”
Min took some for her workers and damned if Brooke didn’t snag a second one too. I liked a woman who wasn’t shy about eating actual food. And who saved little girls from near catastrophes. And who held her own, as Brooke had with me after I’d been an asshole pretty much since the moment we’d met.
Renting the cottage to her was my way of apologizing. But maybe I needed to offer a real one, having clearly misjudged Brooke Ellis somewhat.
She was still my employee, though. And hating her had been a lot easier than admitting the truth. A truth that would get me into some serious trouble...the last thing I needed more of right about now.