Drunk on Love(84)

Every few minutes, she looked around for Luke. He was all over the party—chatting with Elliot, who was actually smiling at him; running errands for Taylor; bringing tacos to Marisol; replacing ice in the coolers at the rosé and white wine stations; and eating pizza with Avery. Every time she looked for him, he caught her eye and grinned at her, and she smiled back. That smile of his, the way he always found a way to see her from a distance, cut the tension in her shoulders by at least a quarter.

Wait! Luke was eating pizza! That meant the pizza guy had finally started serving—he’d said it would be thirty minutes late, it had been more like forty-five minutes late, but who was counting?

She was, obviously.

Huh, why was there suddenly no activity over at the tacos? She walked over to check in.

“Margot, I was just coming to find you. We ran out of tortillas—I must have forgotten to pack the rest of them. My sister just left to pick up more.”

She smiled at Luciana, who looked so apologetic.

“It’s okay,” she said. What else could she say? “Thanks for letting me know.”

Thank God for Sydney and Charlie—their food table was the only one that hadn’t had a crisis today. Although did that mean they were going to run out of food soon? Sydney looked over at her and gave her a thumbs-up. Okay. She could rely on Sydney.

She went back over to the barn to take over from Taylor.

“Go get something to eat. You need a break or else you’re going to collapse,” she said to Taylor.

Taylor narrowed her eyes at her.

“I could—and will—say the same about you, you know.”

Margot took the bottle she was about to open out of her hands.

“Go. I’ll be fine.”

Taylor rolled her eyes, but walked over to the line for the pizza. Margot opened the bottle of wine as a couple approached the table. She looked up to greet them, wine bottle in her hands, and froze.

It was Pete. And Luke’s mom.

She’d put Pete on the guest list, and he’d RSVP’d with a plus-one, but somehow she’d forgotten—or blocked out—that his plus-one was Luke’s mom.

Did Luke’s mom know she and Luke were together? She didn’t think so. He probably would have told her if he’d told his mom about them, right? When they’d had that conversation about Elliot? But she wasn’t sure.

She forced herself to be calm. This was more than she’d bargained for today—a day she already had a whole lot to deal with—but she could handle it.

She hoped.

“Hi, Lauren! And Pete! Welcome to Noble Family Vineyards. I’m so glad you could make it today. How’s your wrist?”

Lauren smiled as Margot handed her a glass of wine. She hadn’t even asked if Lauren wanted it, she realized. But then, Lauren took it with a smile on her face.

“Thank you, Margot. My wrist is a lot better, thanks for asking. We can’t stay long—I’m still recovering, and Pete here is a nightmare about making me rest, but I wanted to see the results of his hard work.”

Margot hoped her smile looked normal and didn’t broadcast I’m sleeping with your son! And he’s here! And so are you! Do you know that I’m sleeping with him? I don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure to Lauren.

“The grounds look beautiful, don’t they?” Margot looked at Pete, who seemed embarrassed. “Pete succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. And we have some more plans for after the party.”

Lauren beamed at her, while Pete shook his head.

“Now, Margot, don’t make me blush. Where’s that brother of yours? I have a question for him.”

Margot looked around.

“Oh, there he is, talking to those people in the back.” She pointed to the far side of the barn. That was interesting—Elliot was talking to a group of six people, and he seemed totally engaged with them. She’d expected to see him—if she saw him around the party at all today—hiding behind a stack of wine barrels.

Pete grinned.

“I’ll go say hi to him,” he said, and walked off toward Elliot.

Margot turned back to Lauren. It had been nice to have Pete there as a buffer for this conversation.

“There’s lots of food—right now, there are risotto balls, pizza, the empanadas should be out shortly, and the tacos will be ready in a little while. And that’s our rosé,” she said, gesturing to the glass in Lauren’s hand, like it wasn’t obvious there was rosé in it. “It’s a good first taste, but if you’d like something else, just let me or one of our staff know, and we’ll pour it for you.”

Lauren smiled at her.

“Thanks, Margot. I can’t decide what I want to try first.” She looked over to the other side of the lawn, where the food all was. “Ahh, there they are.”

Margot poured a glass of rosé for another guest who came up to her.

“There who are?” she said as she tried to smile at the other guest and also smile at Lauren.

“Luke and Avery. Don’t they make such a cute couple? I’ve been wanting this for years, you know.”

Margot spilled wine on the table and reached for a napkin to clean it up.

Why was Luke’s mom under the impression that he was with Avery? She’d said something like that when Margot had seen her at the auction, but when Margot had brought it up to Luke on the drive home, he’d laughed it off. But she didn’t say it like something she was just hoping for, she said it like she knew Luke and Avery were dating. Why did she think she knew that?