Too sweetly. “That’s kind of true, but I think there’s more to it than that.”
“No!” But Lola—who definitely had a better poker face than Jess—couldn’t hold it together. She winced.
“Out with it.”
“Carrie may have mentioned last week that you’re going to save Wardham.”
Jess blew a raspberry. “I prefer the pity discount, to be honest. And if I’m going to help in any way, it really must stay quiet before the wrong people get wind of it.”
“Those people aren’t invited to Pilates and Muffins,” Lola said confidently. “Speaking of which, you’ve been missed.”
“I don’t actually live here,” Jess pointed out. But it was nice to be missed from a social gathering.
She didn’t have friends like that in London. Or any friends at all. Her London life was entirely wrapped up in business connections—and Brent, in the past.
He’d been a homebody, so she’d been a homebody with him. All the while missing out on Pilates and Muffins and scheming to take over small towns. Which would be easier if she wasn’t sleeping on Liam’s spare bed, working around his family’s chaotic schedule.
A wild, crazy idea popped into her head.
Immediately Lola grinned. Jess needed to work on her poker face, clearly. “What are you thinking?”
“Is there a real estate office near here?”
Lola pulled out a card and handed it over. “I’m also a registered realtor. If you’re interested in adorable cottages for powerful women, I have a few listings you might want to look at.”
* * *
Evan’s conferencecall turned into an all-hands-on-deck branding meeting with Beth and her husband Finn, who was a wine marketing consultant who worked for the Essex wine region as a whole.
Go West Winery had a chance to pitch a a new product to a major distributor, and they’d be the preferred contract based on their reliability in the past. But they needed to move fast, because someone else had failed to deliver.
Did they have the wine? Fuck yeah, they did.
But they needed a new product name, something white label. Funny name, summery. And they needed to get it onto the shelves in eight weeks.
“You’re all insane,” Ty said when he stopped in to check on them.
Beth tossed Finn a pack of markers. “The genius kind of insane, right?”
“Absolutely,” Evan said, then shot his brother ago awaylook. “These ideas are all great. Can you give me something truly terrible?”
Beth rolled her eyes. It was his favourite new hack. Gimme a bad idea, he liked to say. It shook loose all sorts of out of the box thinking. It also offended his strive-for-excellence director of operations.
Finn drew a big sun, setting on a dock.
“It looks like Japanese sake from a distance,” Beth said. “Excellent for a sake label. Not so much for summery wines.”
“Adirondack chairs?” Evan asked.
“Tired,” Finn said.
At least he didn’t have to worry about his consultant being a yes-man. “And what would be wired?”
“Bikinis,” Beth said. “Bare Legs on the dock. Bikini dangling from fingertips.”
Evan thought of Jess. Would she go skinny dipping with him?
Would Brent?
