Let Me Love You (14 page)

The dirt beneath her feet was wet with the kiss of midnight frost and crunched beneath her boots. She retied her scarf and huddled into her coat, her gaze raking over the harvesters as they coasted through the grape-heavy vines. Her parents lived for nights like these: When the wind blew the sweet scent of wine over the hills and the stars shone like diamonds. When the harvesters gathered the year’s bounty, their soft hum lulling her to sleep through her open bedroom window.

But there’d be no sleeping tonight.

The StoneMill Grape Stomp Jubilee was scheduled for tomorrow. It was one of their biggest events, bringing in tourists from the valley who wanted to stomp grapes between their toes the way it happened in
I Love Lucy.
It was fun, she couldn’t deny it, and she used the one day of the year to let her hair down at work. The employees seemed to enjoy watching her skip around in the giant wine barrels.

To make sure everything was running smoothly, Lucy had taken a four-wheeler around the property four times since nightfall, checking the harvesters, fermenting tanks, and truck scales. Zin followed Lucy everywhere, running alongside the quad, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. She didn’t have to check if he was behind her. Each time she stopped, he was there, sitting at her feet, staring up at her with those big brown eyes.

“Hey!” Skylie’s voice rang out behind her as she pulled up in front of her studio. “Heard from your boyfriend yet?”

Chest constricting, Lucy spun and met Skylie’s gaze head-on. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Well, whatever you call it.” She shrugged, and then stood at Lucy’s side, staring out over the rolling hills of grapes. “Did he call today?”

“No. He didn’t.” Bitterness resounded in Lucy’s voice, despite her best efforts to hide it. “But I’m not expecting him to call. I told him not to.”

Skylie laughed, a petite string of giggles only a teenager could pull off. “If you like him, why’d you tell him not to call?”

Lucy faced her. “I never said I didn’t like him.”

“But then why—”

“Can we not go there?” Lucy put up her hand. “Please?”

Zin sat between them, his puppy-dog gaze flipping from one to the other. He whimpered as Lucy looked down at him.

“Okay. Sure.” Skylie picked up the winded pooch. “For someone who didn’t want a guy to call, you’ve been checking your phone, like, every fifteen minutes for the last five days.”

“Skylie!” Lucy scolded, folding her arms over her chest.

She hated to admit it, but Skylie was right. She’d been hovering over her phone, checking it whenever she thought about Joey. Which was more often than she would’ve liked. And when that damn blank “no calls” screen stared back at her, her insides coiled in aggravation. She had no right to anticipate his call or get angry when he did exactly as she’d asked, but…she wanted him to call.

They’d had an amazing first date under the stars, lying in the back of his truck.

They’d had a second date that rocked her socks, blowing all of her expectations about Joey and his sex appeal into the water. He was hotter than she’d ever known. They had chemistry. At least she thought they had.

Even if she’d made him promise not to call…wouldn’t he want to meet up again at some point? Wouldn’t he call for no other reason than to see how she was doing?

What did it mean that he hadn’t called? Had she misread their attraction? Was the chemistry one-sided? Or was he simply that much of a gentleman that he wouldn’t call since she’d asked him not to?

Her head spun, the exact same way it had for the last five days.

“Lucy, hello?” Skylie waved Zin in front of her face. “You okay? You’re zoning.”

The dog stared, his tongue drooping out of his mouth. He actually looked to be smiling. Crazy thought, but true.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Lucy blinked quickly, though the tension remained in her belly. “I’d rather not talk about my love life, if that’s okay with you.”

“That’s fine by me!” Skylie set Zin down and removed her phone from her back pocket. She swiped her finger over the screen, apparently to her notes section, because she said, “Listen, I’ve got the barrels ready for tomorrow, the wine stocked, and the tunnels beneath the winery cleared for tables and chairs. We’ll have four chefs on staff, at your request, and enough food to feed an army. Is there anything else I need before checking out?”

Would Joey show at the jubilee tomorrow? She’d seen him there a few times in the past, though he’d never participated in the actual stomping of the grapes. Probably didn’t want to get his feet icky.

“No, I think that’s all, Skylie.” She patted her on the shoulder. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” She turned and looked back over her shoulder. “Frank’s on his way over. He doesn’t look pleased.”

Oh boy.

StoneMill’s foreman didn’t make personal calls unless there was something terribly wrong. She couldn’t afford anything else to happen at this point and felt like crumbling just thinking about it.

“Ms. Stone?” Frank asked as he approached, overalls and fingers stained purple. His lips were turned down, his eyes fraught with worry.

“Yes? Is everything all right?”

The answer was written over his face.

“No, I’m afraid it’s not.” He wrung a pair of gloves in front of him. “My wife just called and said there’s a ten-acre forest fire up Highway 60 near our home.”

Why hadn’t she heard about the fire on the news? Had she really been that absorbed in her own drama? See
, this
was why boyfriends and husbands were terrible. They were too damn distracting from the things that really mattered.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. Zin whimpered as if he understood the direness of the situation. “Do you need to leave?”

Frank scanned the vineyard, the work yard, and then his eyes met hers once more. “My wife says the forest service called as an early warning to evacuate. The fire is fifty miles over the ridge, but they had to notify every resident within a certain zone. You know how they have to cover their bases.”

Evacuation?
The fire was already that far out of control? She mentally shuddered. Forest fires were temperamental. Uncontrollable.

“Yeah, they’ve got to take precautions, don’t they?”
Was he panicked and hiding it, too?
“I’m so sorry, Frank.” Her heart ached for him. He’d worked for the winery for over fifteen years, and was more family than employee. “I’m sure your home will be all right, but if you have to leave to get things in order, I’ll hold down the place.”

“Thanks, Ms. Stone.” He nodded in appreciation, keeping his gaze on the dirt. “That means a lot. If anything, I’d like to head home and comfort my wife. She’s not taking this too well, even if it is a precaution.”

“I can’t even imagine.” As a chill crept over Lucy’s body, she folded her arms and brushed her hands over them for warmth. “No one wants to get that call. I’m sure the fire crew will have the fire out in no time.”

“Apparently they’ve been working on it for days. I’m sure they’ll have it out soon.” Frank swallowed hard and shoved the gloves into his pants pocket. “Our boys are the finest in the state.”

Lucy was so busy worrying about Frank, his wife, their home, and the raging inferno, she’d almost missed it.

“Our boys?” Her heart thudded as she spoke. The words came out clunky and soft. Even the possibility of Joey being sent to the wilderness to fight that fire made Lucy’s throat tighten. “The national forest fire service called Blue Lake firemen to help?”

“That’s what my wife said.” Shrugging, he marched past her. Zin followed on Frank’s heels. Lucy let them both go. “So you don’t mind if I take the rest of the night off?” he called over his shoulder.

“Not at all.” Lucy forced a tight smile, though Frank was too far away to see it. “Do what you have to do.”

She couldn’t help but wonder. Had Joey been called to the fire? Was that the reason he hadn’t called? She couldn’t be relieved, because she didn’t want him in harm’s way, but she couldn’t control the burdened exhale that came out of her, either.

Maybe he’d wanted to call, but couldn’t.

Excitement bubbled through her as she slipped her cell out of her back pocket and shot a quick text to Joey.

Hey. It’s Lucy.
In case he didn’t recognize her number.
You working the forest fire?

She read it again before hitting send. It was harmless enough. She’d told him not to contact her, but she didn’t say anything about the reverse. She wandered the work yard and cellar, wound around stainless steel tanks, checking the pressure.

Fifteen minutes later, Joey still hadn’t texted back.

“What the hell,” she said, checking the time.

The fire station wasn’t too far away. In the fifteen minutes she’d waited for him to respond, she could’ve driven over to see whether or not the fire truck was parked in its stall.

Making decisions as the ideas struck her, Lucy called the weekend foreman to come in. He wasn’t happy (from the sound of it, she’d woken him from a sound sleep), but he said he’d do anything for Frank. When he showed up, she took off toward town. It didn’t take long before downtown Blue Lake came into view. She turned off the main highway and slowed over the cobblestone streets. She passed April’s coffee shop, Laney’s candy store, and Rhonda’s bookstore. Each of the three was closed down for the night, quiet and dark. She drove over the narrow street and past a few saloons with patrons sitting on the wood-planked sidewalks. Other than the regulars at Shots Saloon, leaning against the shadowed brick wall, there wasn’t a single night owl in sight. When she passed Rachael’s historical inn, she turned right and followed the bend in the road toward the fire station.

Joey hadn’t left her thoughts since she left the winery.

Don’t be working. Don’t be at the fire
, she thought, but she knew better.

As she pulled into the station’s parking lot and drove around back, her heart jumped into her throat. Her hands became clammy as they gripped the steering wheel, and tiny beads of sweat gathered at the nape of her neck.

She spotted Joey’s truck parked in one of the front stalls…and her stomach wrenched. She parked and ran around the front, pushing through the front door.

The bay was empty…and the fire truck was missing.

A forty-something guy wearing black cargo pants and a white cotton T-shirt emerged from the hall on the side of the engine bay.

“Can I help you?” he asked, a boot in one hand and a rag in the other.

“I’m here to”—
how to put it?
—“see how the fire’s going. I heard they’re starting to send out early evacuation warnings.”

“That’s right.” He scrubbed the toe of his boot with the rag while holding her gaze as if he wasn’t the least bit concerned about the fire or the evacuation warning. “And where do you live?”

“Me?”

He nodded.

“I live at StoneMill Winery.”

He pointed at her, though the boot was still in his hand. She’d never been pointed at with a dirty sole before. She didn’t know whether to be offended, or tell him he had a wad of gum stuck to the bottom.

“We were called out to assist in putting out a fire east of Moose Valley Road,” he said, continuing to shine the toe of his boot. “It’s increased to fifteen acres, but we’ve got it fully contained now. It’s not close enough to cause concern for the residents who live in town, but the ones who live on the outskirts in the east are getting notifications.”

She wasn’t concerned about the fire coming close to the winery. Her thoughts swarmed around Joey and whether or not he was safe. It was the middle of the night…it’d be cold, dark, and lonely. At least that’s how she would feel if she were left in the middle of the forest with a fire creeping around her.

“That’s good to hear,” she said, trying to play it cool by shoving her hands in her pants pockets. She missed the pocket, and had to stare at her pants to find it. “Really good to hear. What about the staff from the station? When do you think they’ll be back?”

He eyed her curiously, as if he knew something was up. “As far as I know, they’ll work the fire until it’s out.”

“What about Blue Lake? What happens if there’s a fire here while the guys are away? Wouldn’t it be smarter to have one truck here, one truck there? Just in case?”

“We’re pretty slow,” he said, “but if there’s a fire in town, the station in Kiss will cover.”

Kiss County was a twenty-minute drive away! Her entire winery could burn down in the time it would take them to send a truck over.

She tried to get a grip on the situation, but her mind raced, amped up on something she’d never felt before. Joey was out in the wilderness. Alone. Fighting a raging forest fire. He did this for a living, but she’d never been as close to him as she was now. Before, she’d hear about the fire crew going out on a call, and she’d never thought too much about specifics. She hadn’t really put a face to the crew fighting the fire. But now, she could picture it—picture him.
Clearly.
She could see his dark eyes scanning the horizon. Could feel his heart pumping out of his chest. She could nearly see the sweat dripping from his bare chest as he gripped his hose and…okay, wrong picture to paint, but still.