Just a Kiss: The Single Girls Wine Club (A Wine Country Romance #1) (19 page)

She’d double-checked the movie times just to be sure she’d avoid him. This morning, she left the Vine Café at six, went home and stayed there until she had to come back for her interview appointment. She went through those hoops on the off chance Jamie planned on surprising her with an impromptu visit or even just to order something.

The Vine Café was, after all, open to the public, but Manny hadn’t mentioned any visits from Movie Boy, so she’d worried over nothing.

The rain lulled for a moment, then gathered whatever energy it needed to release troughs. Sarah and Howard rushed over uneven cobblestones and under quaint store awnings, trying to keep dry.

Valentine decorations covered every window, and Sarah only thought of whether they’d baked enough heart-shaped goodies. From the line she just saw, it looked like the Vine Café would be love central for gifts today. She’d given Manny the helm on the holiday preparations months ago, and he’d organized the recipes, the baking schedule, and pricing—all of it. She hadn’t even thought about Valentine’s Day until now.

They crossed the street in between the Sonoma Barracks and the Mission. “The Swiss Hotel is right there.” Sarah pointed at the vintage two-story building with a gingerbread balcony. “We’ll find a quiet place to get out of the rain and chat. Your application looks great.”

Howard scurried to catch up with her. “I should’ve brought an umbrella today. It would’ve come in handy. Your hood isn’t giving you much cover.”

“Hey, I can handle my own umbrella if I need to, but, thanks,” Sarah said, opening the door of The Swiss.

She liked that Howard had been so thoughtful to think of her and the rain, and imagined how great he’d be with customers.

She stomped her boots on the plastic mat by the entrance and shrugged the wet hood from her head. Shaking her body like a duck, she got as much water off her coat as she could before stepping into the parlor.

“How ya doin’ Sarah?” the hostess wearing a Wine o’clock T-shirt asked.

Sarah hung her coat on a hook and looked for a private table.

“Take your pick.” The woman motioned to a mostly empty room. “Just sit wherever you’d like, and I’ll bring the menus.”

She may have been talking to a wall because the instant Sarah saw him, the little marching band with the symbols started stirring in her tummy again after a four-month sleep. The orchestra hit a crescendo and her stomach flipped and hit the floor.

Jamie stood up from his table, and that’s all Sarah saw. She rushed toward him before she had time to think of doing anything else.

Jamie moved across the room, hurriedly pushing the chairs blocking his path. The closer he got to Sarah, the louder, and more rampant her heart pounded.

She did nothing to resist his magnetic pull and didn’t stop to think until his arms were around her, rocking her back and forth. There, she felt much better, wrapped in him, in her world, the only place she felt safe. Why couldn’t she just stay there forever?

“Jamie,” Sarah said, her voice quaking in the crook of his arm.

He moved from her grip and cupped her face.

Her eyes filled with tears at his expression, and she shook her head to make them stop. “I’m sorry. I think I really blew it.”

He had dark circles under his eyes. The palms of his hands were shaking against her cheeks. “You didn’t blow it, Sarah.” Jamie winced. “It wasn’t you.” He paused to take a breath and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Nikki got in the way of us. She took my phone that night, playing some pathetic game of hers. I wanted to call you, but you didn’t want me to.”

“Wait.” Sarah wiped her eyes and cocked her head. “Nikki took your phone?”

“Yeah.” Jamie looked down. “Those texts, about the change of plans and me being with her all night, came from her. She even tricked me into walking her to her room, said she had a stalker following her. She just wanted to give you time to leave.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe anyone is capable of something like that.”

“She confessed to all of this?”

Jamie shook his head in disgust. “We had a meeting with the PR people for the movie a few days ago and she fessed up.”

“She did?” Sarah’s eyes widened.

He nodded in agreement. “Why she would keep that from me, for all these months, I don’t know. She knew at the wrap party that nothing was going to happen, would ever happen between us. Next thing I know, she's marrying that tanning guy or whatever. Poor schlep.”

“That crazy lunatic babe on the magazine covers did all that? To you and me?” Sarah beamed. “That’s just terrible!”

“Is it possible, Sarah? We—”

“Excuse me, ah, I’m very sorry to interrupt.” Howard’s skin tone changed from pink to bright red. “It looks like you’ve got a lot going on here, probably not a good time for an interview.” He held his jacket, focusing on the chair, the floor, the ceiling, anything but them.

“No, it’s the perfect time. Can you come in tomorrow morning?” Sarah asked.

He nodded.

“And start at six?” Sarah asked. “We’ll talk about the details then, sound okay?”

“Awesome.” Howard grinned. He quickly put his jacket on and bolted out of the restaurant.

A few customers stared at them. Several had phones out and were taking pictures. She saw Jamie scan the room before settling his gaze on her.

“You were saying…” she said.

“Can we talk somewhere private?” Jamie asked.

“Sure,” Sarah said. “The Vine Café is jammed though, and Lulu’s home.”

Jamie gave her a half smile. "I know just the place.”

In the small caretaker’s cottage on the border of the Santino property, it felt like the fire had been roaring for days. There wasn’t a hint of dampness. Sarah and Jamie sat on the loveseat watching the flames dance.

“I don’t stay in my room in the house anymore.” Jamie stared at the fire. “Every time I come home, I sleep here, ever since the night you stayed over.”

Sarah's eyes began to fill.

Jamie reached for her and ran his knuckles softly against her cheek. “I sleep in this bed because it’s the closest I can get to you, and it’s never close enough.” His eyes didn't move from hers. “Do you believe me?” he asked.

“I do.” Sarah wiped her tears, but others kept replacing them. “I’m so sorry I didn’t give you a reason.” She tried to sift through all of the joy and disappointment of their time together, but everything seemed like a muddled mess. “When I saw you at the hotel, walking into the room with her, and you were laughing together—”

“Practicing Sarah,” he said. “We were running lines…”

“And all those pictures of you two everywhere, it was just too much.” She bent her shoulders, putting her face in her hands.

“Sarah, don’t. Please don’t.” Jamie reached for her hands and held them. “Look at me.”

Sarah sniffled, lifted her head and saw his fifty kilowatt smile blazing at her.

“I love you,” Jamie said, brushing the tears away from her cheek. “I love you.” He kissed her eyelashes. “And I don’t blame you. I should’ve left the city as soon as Michael called Danica and she told him you drove home. I should’ve known something was wrong, really wrong. I should’ve told you how I felt the second I felt it.”

Sarah wiped her face with her hands. Her eyes had stopped watering.

“It’s just.” Jamie looked at his hands holding hers. “You…we, happened so fast… I think I was afraid and… acted like an idiot.”

He raised her hand to his lips. His eyes were tearing. “You make me happier than I’ve ever been, Sarah, and I am very much in love with you. I knew it the moment I wrapped my arms around you and that rolling pin.” Jamie chuckled.

Sarah’s ears pounded with the sound of her heart beating fast. She sorted through the fog of emotions and realized with so much clarity that she hadn’t been wrong. Everything she thought about their relationship, everything she had felt about Jamie, had been exactly right. With Jamie, there was nothing too good to be true.

“Please say something.” Jamie searched her face.

“The rolling pin? You knew at the rolling pin?” Sarah smiled and inched closer to him.

He brought both arms around her and pulled her onto his lap, so she was straddling him face to face. She kissed him gently.

"Say it, Sarah, your kisses don't lie."

“I love you.”

“That's what I wanted to hear.” Jamie gripped her bottom, lifting her from the loveseat in a reverse piggyback ride to the bed and crawled on top of her. “Say it again.”

With her hands tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck, Sarah studied the beautiful face she'd missed for so long. She whispered next to his lips, “I love you.”

“I don't want to waste any more time without you, Sarah. I’m never letting you go.”

Sarah touched his dimple. “As long as you love me, I’ll never leave.”

“Promise?” Jamie looked a little devilish and got up from the bed.

“I promise.” Sarah braced herself on her elbows. He went to the cabinet and reached all the way into the highest shelf. “I said I promise, now come over here.”

“No,” he said with his back to her. He strode to the bed holding a bottle of wine and two glasses. “I need an official promise from you, Sarah.” He placed the glasses on the nightstand and opened the bottle. “This isn’t just any wine," he said while pouring a little into each glass. He took a seat on the edge of the bed.

Sarah took the glass he offered. "What is it?"

“A very particular Pinot Noir we only serve at Santino weddings.” Her eyes met his and held on. “So you should consider the promise you’re making very carefully.” He winked.

He held his glass up for a toast and Sarah’s heart flipped.

“I promise to love you for as long as you love me,” Jamie said. “Now you say it.”

Sarah raised her glass. “I promise to love you for as long as you love me.” She touched her glass to his.

“Now we take a sip, together at the same time, to lock the promise,” Jamie explained.

“Now?” Sarah wanted to make this moment last. She held her glass and ran her index finger around the rim, stalling.

“Sip Sarah,” Jamie commanded in a soft voice and she followed his cue.

“Now kiss me…” Jamie didn’t need to ask twice.

The End

Keep reading a sneak peek of Kate Kisset’s next

Single Girls Wine Club Romance!

Napa Crush

Available soon on
Amazon

Sneak Peek – Napa Crush

S
he’d gotten it all wrong. Danica Vargas scanned the packed crowd at Arnold Field through her new Tom Fords. Although Michael Santino had made it clear ten minutes ago that they were technically not on a real date, she couldn't stop scanning the crowd for him.

He threw his head back laughing with his buddies in the shade near the bleachers. When she caught another flash of his pearly whites, she sighed more provocatively than she should’ve in a line full of kids. Gorgeous wearing anything and probably insanely better naked, her libido ached at the sight of Michael looking nothing like the way he did in his office.

Her dry throat clamped while she struggled to keep this new version of the perfect male specimen in sight. She’d never seen Michael, of Santino Family Winery fame, dressed in anything other than impeccably cut Italian suits and couldn't get over how perfectly those basketball shorts and white T-shirt fit him. It was like seeing him for the first time again.

The possible fantasies this provided her bedtime fantasy arsenal were endless: the weekend Michael, the breakfast in bed Michael, the Michael
feeding her grapes, Michael feeding her grapes in the bathtub. She made a note to remember that one.

Not really a Snack Shack kind of girl, she shuffled in her wedges in the dust a few inches closer to the front of the line anyway.
She'd starved
herself, anticipating a dinner date after the game. Holding her long brown hair up with her hands for an impromptu ponytail, she managed to get a little air on her neck. It seemed Sonoma’s entire population of ten thousand plus was at the game and baseball was the new religion.

Smoothing the front of her clingy red cotton dress and clutching the shoulder strap of her purse, she perused for Michael again.

“Hi!” A little boy with braces grinned and waved. She wondered if she looked old enough to be his mom and if that was why he acted so friendly.

“Hi back,” she said watching him and his group of fly ball catchers standing on the other side of the chain-link fence a few feet away.

The announcer boomed over the PA, old-school style, and the crowd got louder. “Now batting…for the Soooo-Nooo-Ma-Crush-Herrrsss…Dandy….Daaa-nnnny-Deeeep!”

She scooted forward another foot in the line and kept her eyes on the kids waiting excitedly to catch a ball.

“Ball... My Ball!” the boy with braces shrieked as he and his group scrambled into the street with their mitts in position for the ball hurtling above.