Harlequin Romance June 2021 Box Set by Donna Alward

Author:Donna Alward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

TRACE FOLLOWED MARCIA to the destemmer, a little clearer about what was going on with her. She was furious that her dad had sold the vineyard out from under her. He would have been too. But he wasn’t done figuring her out. It was far-fetched that she had a friend who could lend her the money to buy it back. A thirty-million-dollar loan was a huge favor. More than that, he couldn’t understand why she’d want to put herself in that much debt.

She motioned toward the back of the building, to big garage doors. “Grapes come in there. Washed over there. And are brought here for destemming, then poured into the crusher.”

Impressed by how new everything was, he inspected the silent machine.

Marcia continued her explanation. “Wine is a five-step process. Picking the grapes, crushing the grapes, fermenting the grapes into wine, aging the wine and bottling the wine. It’s not difficult to learn.”

He peered over at her. “There might only be five steps, but there are steps within those steps.”

She nodded. “Seeds and skin are removed. Yeast is added. But if we take this one process at a time, after we pick the grapes in late summer, early fall, you’ll see every step inside each process.”

“So, your plan to buy me out is long term? You’re not going to hand me a check tomorrow?”

She shrugged. “I’m trying to be fair.”

Plus, she didn’t have the money. At least not yet. “Fair?”

“I’ll give you a whole year to see the process. So, you can make an informed decision. But I’m betting you’ll be out sooner.”

He had to hold back a chuckle. Working with a woman who intended to oust him might not be smart, but she wasn’t a threat. She couldn’t take back the vineyard without him selling it to her. Plus, she knew how to run this place and he didn’t. Add in that she was pretty and just miffed enough to be interesting, and this conversation was the best fun he’d had in years. Most things in life were easy to him. Even buying Giordano Vineyards had been nothing but a little research and writing a check. He was thrilled that it came with a puzzle.

He liked puzzles.

“Winemaking isn’t as easy as it sounds.”

He wandered around the room. “Oh, I get that. Following steps is one thing. But experience, instinct is quite another.”

“Exactly.”

“And you think I’m going to flub that?”

When she said nothing, he recognized she was smart enough to see he was baiting her and she pulled back. Which was a point in her favor. She might be angry, but she knew how to control it. He decided it was time to be as honest with her as she was being with him. At his old company he’d been known as The Eliminator because he didn’t fuss around. He got things out in the open and dealt with them.

“It will take years before I admit defeat. Up to then, I’ll just consider myself in the learning curve. I’ll never sell this back to you.

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