for her.
‘It sucks. It really does. Your heart feels like it’s been ripped into two and your stomach is in twists. It doesn’t matter when it happens—that feeling is always the same. Stays there, too, if you let it.’
Mila thought about when she had been Karen’s age—of how moving from foster home to foster home had meant that she’d never had someone to tell her this the first time a boy had broken her heart—and said what she’d wished she’d known then.
‘But, you know, the older you get, the more you realise that the less it meant, the less it will hurt. And, since Kevin over there seems like a bit of a jerk, I’m thinking you’ll be over this in a week...maybe two.’
‘Really?’ The hope in Karen’s eyes made Mila smile.
‘I’m pretty sure. And, you know, the best revenge is to prove to him that it didn’t really matter that much after all.’
‘But how...? Oh, if I perform with him, he’ll think that I’ve got over it. Maybe he’ll even want me back!’
She said the words with such enthusiasm that Mila resisted rolling her eyes. ‘Sure... Why not?’
She watched Karen run to the bathroom to freshen up, feeling both relieved that Karen was going to perform and annoyed that she didn’t seem to have heard a word Mila had told her.
‘That was pretty impressive.’
The deep, intensely male voice sent shivers up Mila’s spine, and she turned slowly to face its owner. Jordan Thomas’s eyes were the most captivating she had ever seen—a combination of gold and brown that made her think of the first signs of autumn. They made the masculine features of his face seem ordinary though she knew that, based on the way he made her feel distinctly female, he was anything but ordinary. Light brown hair lay shaggy over his forehead, as though he had forgotten to comb it, but it added a charm to his face that might have been otherwise lost under the pure maleness of him.
She took a moment to compose herself, and then she smiled at him.
Because she was a professional and he was a client.
And because she needed to prove that the effect he’d had on her when they’d first met had been a fluke.
‘Thanks. All a part of the job.’
‘Consoling teenage girls is a part of your job?’
The smile came more naturally now. ‘When the teenage girl is the headline act at my event, yes.’
He shoved his hands into his pockets and the action drew her attention to the muscles under the black T-shirt he wore. Heaven help her, but she actually thought about running her hands over them before she could stop herself.
‘It looks great.’
She blinked, and then realised that he was talking about the event. She nodded, and then peeked out of the tent to where people were beginning to fill the seats of the amphitheatre.
‘It’s come along nicely.’ She noted that the wine stalls were already busy, and she could smell the waft of food from the food vendors. ‘You should pat yourself on the back. It was your idea after all.’
She glanced back at him, saw the slow, sexy smile spread on his face, and thought that she needed to get away from him as she had almost fanned herself.
‘It may have been my idea to host the event here at the vineyard, but I could never have arranged a concert and a movie screening in one night.’
‘It pulls in fans for the concert and romantics for the movie,’ she said, as she had to Greg Thomas so many times before. ‘Who can resist either of those events—or any event, really—under the stars, with delicious Thomas Vineyard wines on tap, on the most romantic day of the year?’
His eyes sparkled, as though her words had given him some kind of idea, and then he smiled at her. A full smile that was more impactful than a thousand of his slow, sexy ones.
‘I need to check everything one more time. If you’ll excuse me?’
Jordan nodded, and then said, ‘I’ll find you later.’
She frowned as she walked away, wondering what on earth he’d meant by that.
* * *
When the movie was about ten minutes in, she found out.
He had come to her and claimed that there was a problem with the wine delivery for those who had pre-ordered boxes to take home with them. Like a fool she had followed him, her mind racing to a million different ways of solving the problem. Only when he led her through a gate past the Thomas house did it occur to her that there might not be an emergency.
‘What is this?’ she asked quietly, even though they were far enough away from the guests that no one would hear her.
‘It’s a picnic. Under the stars.’
A part of her melted at that—the pure romance of it made her feel as giddy as a girl on her first date. But it didn’t change the way her heart raced in panic as she took in the scene in front of her.
A blanket was spread out overlooking the vineyard, and in the moonlight she could see the shadow of the mountains. For a brief moment she wondered what it would look like during the day, with its colours and its magnitude and the welcoming silence.
She shook her head and looked at what was spread on the blanket. A bottle of wine—she couldn’t read the label, though she thought she saw the Thomas Vineyard crest—cooled in an ice bucket with two glasses next to it. A variety of the foods that she hadn’t had time to taste accompanied the wine.
Although she really didn’t want to, she found herself softening even more, her heart racing now for completely different reasons than a man expressing interest in her.
‘Are you going to stay or run?’
She looked up at him, and though his words sounded playful, his expression told her otherwise.
‘Are those my only two options?’
‘I could offer you another.’
She saw the change in his eyes and her body heated.
‘What would you do if I ran?’ she asked, hoping to distract him.
‘I’d run with you.’
She resisted the urge to smile at his charm, and wondered why someone like Jordan Thomas would be interested in her? First, she was his employee. And second, she didn’t have much to offer him. What could a woman with no family and no foundation offer a man like Jordan Thomas of the Thomas Vineyard?
Still, she found herself saying, ‘Pour me a glass of wine, Jordan.’
He handed her a glass with a smile that had her shaking her head.
‘You don’t agree with my methods?’
‘You mean lying to get me to share a drink with you?’
‘Yes.’
