I wasn’t leaving Grado Valley.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
brooke
“Sometimes I findit hard to believe the three of you are brothers,” I said to Marco and Neo. It was the last Wednesday in July, and aside from the fact that Cos and I had been forced to sneak around these past few weeks, I was on cloud nine.
We sat in a circle on the deck listening to music. The rule was, on Wednesdays, no tastings. Only one person worked the desk, Perry tonight, where visitors could buy bottles to drink. The cafe stayed open for pizzas only, giving everyone a chance to kick back and actually enjoy themselves. Grado family included.
There had been so many perfect nights like this one. I had always thought the adage of “if you love your job, it’s not really work” was a crock of horse manure. Wholovedtheir job enough to do it even if they weren’t forced to do so? No one I knew.
At least, no one I knew before Grado Valley.
Everyone worked incredibly hard here. More often than not, seven days a week. When the day was done, the tasting rooms closed, on some days, it was just the beginning of round two. Dinners were filled with talk about the estate. Even on Wednesday nights, the star-filled sky was a background to more work talk.
Yet no one complained. No one said they were sick of talking about the weather, everyone’s hope for more warm, dry days like this one. To the customers, this was nice wine-sipping weather. To the Grados, it was the difference between good yields and disaster.
“Most people say just the opposite.” Neo waved to someone in the distance. “That we all look alike.”
“That’s only because they don’t know you,” I said. “To me, you guys are like night and day.”
“It’s pretty simple,” Neo said. “Cos, the uptight eldest brother. Marco, the perennial bachelor and biggest asshole of the family—”
“Hey,” Marco obviously disagreed. “No one says that.”
“Everyone says that,” Neo shot back. “And me. The one everyone loves.”
Marco was looking at Neo like he’d gotten some of it wrong. “Yeah, buddy, I don’t think so.”
“Okay then, you try.” Neo took a sip of wine.
“Cos, you got right. I might throw ‘type A’ in there too. And you’re the mama’s boy, baby of the family and all.”
“You forgot about Min,” Neo said.
“Of the boys. She doesn’t count.”
I listened as they went back and forth, not seeing Cosimo anywhere. He went inside to get a case of wine for the employees to drink and hadn’t come back out.
“And how would you categorize yourself? God’s gift to women?”
Marco thought about it for a second. “Actually, that sounds about right.”
“Excuse me,” I said, standing. “Be right back.”
If they suspected I was going to look for Cos, neither of them let on. I knew they probably didn’t approve, and why would they? But neither of his brothers had said anything to me, even though they had harassed Cos about it a bit.
The whole situation just sucked. And what was worse, Cos and I rarely talked about it. Pretending August wasn’t a few days away was not a good strategy. Coupled with the fact that I’d put off potential job offers long enough, something had to give.
Yesterday I’d talked to Tina, who’d checked in on my apartment. Everything was fine, she said, and ready for me to return. It was the first time I’d paused when the topic came up. Tina knew about Cos, but since I hadn’t let on that it was more serious than a simple summer fling, she hadn’t been harassing me.
Until now.
One simple pause and she’d been all over it, asking a million questions. Including the big one.
“Brooke? You are coming back, right?”
Of course I was. Cos hadn’t asked me to stay on, which would have been a pretty impossible decision anyway. It was one thing to carry on a fling with your boss of two months. But if I applied for Jena’s position, something which had crossed my mind more than once, what would happen to Cos and me?