“I will.” She pulled away.
“Need help with your luggage?”
“Marco got it. He’s out there probably cursing me as we speak. I told him to stay with it.”
“Go ahead then before he comes looking for you.”
Min turned toward the door and nearly ran smack-dab into Brooke.
“Oh hi,” Min said to her. “Sorry I nearly bowled you over.”
“No worries,” Brooke said, looking like she belonged here. Jean shorts and a Grado tee, hair down today.
“It was so good to meet you,” Min said.
“Oh, that’s right, you’re leaving to join your parents?”
“Literally right now, yep.”
“Well, safe travels. It was great meeting you too.”
With a final warning glance, which Brooke couldn’t see, Min waved as she walked away, leaving the object of our discussion standing in the door.
“Come on in, Brooke,” I said. Knowing what I was about to tell her—the truth—I added, “And maybe shut the door behind you.”
“You’re scaring me,” Brooke said.
The fact that I stared at her ass as she closed the door was exactly why we couldn’t do this today.
She turned, sat down, and looked at me with awell, go on thenexpression.
“Didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry to have pulled you up here on your day off, Brooke.” I pulled the Band-Aid right off. “I think today is a bad idea.”
“Today? You mean the one that wasyouridea?”
“That one.”
She gaped at me as if I’d lost my mind. Which, in fairness, was possibly true.
“You are an employee,” I started.
“And Grado Valley has a very strict, ironclad, no-fraternization policy,” she teased.
“One I initially mentioned because I thought you were attracted to my brother.”
Brooke’s smile fell. Her eyes widened.
“He’s a likable guy, so I wouldn’t blame you. But that day...” I shrugged. “It was a dumb thing to say. But people do dumb things when they...” Fuck me. This was more truth than I’d expected to let fly today, but so be it. “When they’re attracted to someone they shouldn’t be. When they say things like, ‘Come up to the Cellar for a private tasting.’”
For the first time since we met, Brooke was speechless. I was about to continue to explain myself, why today and long chats on my porch were a bad idea, when she finally spoke. “That was the last thing in the world I expected you to say.”
“The truth?”
She blew out a breath, appearing overcome. “I guess, yeah. Most people are a little coyer than that.”
“I’ve been accused of being many things, but coy has never been one of them. I hate playing games.”
“Clearly.”