Page 6 of Pour Timing

She clears her throat and steps back from me, and the loss of touch is felt immediately. “I’m sorry about your uncle. I’ll always remember how nice he was to me. Even after knowing you used to sneak me in here to drink underage.”

“I used to sneak you in? You used to beg me to bring you in the back door!” I yell in outrage. She winks at me and I know she’s teasing. I laugh and drop my head. “The memories this place holds, right?”

“Yeah there are quite a few here.”

Breaking the silence that falls over us once again, I clap my hands. “You’re here to discuss your wedding.” My eyes drop to the ring on her finger and a feeling of jealousy comes over me. I have no right to that feeling. We never made promises, there was just an illusion of what would be. We broke it off,I broke it off,over fifteen years ago. I’m the one who stayed away, I’m the one who went off and got married and started a family.

“I am,” she says, almost hesitantly. I tilt my head at her, but she doesn’t look me in the eye; instead, she checks her watch. “He should’ve been here a little while ago. He had a meeting in another state and was flying in this morning. I haven’t heard from him, so maybe his plane got delayed.”

“Oh yeah, what does he do?” I look back under the bar and grab a rag then pick up the scheduling planner that sits next to the register. I wipe off two chairs and a table and motion for her to sit.

“He's an investment banker. It’s a family company and he’s being primed to take it over.”

“Wow, that’s pretty exciting.” I almost say it sarcastically because if anything screams the opposite of Kylie, it’s an investment banker. If she was saying she was marrying a fireman, a sports coach, those would make sense. But a buttoned-up, strict, white-collar guy? No way.

“It was in the beginning.” Her words bring my attention back to the present, but she still won’t look at me. “He’s away a lot, and training for the promotion takes up a lot of time. I’m sure there will be more free time once everything is complete.” I nod slowly, feeling like she’s trying to reassure herself more than me, and open the planner.

“I’m sure. Good news is that your time right now is filled with wedding planning. Which, by the way, I know nothing about, and as the owner of this business, I probably shouldn’t tell you that.”

She laughs. “Don’t worry. My sister has had this day planned for years.”

I sit back and smile. “Ah, good ol’ organized Sadie. How is she?”

“As organized as ever.” Kylie laughs again. “She’ll actually be here in a few minutes.”

“Well that’s good. It’ll be nice to see her. Does she need a job? Maybe I can hire her to be my assistant.”

Kylie’s eyes open wide. “This would actually be her dream job, so unless you’re serious, don’t say it because she won’t let it go.”

“Yes, a dog with a bone. I remember your sister well.”

Chapter3

Kylie

Wow. That was the only word echoing through my mind as I stepped into the winery and saw him behind the bar. Fifteen years have passed, and somehow, time has only been kind to him.

Matt used to play football, so he’s always had that tall, solid, athletic build. He’s still broad shouldered with strong arms, but there’s something different about him now. Something in the way he carries himself. It’s not just that he’s older, it’s almost as if he’s grown into the man he was always supposed to be. The boy I once knew has become a man, and it shows. There’s confidence in him now, a quiet authority. Now that he'll be running Grape Expectations, I expect the town will respect him just as much as they did his uncle, maybe even more.

And then there’s the dad thing. God. It’s sexy as hell.

I have to mentally shake myself and snap back to reality, because for ten full minutes I stood frozen in the doorway, watching him move around behind the bar. My fiancé didn’t cross my mind once. Not even a flicker.

I was already second-guessing getting married and it had nothing to do with Matt Byrne. Patrick sold me a life that is the opposite of what I’m actually living. The first six months were a whirlwind. He swept me off my feet and took me places. We did anything and everything I wanted. He was attentive. He worked, but he never did overtime, he never worked weekends, and he never took work trips away.

On our one year anniversary, everything started to change. He missed it completely and left me sitting alone in a restaurant. Talk about embarrassing. He showed up at my house at one in the morning, having just flown in, and said he had a meeting that turned into dinner and he couldn’t walk out on the possible investors. And he definitely couldn’t walk out on his dad.

I always knew the time was coming where he would take over the company. He never lied about that; he never tried to hide it. He told me his dad was looking to retire and wanted him to take over the business but I didn’t know it would be this soon.

Then we quickly went from dating to being engaged, because it looked better for the company. He said it could be a long engagement, we would establish a relationship that was strong. But his father quickly nixed that, saying he wanted him married to show a family lifestyle, the same as what he built prior to this.

Now here we are, planning a wedding that Patrick doesn’t even care about and in the middle of planning a life I don’t know if I can live. I don’t want to be anchored by a job, and I don’t want to be tied to a husband that puts said job first. I want to wake up on a Sunday morning and decide to grab tickets to a football game. I want to run out to dinner for pizza at eight o’clock at night. I want to dance under the stars at Grape Expectations like I used to do.

That last thought hits me like a punch to the gut.

“Ky, your phone is ringing.” My sister's voice pulls me from my thoughts. I didn’t even hear her come in. I see a picture of Patrick flash on my home screen and know he’s not coming. I stand from the table, saying, “Excuse me for one moment,” and answer the phone while walking to the front of the winery. “Let me guess?—”

“Kylie, I’m so sorry. They pushed my flight back. I can’t get another one until tonight, so I’m stuck at the airport.”

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