Chase was standing behind Nolan, his lips twitching, and I shot him a glare. Nothing about this was funny. I hated it. Hated it. Hated the fact that I had two choices—either sit on the floor and give myself a backache, or share space with Nolan again—and neither of those choices was palatable. Now Jez was snickering too.
Keep your eyes on the goal: getting the hell out of here.
“Fine, I’ll work in the study. Tell me there are plenty of power sockets?”
Nolan’s “yikes” expression made me grind my teeth, a habit I’d been trying to get out of for years. I went through a mouthguard every month, if it was a good month. In a bad month, I went through two.
“Just help me carry my stuff.”
I nodded toward the four heavily padded bags that contained my work equipment. Nolan picked up two, Chase picked up two, and I huffed and picked up my purse. Then we all trooped out of the cottage and headed up the path to the house. The loooooong path.
“Why did you have to build the cottages so far away?” I grumbled.
“Because I like my peace.”
“Aw, do you want me to find a golf cart?” Chase asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m not going to. Exercise is good for you.”
This time, it was Nolan’s lips that twitched.
“I do exercise.”
“Lifting croissants to your mouth doesn’t count.”
Bad enough that Jez was being a pain in my ass without Chase ganging up on me as well. It wasn’t as if I’d made him take a plane ride with the hot beach bum he’d just ditched. Okay, so maybe our trip here was interfering with his latest Grindr hookup, but he could easily arrange another. Even in this godforsaken wilderness, there had to be at least one vaguely attractive horndog up for a good time, and he wouldn’t say no to Chase. No man ever did.
I glanced behind me, wishing I could scuttle back into the cottage. In the distance, a rustic-looking monitor barn, part stone, part wood, sat farther up the hill, and I knew from nosing around on the vineyard’s website that it housed the winery. Okay, perhaps I’d found a few satellite photos too, which was how I knew the main house lay along the track ahead of us. Everything was so far apart. Nolan must do ten thousand steps a day just walking around his own property.
“We had to more or less rebuild the winery,” he said, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had descended. “Half the timbers were rotten, and the inside was full of roaches.”
“You’re not exactly selling the place,” I replied, but maybe that was the idea? Maybe he wanted me to go as much as I wanted to leave? But seeing as I was the only convenient nerd willing to fix his stupid mistakes and his laptop for free, he had to suck it up and be civil.
“How about the house?” Chase asked. “What kind of shape was that in? You’ve been here for what, ten years?”
“A little over nine. Originally, I moved to North Carolina after…after…”
“After you left Blackstone House?” Chase filled in.
“You know about that?”
“Of course. Alexa and I tell each other everything.”
“Right.” Nolan paused, biting his bottom lip. “I inherited the property from my grandfather, which was a shock, to be honest. We weren’t close.”
“Generous guy.”
“Not much of a businessman, though. I figured I’d stay a couple of months while I sorted through his things and put the place up for sale, but the more time I spent here, the more at peace I felt.”
“I can understand that. The view is spectacular.”
“Yeah, it is. Two weeks in, I signed up for a winemaking course, and when the pieces fell into place, I decided to stay here and make a go of things.”
“One of the pieces being Alexa’s million-dollar gift, I should imagine?”
Chase tossed out the words casually, but Nolan jolted as if he’d stuck his finger into a live socket, then glanced wildly around to see who else was within earshot. Jez and Cole were twenty yards behind with Marielle bringing up the rear. Didn’t she know where she wasn’t wanted?
