So Good: A Ribbon Ridge Novel (Love on the Vine Book 1) (8 page)

T
he bright August sun hit Cameron full force as he stepped outside the front door of the winery a few minutes before one o’clock on Saturday. He slipped on his sunglasses and inhaled the scents of cut grass and blackberries. A bramble of bushes grew along the opposite side of the road, and this time of year, the air was full of the fragrance of ripening fruit.

At that moment, Brooke pulled into the gravel lot. He waved and walked to where she parked.

She stepped out of the car, and Cameron couldn’t help but look his fill. Her blonde waves grazed her shoulders, and she wore fitted khaki shorts with a cornflower-blue tank. She was also sporting her Burberry sunglasses so he couldn’t see her eyes.

She closed the car door. “Waiting for me?”

Absolutely. He’d meant what he’d said earlier—he’d been looking forward to this since they’d set the appointment. “You’re right on time. And dressed for a hike.” He dipped his gaze toward her boots. They looked worn. “You hike a lot?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know if ‘a lot’ is accurate, but some.” She kicked a pebble. “These are kind of old and beat up.”

“We should hike sometime. Hayden’s wife is really into it. We’ve taken some cool weekend trips.”

Brooke turned toward the winery. “Where are we starting?”

He noted that she ignored his invitation. She probably wanted to keep to business, as she’d told him the other night. But then he’d walked her home, and they’d had that near kiss. Plus, she’d openly flirted with him this morning with that sexy straw situation. It seemed like a social relationship might not be out of the realm of possibility. He sensed she preferred to take things—if there was ever going to be a thing—slow. He could do that.
 

A tiny voice somewhere in the recesses of his mind asked how he could keep things casual and nurture a slow-burn relationship at the same time. He pretended that voice was talking to someone else.

“We’ll start inside, if that’s okay,” he said. “Hayden will be here in a few minutes.”

“Sounds good.”

Cam held the door open as she stepped inside. Cool air greeted them, and he pulled his sunglasses off. “Hot one today.”

“Definitely.” She pushed her glasses to the top of her head. She wore very little makeup, and he stood by his earlier assessment that she was stunning anytime.
 

He turned his brain to the winery. “This is a gravity flow facility, which I’m sure you figured out. Top floor is business offices, and this main floor will be the tasting room—”

“This space exactly, right?” She walked over to the wall of glass doors that opened to the patio and pushed one open.
 

“Yes. The build-out is starting in a couple of weeks.” He followed her outside onto the covered deck. “This will be a pretty sweet place to sit and have a glass of Riesling.”

She flashed him a smile before returning her gaze to the panorama before them. “Gorgeous view—same as upstairs.” It overlooked the vineyard and the town of Ribbon Ridge below. “Did you lose much vineyard when you built this?”

“A bit, but we were able to acquire about ten acres up the hill. We planted that last year. All pinot noir.”
 

She turned and walked back inside. “Plenty of space here for tables and events.”

He closed the door as he came in. “That’s the idea.” He went to the wall on the left. “The bar will be here—there’s a kitchen on the other side.” He went through a door, and she followed him.

She chuckled. “It needs a little work. A backsplash would be good.”

He smiled. “It’s in progress. For now, we only need the fridge, the sink, the dishwasher, and the microwave. This will be finished before they start on the tasting room.”

“Who’s they?”

“My brother Dylan’s contracting company. We get roped into doing a lot too—keeps costs down, and frankly, we like doing it.”

“Hello?” Hayden’s voice filtered into the kitchen.

Cam turned toward the door. “That’s Hayden.”

They moved back into the tasting room. Hayden held out his hand. “Good to see you again, Brooke. Thanks for coming today.”

“Thanks for having me. I really appreciate the tour.”

He grinned at her. “Just sell a ton of our wine, please.”

She peered at him and shot a glance toward Cam. “Do you have a ton to sell?”

“Not yet, but we will,” Cam said. “I’ll let Hayden tell you all about what he has planned. Let’s start on the mezzanine.”
 

The opposite side of the tasting room opened up to the fermentation level below, and a walkway with railings on either side stretched toward the receiving area and where they stored the sorting equipment.

Brooke strolled to the railing and looked down at the fermentation tanks, currently empty.

Hayden joined her and slapped his hands on the metal. “The railings are removable so we can move the grapes down into the fermenters.” She took her hands off the steel, and he chuckled. “Perfectly safe, I promise. Come on, let’s go down.”

Cam rolled his eyes. “Don’t scare her off, Hay.”

Hayden tossed him a teasing look over his shoulder as he started down the stairs. “That’s your job—but please don’t do it.”

Brooke descended between them. “You guys have been friends a long time, I take it.”

“Since first grade,” Cam said. “I’ve tried to get rid of him, even got him to go to France for a year, but he’s like a bad penny.”

Hayden snorted. “As if. You cried like a baby when I left and practically begged me to come back.” At the base of the stairs, Hayden waited for Brooke to step down, then moved closer to her. He lowered his voice, but not enough so that Cam couldn’t hear him, which was the point. “Don’t let Cam fool you. His brothers both left Ribbon Ridge for long periods—years—but Cam could only bring himself to leave for days, maybe a week, at a time and only because his work demanded it. He’s a diehard Ribbon Ridger. Since he left Blackthorn and his hectic travel schedule, some might even call him a homebody. I don’t think he’s ventured out of the state in the past two years.”

Cam came off the stairs and joined them. “Hey, I was tired of traveling. And I have too left the state. We’ve taken several research trips to Washington and California.”

Brooke seemed to be enjoying Hayden’s teasing, if the smile hovering on her lips and the glint in her eye were any indication. “I hear he hasn’t even been to France.”

Hayden nodded, his gaze full of false pity. “True story.” He chuckled. “Come on, let’s talk wine!”

Hayden guided her through the fermentation level. Her questions came fast and furious, and Hayden answered every single one of them. Cam didn’t say much—the winemaking was Hayden’s thing—but he appreciated her intellect and her passion for wine.
 

As they proceeded down to the settling level, Cam asked, “You sound like maybe you should have been a winemaker.”

She turned her head toward him, her eyebrow arching. “Really? I never thought about it. I worked at a tasting room part-time in college, and that turned into a full-time job when I graduated. From there, I went into sales and distribution.”

This sparked a conversation about southern Oregon wine and where she’d worked. By the time they finished up with the cellar, which included the barrel rooms and the bottling area, it was past time to meet Luke for the vineyard tour. Cam’s phone vibrated—a text from Luke asking where they were.

Cam looked across the bottling line to where Brooke and Hayden were chatting. “Luke’s waiting for us.”

Hayden gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry, I get a little carried away.”

Brooke shook her head. “Not at all. I asked too many questions.”

Cam went to the exterior door. “No such thing.” He texted Luke to meet them out back on the lower level. “We can go out this way.” He slid his sunglasses back on as he held the door.

Brooke preceded them into the sunlight and dropped her glasses back over her magnificent eyes. Bummer. He liked watching them animate and sparkle as they discussed winemaking.

Hayden gave Cam a slight elbow as he walked by. He turned his head for a brief glance that included arched eyebrows and wide eyes that clearly said, Dude, she’s cool, or something to that effect.

Cam knew she was cool. And smart. And attractive in so many ways that went far beyond her looks.

“Oh, I love this!” Brooke exclaimed as she moved toward the massive fire pit they’d just installed last month. She looked around. “Is this for guests? I don’t see an easy access point.”

Hayden put his sunglasses on. “For now, it’s just for us, but we’ll eventually add stairs from the upper deck and another deck, then more stairs leading down here. We may have evening dinners out here—but that’s down the road.”

Cam walked to the pit where she stood. “We reclaimed the brick from the house before we demolished it.”

“House?” Brooke asked.

“There was a mid-century ranch, which Hayden and Bex lived in for a while. We’d planned to use it for something, but it had…problems.”

“The extensive dry rot and the leaking pipes were problems. The rodent infestation was catastrophic.” Hayden shuddered.

Brooke made a face that clearly transmitted what she thought of that—disgusting. “Oh dear.”

“Unsalvageable as a whole, unfortunately, but we saved what we could.”

Hayden nodded. “Some of the wood will be used for the bar in the tasting room.”

“That’s so cool that you reused stuff.”

“Especially this brick,” Cam said. “It predates that ranch house, even. When we went to pull the brick out, we found one buried near the foundation with the year 1879 and the initials BNR.”

“That’s cool. What does it mean?”

Hayden grinned. “No idea. But my sister-in-law Alaina is on it. She and her BFF are history nerds, and they’ve been working on establishing a Ribbon Ridge museum.”

“That’s so neat. I’d totally go to that.” She froze for a moment. “Wait a second. Is that Alaina Pierce? I just remembered she’s married to one of the Archers.”

Alaina was one of the world’s most famous actresses, despite doing only a supporting role in a single film during the past two years. She’d been too busy being a newlywed and a mom.

Hayden laughed. “Yeah, that’s her. She’s completely down-to-earth. She’s just another Ribbon Ridger now.”

Brooke glanced between them. “Huh. How long does the indoctrination take? I mean, I’ve only been here a month or so.”

Hayden looked at Cam and shrugged. “Dunno.”

“Being a Ribbon Ridger is a state of mind. Time’s got nothing to do with it,” Cam said. “There’s a distinct pride that comes in living and working here.”

“What makes it so special?” she asked.

Cam tried to think of something specific—maybe the annual Ribbon Ridge Festival, which had taken place a couple of weeks ago—but there were too many intangibles. For him, it was the only home he’d ever known, and it was the only home he ever wanted. “Did you go to the Ribbon Ridge Festival?”

“I did. It was great.”

Cam wondered why he hadn’t seen her, but it was a widely attended event, drawing more and more people from the Portland metropolitan area every year. It was silly to think he’d pick her out of a crowd. Except now he knew he absolutely could.

“It’s gotten kind of commercial in the past decade or so,” Cam said, “but the festival started way back in the nineteenth century. They had horse racing, dancing, and even a quilting bee.”

“Sounds like something that museum you mentioned should highlight. Maybe you can bring some of that back next year.”

Cam suddenly wondered why no one ever had. “That’s a great idea. Hayden and I’ll get right on that.”

Hayden chuckled. “Yeah, sure. Right after we launch our wines, not to mention everything else on our plates.”

“Good point. Sounds like a job for Alaina and Crystal, though.” Cam looked toward Brooke. “Crystal’s her friend.”

“I figured. Maybe I’ll offer to give them a hand. Sounds fun. And maybe it’ll help me earn my Ribbon Ridge Club Card.”

Cam let out a bark of laughter. “We totally need those. We’ll get Alaina and Crystal on that too.”

Hayden pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen. “Bex is bringing some food in a bit if you guys are hungry. I haven’t had lunch.”

“I ate before I came,” Brooke said.

Cam didn’t want her to go when the tour was over. He envisioned them sitting on the patio upstairs. “Then wine—I still have that Riesling in my fridge.”

She smiled at him, showing straight, brilliant white teeth. “I’m not sure I can decline that a second time.”

Luke came down the hill then, his hat pulled low over his eyes. “It’s a good thing I love the sun.”

“You’re in the wrong line of work if you don’t,” Cam said. “Luke, you remember Brooke Ellis.”

“Yep. Good to see you again.” He slipped off his sunglasses and shook her hand. “Ready for a sweltering walk?”

“Absolutely. I tried to choose the right footwear.” She held her foot out to show her hiking boot.

“Perfect. Though a hat would’ve been good.”