Drunk on Love(83)

He beamed at her, but he didn’t reach for her, either.

“Avery called to see if she could get a ride here, since her car was in the shop, and we thought it would be best to get here early, to get parking.”

It wasn’t until then that she noticed Avery was with him. Margot smiled at her.

“Hi, Avery,” she said. “Thanks so much for all of your advice for the party. You’re on the list, you know. This is on me.”

“Thanks, Margot, but it was my pleasure,” Avery said. “I can’t wait to see what you put together.” Then Avery looked from her to Luke, and smiled indulgently at them. “You two are so cute.”

Margot blushed. Luke grinned.

“I . . . um—”

Avery laughed.

“I’m not going to embarrass you anymore—if I do, this one will murder me,” she said, pointing at Luke.

Luke nodded.

“It’s true, I will.”

Margot laughed at both of them.

“Come this way and get some wine, both of you.”

Luke walked next to her, and Avery dropped a few steps behind. After they’d walked for a few seconds, he leaned down and whispered in Margot’s ear.

“You look beautiful.”

She blushed again.

“Thank you.” She touched his hand, just for a second. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

“Of course I’m here,” he said.

Her cheeks got hot again, and she looked away from him as they turned the corner to the back lawn. Taylor was walking right toward them. Margot took a step away from Luke.

“There you are, Margot. Luke!” She grabbed him and gave him a hug. “We miss you around here, you know.”

He grinned at her.

“I miss this place. I fully expect you to start ordering me to wash glasses and pour wine today, just out of habit.”

Taylor laughed.

“I never ordered you around! Well . . . not exactly.”

Luke burst out laughing.

“Oh, really? What do you call it, then?”

Taylor turned to Margot.

“Do you see this, Margot? Do you see how he’s talking to me, now that I’m not in charge of him anymore?”

Margot grinned. Luke wiggled his eyebrows at her, where Taylor couldn’t see.

“I do see that,” she said. “I always knew this one was trouble. Remember, Elliot hired him, not me.”

They all laughed, Luke and Avery a little harder than Taylor.

“You were looking for me, Taylor?” Margot asked.

“Right—the pizza guy says he has to start a little later than scheduled, but I know that you had a whole plan.”

“Okay. I’ll go talk to him.” Margot turned to Luke and Avery. “Taylor, can you make sure these two get some wine?”

“Absolutely,” Taylor said.

Margot made her way across the lawn to the pizza guy.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Margot Noble—you were looking for me?”

He nodded.

“I’m going to need thirty extra minutes to get the oven hot enough—sorry for the delay.”

He didn’t sound particularly apologetic, but what could she do?

She took a few deep breaths. This was fine. This would be fine. She’d known this wouldn’t go exactly according to her plan; she’d built in some wiggle room for everything. This was no big deal.

“Okay, thanks for letting me know,” she said. “Let the staff here know if you need anything, or if you have any questions for me, they’ll find me.” She smiled at him. “Can I bring you a glass of wine?”

He nodded to her.

“Sure.”

She walked off to get his wine, trying to tamp down her irritation. She went back to the barn and sent Marisol over to the pizza guy to give him a glass of wine. She didn’t want to tempt fate by talking to him again.

By now, more people had started trickling in—they came down the path from the parking lot looking excited, which was exactly how Margot wanted them to look. The signs pointed them to the barn, to check in with Taylor and her guest list to get a wineglass. People could also pay—and join the wine club—at the door.

She joined Taylor at the checkin table.

“Hi, I’m Margot Noble, welcome to Noble Family Vineyards,” she said to the most recent group who came up to the table. “Would you like some wine?”

“I’d love some!” the woman at the front of the group said.

Margot stepped over to the bar and grabbed the open bottle of rosé.

“Why don’t I start all of you off with a glass of rosé? It goes great with all of the food we’re serving, and then you can ease into our other wines. Here’s a list of everything we’re pouring today, all the snacks that will be available, and also all of our wine that’s for sale. Please let me or any of the staff know if you have any questions.”

“Perfect, thank you!” the guest said. She turned to her friends. “See? I told you this was a good idea.”

Margot grinned at the group and poured tastes of rosé for all of them. When they moved on, she greeted the next group.

“Hi, I’m Margot Noble, welcome to Noble Family Vineyards.”

The next hour flew by. She poured rosé until Marisol came to relieve her, then she did a circuit of the party and tried to say hi to anyone she recognized from the tasting room or from around the valley, and introduce herself to anyone whom she didn’t recognize. She snapped pictures and uploaded them to Instagram, with the caption she’d drafted the night before. The food all smelled good, even though there were no burgers and the pizza wasn’t ready. There was nothing she could do about that—she couldn’t dwell on it now. She hadn’t tried any of the food yet; she was too busy talking to have food in her hands, and was too paranoid about getting anything on her dress to eat while standing. She’d brought along an emergency second outfit (another not-as-good-but-still-fine red dress) just in case, but still.