Well. Luke might feel slightly different than the rest of the staff.
Margot shook her head at herself, pulled out her phone, and snapped a few photos for their social media.
“Hey, boss,” Taylor said. “Have you decided when the anniversary party is going to be?”
Taylor, at least, was excited about the party.
“I was going to make an announcement about this later: it’s the last weekend of June, so save the date. I know that’s soon, and I have a ton of planning to do for it, but I think it’ll be great.” Could she really pull this off in two months? God, she hoped so. “I’ve reached out to some people I know who’ve done a lot of these, and I have some breakfast and coffee meetings this week to ask them a bunch of questions.” Luke and Finn walked over just then and joined them. “I’m hoping we can get some work done on the lawn and the rest of the property before the party. If you know any good landscapers, let me know.”
“Actually,” Luke said. “I might know someone.”
Margot glanced at him. For the past few days, she’d tried to avoid doing that for longer than a few seconds. It had been less awkward between them, yes, but still, if she looked at Luke for too long, her mind went to places it shouldn’t go when she was at work. And looking at her employee.
Places like the way his fingers had felt on her skin; the way he’d looked at her after he’d kissed her in his apartment for the first time, so full of heat; the way he’d laughed with her and then rolled on top of her; the way he’d . . . She snapped herself back to the present.
“Really?” she asked. “You know a landscaper? Here?”
He nodded.
“My mom’s partner. Pete Smythe. Give him a call—tell him I sent you.”
“Will do,” she said. “Thanks, Luke.”
Taylor took a sip of wine and turned to Luke.
“So you’ve never said what made you leave one of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley—if not the world—and move to Napa to work in a tasting room,” she said to him.
Margot wanted to know the answer to this question, too. She knew that he used to work in tech, obviously, from the hoodie he’d been wearing that night at the bar, but because she’d so stupidly closed off all conversation about work, she had no idea why he’d left. She knew he’d grown up here in Napa, but that was about all. At the bar he hadn’t talked in much detail about why he’d come back here—he hadn’t seemed to want to, and it wasn’t like she was going to press a stranger at a bar to talk about something they didn’t want to talk about. But now, she was so curious about him. She wondered if he would blow off Taylor’s question; she wouldn’t blame him if he did.
But he took a sip of wine and considered it.
“Mostly I was tired of being one of the only Black people in the whole place. And I was really tired of all the bullshit,” he said.
Margot and Taylor both burst out laughing. Luke looked on with a surprised grin on his face.
Margot lifted her glass to him.
“Well, congratulations,” she said. “I think—I hope—we have a lot less bullshit here. And I’m sure we have a much higher percentage of Black people here.”
Their eyes met again as he touched his glass to hers, and a shiver went down her spine. The way he looked at her, all warm and intent like that . . . she could really fucking get used to that. Damn it.
“Thank you.” His voice was low. He could have said that in a joking way, to make this whole conversation feel less serious, less real, but he didn’t. He seemed pleased that she’d congratulated him. “And I know you do. You might even come out on top on sheer numbers.”
They both laughed.
Why were they standing so close? When he’d come over here, Luke had been on the far side of Taylor, she was sure of it. But now he was right next to her, so close they were almost touching. She hadn’t even noticed him move. Or had she?
She made herself walk away to get some food. For the rest of the night, as she circulated and sipped wine and chatted and took photos, she forced herself not to turn in Luke’s direction. She’d already looked at him too much while she was talking to him and Taylor—she’d probably spent too long with them as it was. She had to keep it strictly professional between the two of them. Especially around Elliot.
At the end of the night, she made a little speech to the whole group about how much she and Elliot appreciated all of them, after which everyone applauded, and then Elliot said, “Yeah, what Margot said,” which made everyone laugh as the party broke up.