Chapter Nine
Grant looked up at the sound of a tap on the door. “Come in,” he called.
Chelsea popped her head around but didn’t come in. “It’s time to wrap it up for today.”
He looked at the clock on the wall; it was almost seven. “Wow, sorry. I had no idea it was that late already.” He started to gather his things and shut down the computer. “I hope you haven’t been waiting on me, so you can get out of here for the weekend?”
She smiled. “No, I just got finished myself.” She smiled, but still didn’t come in. She’d been this way all week—ever since that near miss kiss on Monday morning. She’d been polite, helpful, friendly even, but she was deliberately keeping a distance between them. She was available to him for anything he needed, but whenever she could, she found someone else who could take care of him rather than spend any more time with him than she had to.
“You don’t have any plans for the evening?” He wanted to kick himself as soon as he asked.
For a moment she looked wary, but then she smiled. “As a matter of fact, I do. I have a date with a bubble bath and a very nice bottle of Cab. Later on, I’ll be meeting up with Netflix and watching a movie.”
He laughed. “That sounds like a good time to me.”
“It’s my idea of a good time on a Friday night after a long week.” She looked as though she was going to ask about his plans, but she changed her mind.
He closed his briefcase and made for the door. She backed out into the hallway as he came, making him smile to himself. She was keeping her distance so carefully that he had to wonder if she didn’t trust herself to be close to him.
Either politeness or curiosity—he hoped it was the latter—got the better of her as they made their way outside. “What does your evening hold?” she asked.
“I don’t know yet. I might meet up with a friend, but there’s something I need to ask you first.”
She stopped walking and turned to look up at him. The wariness was back in her eyes. “What?”
“Is it okay if people know I’m here?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, usually there’s an element of client confidentiality about my work—not just what I’m doing, but who I’m working with. Once I start work, the word usually gets out pretty fast, and there’s not much that can be done to stop it. However, I don’t know if the word is out that I’m working with you yet, or if you’d rather people didn’t know.”
She pursed her lips. “I don’t care.” Her expression softened a little. “Sorry, that wasn’t aimed at you. I think some people will gloat that you’re here and see it as me failing, and others will be supportive of me and think that you’re here to help. But I don’t tend to live my life around what other people think. I go my own way.”
“I gathered that much, but I wanted to check with you. If I go out, you don’t mind if I tell people what I’m doing here?”
“What people?” she asked quickly, and he saw the flash in her eyes before she hid it.
He had to hide a smile himself. She thought he was talking about women, he knew it. “Well, I haven’t told you to this point, but we have someone in common.”
“Oh!” Her face relaxed. “You mean Antonio?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Last weekend... Oh.”
“What the matter?”
“We’re not supposed to talk about last weekend. Last weekend shouldn’t have happened.”
“But it did.” He’d love to convince her that it could happen again, but the look on her face told him that wouldn’t be possible. Not tonight, anyway.
She shook her head and backed away from him. “Are you going out with Antonio? I don’t mind him knowing that you’re working here, but I’d rather he didn’t know about … oh! He doesn’t know already does he?”
“No. He doesn’t. I couldn’t tell him who I was here to work with, and on Sunday, I couldn’t tell him about, well, you know, because I didn’t know who you were.”
To his relief, she chuckled. “Yeah, maybe in the future, we should make sure we get a last name before we do that kind of thing.”
Grant frowned. “Do you do that kind of thing a lot?”
“No! I just meant… Oh, never mind.” She shook her head and started toward her car. “Have a good weekend. I’ll see you on Monday.” She got in her car but didn’t drive away, waiting instead, until he got in his and left first.
He didn’t even know if he was going to see Antonio this weekend. They hadn’t made any plans. He’d simply wanted to talk to her a little while longer, and he’d wanted to be sure that he wasn’t going to put his foot in it if he talked about working at Zosca.
While he drove back to the hotel, he ran through the weeks’ events in his mind. The one event he kept having to push aside was the almost kiss he’d had with Chelsea on Monday morning. He kept seeing her, eyes closed, leaning toward him as he bent his head. He blew out a sigh. He should be grateful to Gene for showing up when he did. Despite the fact that, under any other circumstances, he’d like to get to know Chelsea better—in every sense, and despite the fact that he couldn’t get her out of his head, kissing her would not be a good idea. Kissing led to more. He wanted more, but it was not a good idea. Not while he was working with her. Maybe, if he stayed on afterward to work with Cameron, they’d be able to see each other then. The most he could hope for now was a good working relationship, and he didn’t want to screw that up.
~ ~ ~
Chelsea woke early on Saturday morning and rolled over in bed to stare at the ceiling. Her first thought was to wonder what Grant might be doing today. Her second was to scold herself. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about him at all. She dealt with him at work as much as she had to—and no more. Monday morning had proved to her that she couldn’t be trusted around the guy and that she needed to stay away from him. Now she was safely away from him for the weekend, she couldn’t allow her mind to stray back to him.
She got up and went to make coffee. What she should be wondering about was what she was going to do with the day. She didn’t have any plans, and she didn’t really want to make any. She might ignore the fact that it was Saturday and go to work. She often did, and it’d be nice to be there and not be on her guard the whole time in case Grant walked in. To be fair, she was only on guard against him personally. He hadn’t been a problem at all professionally. He worked quietly and efficiently. He went about the place unobtrusively, and whenever she saw him talking with any of the staff, they were smiling and chatting openly with him. He won people over, despite their initial suspicions about him and his purpose in being there.
She took her coffee outside to sit on the little deck behind the cottage. Maybe she would go in. She’d read somewhere that, in workplace studies, just the fact of being observed made productivity go up. She knew she’d been getting more done—and the whole team had been working more efficiently—while Grant had been around. She’d even talked to a new distributor and was hoping that she might be able to make a deal with them that would really help.
She should check in with her parents at some point over the weekend, too. She hadn’t talked to her dad all week. He’d kept his word and backed out to leave her to it. She had a few months before Grant’s work would be done, and she’d have to face the music. She took a sip of coffee. What she should really do today was get serious about figuring out how she could buy Zosca. The more she thought about it, the more she knew that was the way to go. Even if she and her dad could agree on how to run the place, she’d rather go out on her own. It was time for her to be her own person—her own boss in every sense. Maybe she’d call Smoke and talk to him about selling her shares in Hamilton-Groves. She didn’t want to raise the subject with her dad or Cameron until she was sure that was what she wanted to do.
Her phone rang, and she hurried inside to get it. “Hey, Cam. What’s up?”
“Hey, little sis. I Just wanted to check in with you. I haven’t managed to catch up with you this week; it’s been a crazy one for me. I was worried about you. How are things going? Is Grant giving you any trouble?”
“No. It’s fine thanks. I’m avoiding him as much as possible. And besides, since Dad and I reached our agreement that this is more of an assessment period, Grant’s not making any changes. He’s just documenting what changes could be made.”
“Good. I knew Dad had changed his remit, but I didn’t know how you’d feel about him being there at all.”
“I’m not thrilled, but it’s better than it could be.”
“I guess.”
“How about you? How come you’re calling me on a Saturday morning? I thought you and Piper would be busy with wedding planning stuff.”
He chuckled. “Nope, not this weekend. She’s wriggled her way out of it. They had some panic of not enough pilots at Summer Lake, so she’s gone back there to help out.”
“Oh, so you’re all on your lonesome?”
“Yep. Do you want to go for breakfast at Molly’s?”
She smiled. “I’d love to. It’s been too long since we did that.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Do you want me to pick you up?”
“No, thanks. I’ll meet you there. I might go to the office for a few hours afterward.”
“Okay. How long do you need?”
“I’ll see you there in about thirty minutes?”
“Great, be as quick as you can. I’m hungry.”
Cameron was already there when she got to Molly’s. He’d claimed a corner table on the little terrace outside and was sipping his coffee.
“Don’t be mad at me, but I already ordered,” he said as she sat down opposite him.
“I’m not mad, as long as you ordered for me, too?”
He grinned. “You bet.”
Chelsea grinned back at him. Breakfast at Molly’s had been a thing for them since her junior year of high school. Cam had been back from college, and she’d been having boyfriend troubles. He’d taken her out for breakfast to talk about it away from prying parent ears.
Molly appeared with a pot of coffee and a smile. “I just love that you two are still so close.”
Cameron grinned at her. “I just love that you took this place over and we can still get the same great breakfast.”
Molly laughed. “It was my destiny to take this place over. My dad named it after me. I can’t imagine ever having gone anywhere else or done anything else. Just like you couldn’t imagine not working at Hamilton-Groves.” She refilled his cup and poured one for Chelsea. “I’m not so sure about you, though, Chels. Are you going to stick around and make Zosca your own, or are you going to leave us and go out into the world?”
Chelsea smiled. “I’m going to stick around. I think it’s time I made the commitment to Zosca and to myself. It’s time for me to grow up and get on with it.”
Cameron raised an eyebrow at her, and she nodded.
“I’ll go check on your order,” said Molly.
“You’re going to buy it?” asked Cameron when she’d gone.
Chelsea nodded. She couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. “I am. It’s time. I’ve talked about going out on my own for a while now. Zosca was supposed to be a training ground for me and a project that Dad and I could share. I think I’ve learned enough, and one of the things I’ve learned is that Dad and I don’t see eye to eye enough to share.”
Cameron laughed. “I could have saved you both a lot of stress and told you that before you started.”
She laughed with him. “I think we all knew it, but I’m still glad I did it.”
“Good. I worried for a while that it might cause a rift between the two of you.”
“No. I’d never let it do that. Dad wouldn’t either. I was hurt and angry at him when he told me he was bringing someone in. I didn’t talk to him all weekend, but I don’t know, maybe it’s because of everything that happened with Smoke, but I won’t ever let anything come between us. Family’s more important than business.”
“It really is, but that’s easy for me to say. I guess, out of the three of us, I was the lucky one in that I naturally tend to see eye to eye with him on most things.”
“You’re just the good son, that’s all.”
He laughed. “I’m not. At least I don’t do it intentionally. It’s just that I tend to think like Dad does.”
“I’m glad you do, for everyone’s sake; you’re like the peacekeeper.” She smiled. “You’re the only one of the three of us who’s living the life they wanted for us. You’re running the business, settling down with a wonderful girl and getting married, doing everything right.”
Cameron smiled. “I’m just doing what’s right for me, and I’m lucky that it falls in line with what the folks think is right. It’s not as though you’re doing anything wrong, though. You just see the world a little differently.”
“I care too much; that’s my only problem. It’s not like I’m not smart enough. I could do everything Dad wants. I could run it his way, and it would probably be easier, but I don’t want to. Maybe I’m greedy. I don’t just want Zosca to be a financial success—I want it to be more than that. I want to make great wines, and I want it to be a great thing for the people who work there.”
“I know. I think you’re wise to go out on your own. I know you’ll be successful, whatever you do.”
“Aww, thanks, Cam. That means the world to me.”
He smiled. “I thought it went without saying, you’re awesome.”
She laughed. “Yeah, of course, I am.”
They were quiet for a moment while the server brought their food.
“What do you think of Grant?”
Chelsea stopped with her fork poised above her plate. “What do you mean?”
Cameron laughed. “Don’t go all defensive on me. Your personal life is your business. I only meant in a work context. Do you think he’s going to be useful?”
She waited a moment for her heart to stop racing. “I do. I’m staying out of his way as much as possible. It seems best after, well, you know … after the way we started out.”
Cameron laughed. “Yeah. You two sure started out with a bang. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
Chelsea rolled her eyes.
“Sorry. It’s just that I talked to him on Monday about maybe bringing him in to work with me on a couple of projects. He seems like a good guy, and he has a great reputation for seeing what needs fixing and making it happen.”
“He is a good guy, and from what I’ve seen so far, he’s good at what he does.”
“But …?”
She shrugged.
“But you don’t think I should work with him?”
“Only because I’m kind of hoping to see him leave as soon as possible. I’m already kind of counting the days until he’s done. If he’s working with you, he’ll be around a lot longer.”
Cameron’s lips twitched into a smile. “What’s the hurry? I thought you said he’s a good guy. I mean, I can see it being awkward in the beginning, but surely after a couple of weeks that’ll wear off, and the two of you can get on with business.” He chuckled. “No more getting down to the other business.”
She blew out a sigh. “Stop it.”
“Why? I’m genuinely curious. Why would you be in such a hurry for him to leave unless … ah!”
“Ah, what?” She scowled at him.
“You like him, don’t you? You’re not just avoiding him because you’re embarrassed about last weekend. It’s because you like him.”
She blew out her cheeks. “Don’t be silly. I mean, yeah, he’s a good-looking guy and everything, but he’s not my type, not as a person. He’s all clean-cut, business suit, corporate type, and that’s not me. I’m more attracted to …”
Cameron raised an eyebrow. “Losers?”
“Ouch! That’s not nice. Take it back.” She glared at him. “I was going to say free spirits, more creative types.”
Cameron smirked. “Yeah, sorry. Losers was a bit strong, but also true.”
She made a face at him. “I will admit that I like him, okay? But given the circumstances, I’m not going to do anything about it.”
“But you’re tempted, and that’s why you’re so eager for him to leave—before you give in to said temptation?”
She hung her head. “It sucks that you know me so well.”
Cameron shrugged. “What can I say?”
“You can say whatever you want, as long as it’s a different subject. I don’t want to talk about it because I don’t want to think about it. My plan is to just get through the next few months while maintaining a safe distance from Mr. Dawson.” She didn’t like the way he smiled. “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing bad, I promise.”
She pursed her lips. “If you really want to work with him after he’s done at Zosca, then that will be up to you.”
He smiled that weird smile again. “Maybe, but I have a feeling you’ll want a say in it.”
She shrugged. “I thought we were changing the subject.”
She was glad that Cameron let it go and started talking about the house he and Piper had bought in Summer Lake. He kept encouraging her to go up there to visit. She might just do that when she got time. She’d really liked it there when she’d been for Smoke and Laura’s wedding.