[02] A Lot Like Love by Julie James

Author:Julie James
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2011-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

BUT ON THURSDAY, Jordan’s brief respite of normality came to an end.

At the store, they had a pickup party for their club members, and the place was packed with customers. Robert and Andrea, the two sales associates, had a steady stream of people at the register, while Martin and Jordan worked behind the bar and around the room, pouring and telling people about the additional wines they’d opened for the night. When they finally closed the shop at nine thirty, a half hour after the usual time, Jordan was exhausted but satisfied. Sales from the tasting had been good—not surprisingly, one of the best times to sell wine to people was after they’d already drunk a few glasses of it.

They were organizing the store—Martin cleaning up, Jordan organizing the sales receipts, and Andrea drying glasses as Robert washed—when Jordan heard her cell phone ringing. She walked into the back room to grab it.

“Why haven’t you been answering your phone?” Nick demanded when she answered. “I’ve been trying to reach you all night.”

“I had sixty people in the store until just a few minutes ago. I didn’t hear it ringing and couldn’t have answered it even if I had.”

“I’m in my car, two minutes from the store. When I get there, you and I are going to have a talk about your lack of vigilance with your cell phone.”

“No—wait.” Jordan shut the door so the others couldn’t hear. “Look, Nick, I’m beat. We had a pickup party tonight, I’ve got three employees in the store, and I don’t have the energy to do the whole pretending-to-be-dating thing in front of them. Plus, you sound like you’re raring to go over this, and as much as I normally enjoy being lectured after a long day of work, I’m wondering if we could just save that for another time. As in, you know, never.”

Nick didn’t say anything at first. When he finally answered, his voice had a note of suspicion to it. “What’s a pickup party? Sounds sketchy. And it definitely sounds like something my girlfriend shouldn’t be attending.”

“It’s a party where club members pick up their wine. Not people.”

He sounded somewhat appeased. “Hmm. Just as long as no one’s putting their keys in a fishbowl or anything.”

Jordan smiled. “How 1970s of you. I think it’s wrist watches now, not keys.”

“I don’t even want to know how you know that.” Nick paused. “Seriously, how do you know that?”

“I saw it on Oprah.” Jordan took a seat at her desk. “What’s the emergency, anyway? I assume there is one, if you were trying to reach me all night.”

“Someone’s been following me all day.”

She turned serious. “Do you think we’re in trouble?”

“No, I actually think this is a good sign,” Nick said. “Eckhart’s investigator must be getting desperate, not having been able to dig up any dirt on me. But since he’s watching, we need to make sure everything looks on the up-and-up.”

“And that means . . . ?”

“That you and I are going on another date.

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