A Price Worth Paying(22)

He changed down gears as he rounded the bend before climbing the hill up towards Felipe’s estate. ‘I will ensure it will be provided as quick as is humanly or inhumanly possible. I will not make you wait to be free.’

‘Excellent. So we understand each other then.’

‘Oh yes,’ he said through gritted teeth, ‘we understand each other perfectly.’

The banging started the next morning while she was cooking breakfast. ‘What is that?’ a grumpy Felipe demanded, peering out of the window, searching for the cause.

‘I don’t know,’ she answered as she put a plate of eggs on the table for him. ‘I’ll go and find out.’

The morning air was crisp and clean. It would be warm later, but for now the cool air prickled the skin of her bare arms and her nipples turned to tight buds. She should have grabbed her jacket before she’d set off, she thought, hugging her arms over her chest as she followed the sound down the driveway.

Around a bend she found a four-wheel drive parked and someone working under the vines where part of the trellis had collapsed under the weight of the vines. And she remembered that Alesander had said something about getting that fixed. She hadn’t paid any heed to his words at the time but he must have meant it and sent someone after all, no doubt to ensure there was no more damage done before he took over the vineyard completely.

But even if he was doing it for his own reasons, she could still be hospitable.

‘Buenos dias,’ she called out over the hammering. ‘Is there anything you need that I can get you?’

‘Coffee would be good,’ a familiar deep voice said, as Alesander pushed aside the tangle of vines with one arm to peer out at her.

‘You? What are you doing here?’

‘I told you I’d get this fixed.’

‘But I thought you’d send someone. I didn’t expect you.’

‘Well, you got me.’

His eyes raked over her and her bullet-hard nipples suddenly had nothing to do with the cold because she was suddenly feeling hot.

‘I’ll get you that coffee,’ she said, discomfited, her cheeks flaring with heat.

He smiled as she turned away. ‘You do that.’

‘Who is it?’ asked Felipe as she returned to the cottage. ‘Who’s making all that noise?’

She poured coffee into a mug. ‘It’s Alesander. He’s fixing some of the broken trellising.’

‘Why? What is he doing meddling with my vines?’ He swayed backwards and forwards in his chair, gaining momentum and looking as if he was intending to get up and go and take issue with him. ‘They’re not his to meddle with!’

‘Abuelo,’ she said with her hands to his shoulders, squeezing gently, feeling a pang of guilt in her chest, knowing that soon they would be his to do anything he liked with them, ‘he’s being neighbourly, that’s all.’

‘Neighbourly? Pah!’ But he settled back in his chair, already wheezing under the strain of his efforts.

‘Yes, neighbourly. It’s about time this feud between the Esquivels and the Oxtoas was put to bed once and for all, don’t you think?’

He muttered something in Basque under his breath. Normally she’d ask him what he meant, but not this time. This time she had a fairly good idea what he meant without the translation. ‘I’m taking Alesander some coffee. I’ll be back soon.’

‘It’s the vines,’ he called out in his thin voice as she left. ‘He doesn’t want you.’

She didn’t answer. Felipe might be right, but she didn’t have to tell him that. Not when she needed him soon to believe the exact opposite.

Alesander was busy under the vines when she returned, intent on the task of replacing a broken upright, and she leant against his car and watched him work. She hadn’t pegged him as someone good at manual work, but he seemed to know what he was doing, every action purposeful and certain.

She watched him manhandle the new post into position, liking the way his body worked and the muscles bunched in his arms.

She watched him twisting broken wire together, increasing the tension on the wire supporting the heavy vines.

He was good with his hands.

And then she deliberately looked away while he finished the job, turning her gaze towards the view out to sea because she didn’t want to think of the man having clever hands, not when that was something she didn’t need to know.