Marcus wandered up, his hands in his pockets. He had nice eyes. Kind eyes. And they were on her.
“My husband was a lawyer,” she said when he got close. “And not the good kind.”
“You don’t like lawyers?”
“Not usually. And it’s too late for coffee.”
He nodded as if she had said something weighty and significant. “I don’t practice these days. I mostly wrangle lawyers and parse legalese.”
“And?”
“And there’s a little bistro, about twenty miles from The Sevens. I know for a fact that they have on hand a lovely bottle of Stag's Leap Cask 23, the 2017 vintage. Their cheese is handmade from milk produced by a local goat farm, and their bread is homemade at a local bakery to cleanse our palettes.”
The way he said Stag’s Leap sounded like a wine lover’s caress. A bottle usually went for $600.00 on a dinner menu. “You like wine?” Dani asked.
“I do, my lady. I do indeed. Are you interested in the Stag? Or perhaps I could lure you to my place and introduce you to my wine cellar.”
And that line had just enough heat to it to convince her he was interested in her.
Clearly, since he wandered off earlier, Marcus had researched her, probably talking to Mable. Now he was trying to impress her. It was working. And since she had talked to Mable about the judge, she couldn’t fault his tactics.
“Let’s take in the bistro tonight and see what happens about that wine cellar after dinner tomorrow night.”
The judge removed a hand from his pocket and used a small key fob to unlock a tiny red sports car in the parking lot. “Try not to explode my new toy.”
Dani laughed. “I’ll try, Marcus. But I’m not promising anything.”
The End
