Tyler
I CONSIDERED THE idea.
“It makes sense, Tyler, it really does.” Wilhelmina had already made her mind up, but I wasn’t sure.
Every year the local wine commission hosted an annual auction that lured big wine retailers, auction houses, and a large number of the very rich to Napa Valley.
I’d gone to party once or twice.
Wilhelmina thought we should enter some of the bottles of wine from my grandfather’s private collection to get a head start on the funds we needed. Selling what he’d saved, though, just didn’t sit well with.
It seemed desperate.
Then again, we were. There wasn’t much left in the business accounts and I refused to allow Wilhelmina to touch her own savings. There was also the fact that my trust fund money was depleting quickly between the wedding and everything else. But I wasn’t going to skimp when it came to Paris. She’d been skimped on her entire life, so whatever I had I would give to her, and when I had no more, I’d find a way.
The sale of my penthouse would be complete by the month’s end, and the money would buy us the use of the winemaker and the prepping of both California Jane’s vineyards and Highway 128’s, but sadly not much more.
We needed to get the production line up and running, bottle the wine, package it, distribute it, market it. And sell it.
Fuck, we needed a lot.
Head start wasn’t the right word, jumpstart sounded more like it.
“Last year,” Wilhelmina droned, “a bottle of California Cabernet Sauvignon from Clyde Wendell’s collection sold for one-hundred and fifty thousand, and I know for a fact your grandfather has at least three of that very same vintage in his private cellar.”
I turned back to the keyboard and resumed the review of the file I’d opened. “You mean my wine and my cellar.”
It was a dick thing to say but hey, it was mine.
Her sigh was filled with exasperation. “Sometimes, Tyler, I have no idea who raised you.”
I tossed her a grin. “Come on now, granny, you know you did.”
The narrowed gaze she gave me told me I was walking a thin line. Then again, I was fairly certain she knew I liked to live on that edge. “Will you ever grow up?”
Yeah, she was so easy to stir.
In order to move past her momentary flair of anger, I proceeded to help ease her mind. “I think you have a valid point. On Sunday, we’ll go through the wines and pick out the ones that are likely to yield the most. But we will only sell enough bottles to get us through the first run of production. Besides, I need to get in that storage room down there, anyway and look for that survey I told him about.”
She cleared her throat. “It’s the weekend.”
Amused, I tilted my head to the side. “And?”
She fidgeted in her seat and that blush was back. “I have plans.”
“With Buck Wallaby?” I teased, already knowing the answer.
“As a matter-of-fact, yes. We’re taking a long weekend away in Tahoe and won’t be back until Tuesday night.”
I closed the spreadsheet I had opened and crossed my arms over my chest. “Taking personal time?”
Her spine straightened as her lips pursed. “Yes, two days, and it’s well-deserved for he and I. Buck has been working around the clock to get things up and running. We will both be back here bright and early on Wednesday. Do you think you can manage while I’m gone?”
I didn’t have time to be annoyed. “I’ll call you if I can’t.” I grinned nice and wide.
“The cell service is terrible, so call 9–1-1 if things get too out of control.”
With a wicked grin, I raised a brow. “Long weekend. No interruptions. Do we need to have a discussion about the birds and the bees before you leave?”
Shaking her head, she got to her feet. “Tyler Holiday, I think I’m the one who first told you that story when you were eleven.”
Now I felt my own blush creeping out of the collar of my white shirt. Yeah, that was when she caught me jerking off. Shit, the embarrassment was still with me.
Tossing her head back, she laughed. “I knew that would shut you up. Now, listen, I’ve moved out of your grandfather’s bedroom and into the guest house.”
Seriousness stilled me. “Wilhelmina, I can be a bastard sometimes, but I can assure when I told you we were moving in, I hadn’t meant I was kicking you out of your own house.”
She rolled her eyes. “As if I would allow that to happen.”
The corner of my mouth lifted knowing she was right. There would most definitely be a fight to the bitter end if I wanted something she didn’t.
Something in the way she moved when she got to her feet really did make her look younger than her age. “I’m doing this because I want to,” she said, gripping the back of the chair. “Because I want you to make that house your home, and a happy one, like your grandfather would have wanted.”
Emotion clogged my throat when I started to protest.
Not that it mattered because she cut me off. “Now don’t argue with me, Tyler. Besides, it’s already done. In fact, I ran into Tabitha at the coffee shop the other morning and somehow she ended up volunteering to arrange to the redecorating of the master bedroom.”
Tabitha, I got. She was just itching for things to do now that she was a stay at home mom, but Wilhelmina? All I could do was stare at her, wondering who the hell she was.
Wicked witch turned fairy godmother.
Had hell frozen over?