easier on Mom. Then they plan to find a new place down there.”
“Oh,” she said, her reaction part surprise and part regret. She liked the Winstons and would have liked to have seen them before they left. They’d been good neighbors. “Who’s taking over the vineyards? You?”
It was what she’d done when her parents retired. They were off catching up on all of the travel they had put off all those years. Abby was happy for them and she loved the updates they sent her and posted on their Facebook pages. Her parents—world adventurers.
“Not exactly,” Reece said, looking cautious. “We’ve decided selling is the best option. I’m taking care of the details, though, and I have some buyers interested, but—”
“You’re selling?” she interrupted, in shock.
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
“But, I thought … now that you’re not racing …”
Her misstep was reflected in the tightening of his expression.
“I want to be back to racing next year,” he said shortly. “As soon as possible, really. So there’s no choice but to sell. Which reminds me,” he said, glancing over at his table, “I have to get back to my meeting. I just wanted to say hello.”
“Oh,” was all Abby managed to say.
Reece’s expression shifted from cool to friendly again. Maybe a little too smoothly, in Abby’s estimation.
“It’s good to see you, though. Maybe we’ll get a chance to have a drink together over the holiday, catch up on old times. I should be home for the month, to see the sale through and finish things up here,” he said.
“Yeah, sure,” she responded, but he’d already turned to walk away. This time, she did notice a slight hitch in his gait and wondered about his injuries. Things might be happening behind the scenes that the public didn’t know about … still, she’d thought from what had been reported in the news and online that he was out of the sport.
“Wow, I can’t believe he’s selling,” Abby said again, her mind returning to that bombshell. There were some new start-ups along the lake, and some of the vineyards had closed over the years, but Maple Hills and Winston Vineyards were the two oldest in the area. “All the news said he was out of racing. His accident left him with injuries that simply won’t allow him back in.”
“He seems to think differently,” Hannah said absently.
Abby watched Reece sit down at his table and then turned to see Hannah worriedly chewing her lip.
“What?”
“I hope he hasn’t been talking with the Keller Corp. rep. The same guy who bought out Stevens and Harvest vineyards last year.”
Abby put her fork back down, her hands turning cold.
“No.”
“It’s a possibility.”
“He … can’t. He can’t sell to them. It would ruin Maple Hills!” As if selling wasn’t bad enough, selling to Keller would be a disaster.
Keller was a housing developer that had been buying up lakeside property and building cookie-cutter housing developments that ruined the area’s natural appeal. They didn’t care about the watershed or about the long tradition of wineries in the area. They didn’t care about anything, except for making money.
The runoff from pavement, lawn chemicals and the potential for septic leaks and so forth, would be awful for her business, ruining her land. Not to mention scarring the beautiful view of the lake.
“Every wedding couple we book wants to be married out on the vineyard, with the view of the lake. We’d lose them all if the backdrop is a bunch of prefab houses,” she said, shaking her head.
Even in the economic hard times, people still got married, and these days many of them decided to do so locally to save money. Her wedding bookings were up considerably, and that helped when wine sales were down. In fact, she was preparing for a wedding reception that was scheduled for two days before Christmas. Weddings and other special events had become a big part of her bottom line.
Harvey Winston, Reece’s father, hadn’t been an organic farmer, not strictly, but he used the least harmful methods available and made sure to observe a buffer between her grapes and his. And all of the vineyards worked to maintain the beauty of the landscape, as it was to their collective advantage.
No way would Keller Corp. care. In fact, if they drove her out, they would buy up her family business, as well.
“He can’t do it, Hannah.”
“Well, he can, sadly. And probably will if he wants to sell fast and for a good price,” Hannah said flatly, making Abby sit back in her chair, utterly losing her appetite altogether.
“There has to be some other way. I should talk to him, maybe we can work something out.”
“I’m sorry, hon, but I do your accounting, and there is no way you can afford to buy him out. Speaking as your friend, without Sarah, you already have more than you can manage alone. Maybe if you hire someone.” Hannah said sympathetically.
“I planned to, in the summer. I don’t have time for interviews now. But if he sells, none of it will matter.”
Sarah had been her manager and her second-in-command. She’d known the winery and their vineyards inside out, had been with them since her parents ran the place, but finally had also decided to retire a few months before. It had been tough finding a suitable replacement. Abby had been running in circles handling everything.
“What are you thinking?” she asked Hannah, who had that look that told Abby her friend was clearly cooking up something as she smiled mysteriously.
“Well, he was awfully eager to get his hands on you—no way were you choking badly enough for him to jump in and Heimlich you.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you two always had some chemistry, always had a little push and pull between you. Maybe that’s something you could use to your advantage.”
“You’re deluded.”
“You know it’s true. You said yourself that he was a great kisser and you wish that snafu behind the hedgerow had gone further. So …”
“No fair. I said that when I was really drunk.”
“And we know alcohol is like truth serum for you. But why not give it a try?”
“Are you seriously suggesting I sleep with Reece in order to get him to change his mind about selling?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way. Just … strike up your old friendship, flirt a little, see if you can make him more sympathetic to your cause. Or at the very least, keep your enemies closer so you know what’s going on. He seemed interested in meeting up for a drink, and well, it can’t hurt, right?”
Abby narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe I’ve seen this side
