A quick brush of my hair and lip gloss reapplication, and I was ready to do this. “The last time I said that, you were trying to decide between buying a mango and a bag of cherry wine slushie mix.”
She laughed. “But the principle is the same. Wine slushies, life-altering decisions. Works like a charm every time.”
Laughing, I grabbed my wristlet and headed out. After hanging up with Tina, I shoved my phone inside and walked slowly toward the Cellar. It was after hours, which meant most of the cars were gone. But the lights were still on, not surprising since at least one of the Grado siblings usually worked well past dark. Unless it was Wednesday.
As I approached, I could see something was going on though. The bulb lights that typically were reserved for evening events or parties on the back deck were all lit. Was something scheduled for tonight I didn’t know about?
Instead of heading inside, I made my way around back. There, at the very same table as that first wine tasting, under the lights with the darkening sky above him, was Cosimo. Soft music played in the background, more noticeable now than usual, with no other people around.
As I got closer, I could see a tasting was set up.
“What’s going on?” I asked Cos as I walked up to him. He looked achingly gorgeous, made more so because this was the longest I’d gone without touching him since we got together. Though he was dressed as usual in jeans and a GVV tee, he wasn’t wearing his customary glasses. I liked the Clark Kent look, but he was just as handsome without them. Especially now after the hellish twenty-four-plus hours we’d spent apart.
“A tasting,” he said. “Go ahead and sit.”
“A tasting,” I repeated as Cos sat across from me. Usually, he would stand at the head of the picnic table, doling out wines. But it was just the two of us, and four tasting glasses were already filled in front of me. “Okay,” I hedged.
“I thought you’d gone back to the city,” he said as I sat.
“No, I had another errand to run today.” Not sure why I didn’t tell him about my day right away. Except that...something was off. Something told me to wait.
“I see.” He seemed to be in much more jovial spirits than I’d have expected after what happened. Then again, I was too. But I had an ace up my sleeve.
“I have to ask,” I said, not wanting to misinterpret what I saw in Cos’s eyes, but knowing him well. Gone was the dark void that was there when he sat behind his desk and so dispassionately offered me a job. Instead, he looked at me, dare I think it, with love in his eyes. There was no other way to read his expression. “Why?” I finished simply, with no other words seeming sufficient.
“Just trust me,” he said, showing me a bottle. “We’re starting with Accursia White. Composed of one hundred percent Vidal grapes, it’s a little sweet for your palate now. But named after my grandmother, who was the sweetest woman anyone had ever met.”
I tasted it, knowing all about it. “White wine with a golden color in the glass, the palate full of apricots and pineapple. It was the first family-named wine and the one that gave your mom the idea of a second winery celebrating the women of the Grado family.”
“And thus, the 1931 Wine Barn was born.” As he moved on to the next wine, I could have sworn I saw a movement up on the deck. But when I looked closely, there was no one there. “This one”—he pointed to the glass—“is Arlene Blush.”
I finished for him, as if I were doing the tasting myself, “A lovely shade of pink in color, this wine is a beguiling combination of strawberries and cream. With a satisfying clean finish, it’s named after Arlene Grado, one of the founders of Grado Valley Vineyards.”
It was another sweet wine. Apparently, they chose this one to name after his mom not because she loved blush wines but because pink was her favorite color.
“Precisely. Two more to go,” he said. “This one”—Cos showed me a bottle, though I already knew what was inside—“Dominica Riesling. A fun, fruit-forward, easy-to-drink wine.”
“Named after your sister, who considers herself the most fun Grado sibling.”
“A claim Marco vehemently objects to,” he said.
As far as I knew, there were only three family-named wines in the Barn, and we’d tried all three.
“What’s this one?” I pointed to the glass. “Where’s the bottle?”
Cos looked at me and reached down to the bench. He pulled out a bottle with a label I’d never seen before. Instead of spinning it forward, he kept the back label showing. “This one is brand new. A red blend Neo just perfected. It’s only our second wine to be fortified with spirits from Kitchi Distilling, this spunky red wine has soft cherry notes, but underneath, an easygoing nature.”
I picked up the glass and took a sip. “Cos, this is really, really good.”
“I’m glad you like it,” he said, spinning the bottle around. The label read,Brooke Blend.
I looked up, confused.
“Keep drinking,” he said.
I did as he said and drank—this glass having more wine than a typical tasting pour—trying to understand why they’d named a wine after me. It made no sense. I wasn’t family. And though he didn’t know it, I no longer even worked at GVV.
Then, as I finished the wine, something clinked within my glass. Peering inside, it took me a second to determine what it was.