CABERNET ZIN (Cabernet Zin Wine Country) (10 page)

BOOK: CABERNET ZIN (Cabernet Zin Wine Country)
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“Yes. I guess I’d want to see the wine too if I was coming in as a new investor.”

“That wine is a way to see the future. We’re close. If we can get a little headwind at the San Diego or Los Angeles wine competitions with a bronze or silver award we could get more market visibility. Then the winery will accumulate earnings. Are you going to be able to get by for a little while?”

“I can juggle another project. That’s a good idea to taste the wine – and measure our future.”

Zack said, “So I might see you? I’ll be there in March.”

“I think I’m signed up for April. I cannot afford to stay away, at least at this point. It’s not as if I have to be in the office every day. My kids are all out of the house with families of their own. My wife goes to lunches with her friends and shopping. I’ll have a taste of the wines and evaluate my situation.”

 

Lydia flushed the toilet and came into the bedroom. “Who was that? You talked as if you’re a big shot investor. Look at all you’ve failed at – to be dispensing that kind of advice.”

“One of the investors can’t put in the capital call because he’s short everywhere else. Many factors go into investing. You never had training; I’ve been through the business school.”

“I’ve measured the results. We could use that couple thousand you’re paying for the capital call.”

“He has a much bigger investment. Probably fifteen percent of the whole project. So his capital call is huge – really huge.” Zack waved his arms in the air. “While ours is not insignificant, we didn’t invest so much that we are over extended.”

“So you’re planning another trip out there.”

“Yes.”

Lydia said, “I talked to that girl Amanda to watch the kids. We’ll have to figure out how to pay her. But I have to work while you’re off playing wine mogul.”

“I’m trimming vines and moving barrels,” Zack said. “It’s still work out there all day.” He didn’t add that it was better than a gym membership.

“Not stressful work like my job.”

“Your jobs have always been more difficult, more exhausting, more hours, and more boring than anyone else’s jobs. You’re a bit self centered.”

“I come home and do all this work around here that never seems to get done. Then the stuff that is done isn’t done right. Look at those clothes in the laundry basket. A mess. The kids can’t wear those wrinkled clothes to school – you have to fold them as soon as they come out of the dryer.”

“Like you did a load of your work clothes then had to leave for a meeting and asked me to hang them up so they didn’t mold before you thought of them again?” Zack lay back on the bed, “I’m going back to sleep.”

 

 

Chapter 6

March

 

Claire drove her car on the long entrance of the winery. “You wanted to stop here again?”

Leiko said, “The wine I got was a big hit at the party. I want a few bottles for home and have them ready for gifts. Maybe a mixed case.”

Claire grinned, “Are you sure it’s not the hot guy at the tasting bar?”

“No, Claire. He was nice – yes – more than nice, but even if a toad handed out the wine, the wine stands on its own.”

“And you’re a big wine aficionado.”

“I’m becoming one. I can’t drink that stuff from the supermarket anymore. Alfanjo bought a bottle of that the other night and my tastes have really upgraded. I couldn’t believe it.”

“I’d say my tastes have changed too since we started doing these wine tours.” Claire turned her car following the curve around the building to the parking lot on the far side. She put the gear shift in park and the engine started loping and rattling.

“What’s going on with your car?”

“I’m not sure. I just hope it lasts for another year. I keep babying it.” She petted the dash and the motor calmed down.

“You’re magical.” Leiko opened her door, “I’ll be right back, just stay here.”

Claire let the car idle since it seemed to be feeling better. She turned on the radio and looked across the rows of vines surrounding the parking lot and stretching down the hill away from the winery. The sun shone brightly and lit the uplifted arms of the trimmed dormant vines, lumpy with buds growing just under the bark.

Leiko exited the winery gift shop lugging a case of mixed wine and hurrying as fast as she could manage with the heavy box. Claire reached across and unlatched the passenger door.

“You look like you robbed the place and have me for your getaway car. What happened?”

Leiko shoved the case behind the front seat, sat down, and looked at Claire, “You have to go into the tasting room. That guy you met at the investor meeting – he is having a snack in there for lunch. A couple of them are there. I heard they are planting new vines in one of the vineyards today. They won’t be there much longer. You should go say hi.”

“I can’t stroll in there and say that.”

“What have you got to lose?”

“Yeah, I’m going to walk in there, the only people in there are him and the other workers –”

“There are other customers too.”

“– And say, hi, you probably don’t remember me?”

“Are you chicken or are you brave? I’ll even go with you. You do a Carol-ear-tug –”

“What’s a Carol-ear-tug?”

“You know, Carol Burnett used to tug on her earlobe during a show to say hi to her mother without anyone or the audience knowing she did anything to disrupt the show.”

“Oh, yeah. I hadn’t heard it called that before.”

“I don’t know what it’s called. But I see that and I make a quick run to the restroom.”

“Do you think guys worry about this kind of stuff?”

“Pfft. They just saunter over and ask the question. Most of them get shot down so much they know it’s a numbers game.”

“I’m not sure about that. But fine.” Claire shut the car off, it chugged and gasped to silence. She walked with Leiko back to the winery, “What am I doing?”

“You’re taking life by the horns. This might be the point you change your future … or not –”

“But I won’t know if I don’t try.”

“Exactly,” Leiko swung open the gift shop door and the two of them breezed into the building. 

Leiko led the way across the tasting floor, “You should see the reflecting pools on the patio,” she said in a voice louder than Claire thought useful, but a raw excuse for their movement.

Claire’s eyes scanned the tasting room tables but she didn’t see Zack at any of them. Leiko pointed to a table and whispered, “He was at that one.”

Claire saw a few people outside on the patio and went through the door leaving Leiko inside. The reflecting pools shimmered on her left, full of the blue sky. The great mountain with its golden top lay at the far edge of the valley and a few figures stood by the railing at the side of the patio. One wearing farmer overalls and sipping a cola, gazing across the vineyards sweeping away from the patio. He turned at the sound of woman’s heels.

She saw Zack’s recently trimmed dark hair and how it framed his field-tanned face. A sharply handsome face. His blue eyes met hers. Claire’s stomach twisted and creaked like new rope, still unsure what she might say, but his eyes made her body vibrate as if she balanced on a guitar string. She said, “Hi, I wondered if you might give another winery tour?”

Zack said, “Only special-occasion vineyard tours, but always exceptions.”

“I’m not sure you remember me from January?”

He smiled, “How could I
not
remember you?”

Claire loved the sound of his voice. She could get lost in that tone. “My friend and I –” she turned and saw Leiko watching her from the window, making scooting movements with her hand to get back to Zack. “We came over so Leiko could get more wine and she saw you here.”

“That’s a great friend.”

“We’ve been friends for a long time.” Claire asked, “You were at the investor meeting but I heard you are working here too?”

“Some of the investors are working at the winery. We’re filling in. Sometimes I don’t think we accomplish much but we get things done that need doing. Every bit helps push the business toward success. How about you? What are you doing these days?”

“Started working in Internet retail.”

“That could be busy. You probably are good friends with all the shipping guys.”

“It’s not too bad.” Claire dug in her purse. “Here is my business card with my phone number. Do you have a card?”

Zack reached for his wallet and pulled one of his cards, caught in the card exchange habit before thinking, and then he pinched the card. Claire tugged it from his fingers. Zack sighed and said, “You should know, I’m married.”

Claire’s shoulders drooped, “You are?”
Is that why I find you so charming and desirable?
“You’re married?”
I knew you were too good to be true.

“I hope you know just how hard that is for me to say. A beautiful woman pulled the courage together to talk with me. It’s hard to get that kind of bravery, terrifying in fact, like storming a bunker in flip-flops. I’ve been trampled plenty of times revealing such interest – so I know. I should have told you before but you burn away my baggage with your beauty and you make me forget any manners.”

Claire sniffed, “How about dinner? Dinner can’t get you in too much trouble, right? I can’t imagine if you don’t live out here normally that you have too much in the evenings to keep you busy, right?”

“Yes it could, but … Ok. My next trip back here to the winery. I have an all-evening conference call in a little while with Detroit, Mexico, and China to help them resolve manufacturing glitches, which booked over top of my planting the section of the back vineyard with Zinfandel. Tomorrow morning I fly home.”

Claire brought her face up, “Where’s your ring?”

“I started taking it off when I worked on the car, not wanting to scratch it nor get it smashed on my hand. I’d forget to put it on. Then later it just became weird to wear. So I stopped.” He didn’t add that he only wore the ring when Lydia and he were happy. As the sadness and distance stripped them apart, the ring began to sit more and more alone on the bedroom dresser. He first wondered if Lydia might ever notice his reason, but she never did. Her anger and annoyance of everything blocked out any such subtleties in their relationship.

Claire pressed the heel of her hand against her eye; she feared tears prickling her nose. She was glad he told her and somehow under that emotion and pain she found his honesty made her want him more. She moved to the edge of the railing next to him and looked over the vineyard, blinking against the breeze and hoping her eyes dried before Zack saw.

Zack gazed from her face to her hair wispy in the breeze, waving to the vines running away from them in all directions as if she were the center of the world. He saw her sadness and it crushed his heart. He said, “Many people love the city so much because they get energized by it. I look over the vineyards and see how simultaneously organized they are as well as organic. They give me energy. I’m not sure why. The vines look dormant now but they are charging their roots and bubbling with buds just under the surface. They expect spring any day with just enough sunlight splashing across their bare arms; their buds will burst and sprout lush new leaves. Soon flowers will set and fruit. They wait now. Look across the field, do you feel the calmness?”

“Yes. I see –” Claire saw her hand rise on its own from the railing and touch the side of Zack’s face. His beard unshaven since the prior morning felt gritty and warm under her fingertips. The heat of his neck. She leaned toward him, her lips melting against his.

 

Zack’s startled lips stayed firm as his eyes searched her face. His loyalty to Lydia stabbed at his mind. The scent of Claire, from her cologne to her shampoo to just her being, her presence – enveloped him. He succumbed and softened into her; his arm pulled her against his body. A too brief of a moment. They pulled apart. Their hearts pounding and breaths as fast as if they stopped a sprint.

“– Sorry,” Claire said, putting fingers to her lips that burned with fire, hot with desire, and longing. Her body clenched with need. She turned away to look over the vineyard.

Zack squeezed the railing, his hands turning a tense white. He wanted her more than he could say. “No – don’t be sorry. I leaned in too. I shouldn’t have.”

“We know it was all me.”

“But I couldn’t let you go.” Zack felt as if something unlocked in his chest that he could not close again. Maybe he didn’t want it locked fast? Freedom from shackles, the prisoner sees the warm light outside the razor wire. Maybe he could never lock it away. Could he bar this woman from his mind? From his heart?

“I should go,” Claire said, glancing at how Zack gripped the rail as if letting go would cause him to fall from a precipice. She spun away from him.

Zack said, “Wait. When I get back out here, we should talk. So I’ll give you a call? Or you give me one?”

Claire nodded and broke from her pause, fleeing to the winery and the car.

 

Leiko was hopping in her shoes, a smile wrapping all the way around her head. Claire grabbed her hand and yanked, “We’re going.”

BOOK: CABERNET ZIN (Cabernet Zin Wine Country)
13.25Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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