“Taylor, hi,” Margot said. “Our two new members of the Noble team, Marisol and Luke. And we’re thrilled to have them here.”
It didn’t sound like there was sarcasm in her voice, but he couldn’t tell for sure.
“Taylor’s an expert,” Margot said to both of them. “Learning from her will be learning from the best.” Margot turned to Taylor. “It should be a pretty quiet day—we only have four appointments, I think. A good way to ease them in.”
Taylor laughed.
“I don’t know why you even bother to say ‘I think’ when you and I both know you always memorize that appointment book.” She smiled at Luke and Marisol. “Welcome to Noble.”
They all shook hands, while Margot slipped behind the bar.
“I say ‘I think’ just in case a VIP calls me and I have to secretly add an appointment to the book. And then I can say, ‘Oh, there were five today, I forgot!’？”
She and Taylor both laughed.
Elliot said something in a low voice to Margot and she nodded.
“I’ll see you later, Luke and Marisol,” he said, and slipped out the front door.
Margot turned back to Taylor.
“Can you start off the training for them? I have a call in a few minutes—sorry about that, I couldn’t reschedule it—but I’ll join you guys out here after.”
Taylor nodded.
“You can count on me, boss,” she said, and Margot just laughed.
“Luke, Marisol—I’ll have all sorts of fun paperwork for both of you to fill out in a little while. Welcome to Noble, both of you.”
And then, before he could say anything, she disappeared through the door labeled staff only.
Taylor walked behind the bar.
“Like the boss says, welcome. Noble is a great place to work. Good to have you both here—we’ve been short-staffed for a while.”
“Good to be here,” Luke said in unison with Marisol. They looked at each other and laughed, though he was pretty sure she wasn’t laughing for the same reason he was. This seemed like a good place to work, if he could judge from the way Margot and Taylor and Elliot all joked around with one another. They seemed relaxed around each other, not tense, or that fake kind of jovial that he was used to in the boss-employee relationship.
He looked at the door that Margot had disappeared behind. He wanted to follow her, with every bone in his body.
He sighed, and turned back to Taylor.
Just as he opened his mouth to ask her a question, the front doors opened.
“Hi,” one of the four women in the group said. “We have a reservation at eleven? Cagan?”
Taylor came out from behind the bar and smiled at them.
“Welcome to Noble Family Vineyards,” she said. “Please take any seat you like—I’m Taylor, and I’ll be right with you.”
Taylor turned to Luke and Marisol.
“I’ll have you guys tag-team with me on the appointments this morning. Just shadow me and listen and take notes; it’s the easiest way for you to learn how we do things here. Luke, why don’t you come with me first? Marisol, you can hang out here and read over our brochures and eavesdrop.”
The day quickly got busy, with groups of tourists coming in and out, the phone ringing, and Luke trying to remember fourteen different things at every moment. Whenever he’d start to really concentrate, Margot walked into the tasting room to greet people, or check in with Taylor about something, or talk to him and Marisol both—always at the same time—about one of their wines. And every time she walked in, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
While Taylor and Marisol were in the corner with a group of four, Margot walked back in, a stack of papers in her hands.
“Luke, Marisol . . . oh, she’s with Taylor, okay.” Margot set two stacks of forms on the bar, along with two pens. “Here are employment forms for you to fill out, so we can actually pay you.”
She still didn’t quite meet his eyes. That was a good sign, at least, that this was affecting her, too, despite how relaxed she’d seemed.
“Sure, of course,” he said, and took the papers from her. Their fingers touched, just for a moment, and she flinched. Okay, she was definitely not relaxed.
He was closer to her now than he’d been since they were in the car this morning. Was that bruise on her collarbone from him? A moment from the night before flashed back to him. Yeah, he was pretty sure it was. He fought back a smile.
“Let me know, um, when you’re done with those,” she said. And she swept out of the tasting room.