Margot looked up at Sydney.
“You’re welcome,” her friend mouthed, with a very smug grin on her face.
Margot tried to glare at her, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her lips.
“Sorry I didn’t text,” she said. “Avery’s not here. I think this is a situation where my friend conspired with your friend to get us together tonight, and I can’t be mad about it at all.”
Luke laughed and reached for her hand again.
“Well, I guess I need to thank them both, then.”
Margot picked up her champagne glass. She suddenly felt very silly about coming here, ignoring her phone, ignoring him. It would have been one thing if she’d made plans with Sydney on purpose, but she’d just done this to prove a point to herself, and to Luke. A stupid point.
“I should have texted,” she said. “I, um, thought we maybe needed a night off. I didn’t want you to get tired of me.”
Luke laughed again, but stopped when he looked at her face.
“You’re not serious?” He looked at her for a moment. “Is that a nice way to say that you needed a break from me? Because if so, you can just say that.”
She shook her head.
“No, that wasn’t it.” That’s why she hadn’t texted him that she had other plans, she realized. Because she’d wanted to see him. “I didn’t. I don’t. But it’s been every night this week, and I didn’t want us to—” She didn’t know how to finish that sentence, not in a way that wouldn’t reveal too much. “I thought maybe you’d be busy. Or that you might want to spend a night in your own bed.”
He laughed.
“Why would I want to be alone in my bed if there was the slightest possibility I could be with you in yours?”
He said it so casually, like it was obvious that’s what he would want. This man made her feel so good.
Sydney strolled up to them and set a glass down in front of Luke.
“Let me know if there’s anything else you want, Luke. I remember you liked Uncle Nearest last time.”
It felt really good, to be here with him at the bar, with his hand in hers, and her friend grinning at them.
“You have an excellent memory,” he said. “And thank you. For the drink and everything else.”
Sydney smirked.
“Anytime.”
Luke looked down at his drink, but Sydney kept looking at Margot.
“Not serious?” she mouthed.
Margot did glare at her this time, and Sydney just laughed.
“What?” Luke asked.
“Nothing,” Margot said.
Seventeen
A WEEK LATER, LUKE lay in Margot’s bed while she got dressed. He was usually up and gone before Margot, but his mom had ordered him to take the day off. He’d already taken full advantage of getting to stay in bed with Margot.
“You look very smug, all tucked in my bed like that,” she said.
He rested his hands behind his head.
“I feel very smug, now that you mention it. That was a very promising start to a workweek, don’t you think?”
She grinned at him.
“I do think.”
They smiled at each other for a while before she turned to her closet.
She pulled on that black wrap dress of hers, and he smiled.
“Ah, your Monday dress,” he said.
She stopped, midway through tying the knot at her waist, and stared at him.
“No one has ever noticed that I wear this dress every Monday,” she said.
“I notice everything about you,” he said.
She stared at him for a few more seconds, an uncertain smile on her lips, before she turned back to the mirror.
“I wish we could spend the whole day together,” he said. “I can’t believe I have the day off but you’ll be at work all day.”
She looked at him in the mirror.
“I wish we could, too,” she said.
He sat up in bed.
“Why can’t we? You’re the boss—can’t you take today off? We could stay in bed all day, or take a road trip. Go down to San Francisco, or to the beach or something.”
Her eyes lit up.
“The beach?” She sighed. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”
She picked up her mascara. She didn’t think he was serious.
“Well? What winery emergencies are going to come up that you can’t solve if you’re twenty or so miles away?” She just laughed. “No, really. When’s the last time you took a day off? Like, didn’t go into the winery at all, didn’t turn on your computer, didn’t take a bunch of calls, for a full day?”