rare around Carro Vineyards. Even in the nearby neighborhood, where many Carro employees resided, few saw the need to secure their doors. Oliver had always adored that feeling of contentment, of safety, that seemed to permeate everything in Carro. He supposed that was one reason he had never strayed too far from home.
He maintained a small house in the nearby Carro Acres neighborhood and a more fashionable condo in San Francisco.
As he walked in, Oliver was greeted with a hug and kiss from head housekeeper Charlotte Sweeny.
“Have you had breakfast?” Charlotte asked once she’d stepped back from the hug.
“I was gonna grab something later.” Oliver knew the explanation wouldn’t sit well.
Charlotte grimaced. “Something, huh?” She reached up to pat Oliver’s cheek in a gesture that danced a very fine line between affectionate and reproving.
Oliver’s guileless grin accentuated his very handsome face.
“You need to take better care of yourself.” She gave his arm a halfhearted shove.
“That’s what I have you for.” Oliver dropped another kiss on her cheeck.
Charlotte only shook her head. “Don’t go missing on me.” She turned. “I’m going to get you some breakfast. Your sister’s in the library,” she called.
Oliver watched the woman walk off and sighed. Silently, he tried to talk himself out of what he was about to do. “Charlotte?” Hopeless. “Um, I don’t want to disturb Vecs if she’s busy,” he said. “I saw someone leaving when I was pulling up.”
Charlotte thought for a moment and then her expression cleared. “Are you talking about Minka?”
“Minka.” Oliver hoped that his expression was cool enough to mask the heat that filtered through his voice when he spoke the woman’s unusual name. “She a new friend?” He couldn’t recall her from his sister’s small, practically nonexistent list of female acquaintances.
“I’d like to think so.” If Charlotte was curious about Oliver’s interest in the woman, she didn’t let on. “I’m hoping she’ll be a more frequent visitor. Seems she and Vectra are becoming pretty close. I guess we have Qasim to thank for that.”
“Sim?” Oliver thought of the respected financier who was also an old friend. Qasim Wilder was his sister’s new, and from the looks of it, permanent love.
Charlotte was nodding. “Ms. Gerald is Qasim’s right hand at Wilder, you know?”
Minka Gerald. Oliver repeated the name silently and may have put it on loop had Charlotte not swatted his arm.
“Stop stalling. I’ll be right back with breakfast, and you better not leave before I put something in that tummy of yours!” Charlotte hurried down the corridor.
“Yes, ma’am.” Oliver’s grin renewed, and he savored the woman’s knack for making him feel like he was eight years old again. An instant later, he set off to find his sister.
* * *
Vectra Bauer waved for her brother to enter when she saw him peek into the library. She was on the phone. The cradle of a powder-blue cordless was tucked in the crook of her neck as she shuffled through folders on a high worktable.
“I have them right here,” she said into the phone. “Sorry I haven’t had a chance to go through them yet...Mmm-hmm...Okay, that sounds good.”
Oliver strode over to the table, relieving his little sister of the file she held. He thumbed through the folder. Thick, sleek brows drew close when he saw material he recognized.
“If you give me another few hours to review it all, I should have more input by this evening,” Vectra was saying. “I’m sure we can give you what you want, but I’d like to look over the photos before we fully commit...Right...Right...Okay, then. Thanks, Austin, we’ll talk tonight.”
“What’s up?” Oliver waved the file once Vectra put the phone down.
Vectra eased a tuft of her clipped hair behind an ear and smiled. “The photographers you hired are about to have a gallery showing. Austin Sharpe wants photos of the new space you acquired for him to be featured at an event he wants to hold at Gallery V-Miami.” She referenced one of two art galleries she owned.
“And he wants that featured in your gallery?” he asked playfully.
Vectra gave a light shrug beneath the auburn robe she wore over PJs of the same color. “He says he wants to think outside the box. He’s pulling out every stop to wow his clients.”
Oliver was once again browsing through the file of glossy eight-by-ten shots. The photographers had been hired by his staff to capture Sharpe’s new office park in South Beach, Miami.
“Sim involved in this?” he asked.
Vectra’s expression softened.
Oliver let out a playful groan when he saw Vectra’s dreamy expression.
She elbowed past him, away from the worktable. “I guess he’ll be involved since Austin’s a client.”
“That why his assistant was here?”
“Yeah, she—” Vectra turned, sending Oliver a measuring look. “How’d you know that?”
“Saw her leaving.” Oliver tossed the Sharpe file to the table and leaned back against it.
“You’ve met her?”
“Nope. Never saw her before today.”
“How’d you know it was her?” Vectra’s curiosity amplified.
Oliver suddenly seemed interested in the cuffs of the navy shirt peeking from his beige blazer. “I asked,” he said.
“Asked who?”
His smile was all cunning, with not a shred of guilt. “Charlotte.”
“Olive,” Vectra said firmly. “No, Oliver.”
“I take it you’ve known her for a while.”
“Quite a while.”
“And you never introduced me.”
“Jeez, Olive.” Vectra rolled her eyes and continued toward the sofa. “It’s not like I’ve been hiding her. She works for Qasim, and you get together with him often.”
“We rarely get together in each other’s offices.”
“Too bad, since that’s where she usually is.” Vectra shrugged and claimed a spot on the sofa with an airy grace.
“Why haven’t you introduced me?” He pinned her with his stare.
Her gaze reflected more sternness. “Do you really need me to answer that?”
Sudden regret tinged his
