Summer Days (Fool's Gold #7)(51)

“Morning,” he said, handing her a mug of coffee.

“Hi.”

She saw that he’d already added cream and, she would guess, sugar, preparing it just the way she liked.

“How are the girls?” he asked, moving toward the table.

“Good. Happy to see me.”

They sat across from each other, as they did most mornings. This was their quiet time together, before May and Glen were up and the work crew arrived.

He had a few sheets of paper on the table and now nudged them toward her. “I was thinking about your cheese and soap, and made some calls.”

She glanced down and saw three names, along with phone numbers. Next to the names were countries. Two were China and one was Korea.

“These are sales reps who already have distributors for American products in select, upscale Asian markets. Right now, goat cheese is hot.”

She looked from the paper to him, trying to understand. “They’ll take my calls?”

“They’re interested in what you have to sell, and they know how to get started in those countries. There’s little risk to you, because you’re using infrastructure in place. Why reinvent the wheel?” He tapped the list, next to the second name for China. “She’ll want samples of your soap. If she likes it, she’ll take it on consignment, carrying the shipping costs herself. The only risk on your end is paying to have it returned if it doesn’t sell. However, she knows her customers and what they want to buy. From what I’ve heard, the biggest problem is how fast the orders tend to come in.”

A problem she could totally handle, she thought, considering the bars of soap curing and how many more she could make in the next few weeks.

Selling locally was one thing, but getting into the overseas market, especially in Asia, could mean real money. Possibly enough money to pay back May. Rafe had to know that.

“This kind of business takes time,” he said gently. “But it will pay off eventually.”

So he was good at business and a mind reader, she thought. “Thanks for the contacts,” she said. “I’ll call them all today.”

“They’re waiting to hear from you.”

Conversation shifted to work on the barn, but Heidi kept thinking about what Rafe had given her. Assuming he was right, and she had no reason to doubt him, she wouldn’t see any profits before they were to meet with the judge again. But if she could show an aggressive payback plan, that would help her cause. So why was he taking the chance?

Did he have that much faith in his lawyer? Or was he starting to have feelings for her? She knew he liked her, that they had a good time together. Did he wonder what would have happened if they’d met under other circumstances? He’d turned out to be very different from what she’d expected. Maybe it was the same for him. Maybe they were both discovering an unexpected connection.

* * *

RAFE LIT THE COALS in the barbecue and watched in satisfaction as the blue flames jumped toward the sky. Sure, a gas grill would be faster, but there was something gratifying about cooking meat the old-fashioned way.

Heidi walked out onto the back porch. “No explosion?”

He chuckled. “The grill will be ready in about thirty minutes.”

“Perfect. Your mom left us potato salad in the refrigerator. I finished a green salad. We’re good to go.”

“You forgot the wine.”

Her green eyes crinkled as she made a face. “We’re having hamburgers.”

“A good wine goes with everything.”

She followed him into the kitchen. He’d already picked out a bottle. Heidi stared at the label.

“Col Solare. Is it Italian?”

He reached for the bottle and removed the foil. “Washington State. It’s a blend made in partnership.” He smiled. “How many details do you want?”

“I think we’ve reached my limit. Is it expensive?”

“Define expensive.”

“More than twenty dollars a bottle?”

“Yes.”

“More than thirty?”

“Do you really want to know?”

She tilted her head. “It’s just wine.”

“You can’t use the words ‘just’ and ‘wine’ in the same sentence. You live five miles from a vineyard. You should support the local industry.”

“I’m more of a margarita kind of girl. What’s the difference between a ten-dollar bottle and a hundred-dollar bottle?”

“This wine is mostly aged in new French oak barrels. The best grapes are used, and the barrels are washed out during the aging processes. That’s a lot of expense and labor.”

“Why do they wash out the barrels? And how? There’s wine in them.”

“The wine is moved to stainless-steel containers, and then the barrels are cleaned out. It gets rid of sediment. The wine is then returned to the barrel to continue aging.”

He removed the cork and then got two wineglasses from the cupboard.

“Stainless steel because the wine won’t react with it?”

“Right.”

She took the glass he offered and sniffed. “It’s nice. You’re not going to talk about chocolate and black cherry are you? I’ve never understood that. It’s grapes, not chocolate. And if you say it’s pretentious, I’ll throw this at you.”