Drunk on Love(87)

The way she smiled at him blew him away.

“Yeah,” he said. “You have. Every time you look at me like that.”

“Oh, Margot, there you are!”

They both turned to find Finn there.

“Taylor sent me to find you—it’s getting crowded at the pouring station.”

Margot nodded.

“Right. Coming.” She walked back toward the party, Luke behind her.

He stopped when they got back onto the lawn and saw what Finn had meant. Taylor was alone at the white and rosé table, and the guy that Luke had noticed earlier—the one who seemed like he’d had at least two or three glasses too many—was there, with a woman next to him. He no longer looked just drunk. He looked drunk and angry.

“Who are you to say I can’t have any more wine?” he yelled at Taylor. “I’m a wine club member here! That means I can drink however much wine I want! All of this wine is partly mine, I can drink it whenever I want!”

As Margot hurried toward the fracas, Taylor grabbed one of the ice buckets with open bottles of wine and moved it off the table, out of his reach.

“Fine, then. I’ll just take it!” He tugged at the table, just as Margot got there. She reached for the table, a second too late. The tablecloth, with the second ice bucket full of wine, and two full wineglasses, flew off the table toward the drunk man, who tripped over backward. The tablecloth, glasses, wine, and the drunk man all crashed onto the ground.

Luke ran and was at the man’s side before he sat up. Elliot was there only a few seconds later. Luke had thought he was still back in the barn.

“Excuse me, sir,” Margot said in her most polite, furious voice. “I’m going to have to—”

Elliot put his hand on Margot’s shoulder.

“I’ll handle this. Go settle everyone else down.” Elliot bent down to the drunk guy and grasped his shoulder. “Let’s get you out of here.”

Margot straightened up, and Luke saw an expression of mingled rage and humiliation on her face, right before that friendly, professional mask dropped back over it.

“Thanks, Elliot.”

She turned back to the table, where Taylor was spreading out a new tablecloth and Finn was filling the ice bucket back up. Luke wanted to help her, but instead looked down at the drunk guy. The best way he could help Margot right now was to get this guy out of here.

Elliot already had the guy off the ground and held him firmly by one arm. Luke took the other.

“Do you know who he was with?” Elliot asked.

Luke nodded toward the woman standing a few feet away.

“Can you come with us?” Elliot asked her. She sighed and fell into step with them as they walked toward the winery building.

“Can you let us know your friend’s name?” Luke asked her. “Did he drive here, or can we call the two of you a cab?”

“My name is Porter Eldridge,” the drunk man said. “I am a member—”

“A member of the wine club, yes,” Elliot said. He wouldn’t be a member of the wine club for much longer, Luke was pretty sure. “This isn’t a collective, you know; you don’t own a piece of the winery.”

“He drove us here,” the woman said. “But I don’t want to get in a car with him again. I can get myself home.”

“We can take care of getting you home,” Elliot said.

“Come with us,” Luke said. “Hold on.”

He and Elliot got the guy into the tasting room, where the guy sat down on one of the couches and immediately passed out. Elliot stood watch over him, while Luke went behind the bar to find the number of the tow truck company they used. Then he texted Margot.





LUKE


He’s passed out in the tasting room—his date says they drove here. I’ll get his car towed somewhere and get a taxi for him



She texted him back so fast he was sure she’d been waiting for it.





MARGOT


Perfect. Thank you for handling this. Make sure to get his name.



When he got off the phone, Elliot was coolly sliding the guy’s wallet back into his pocket.

“His name really is Porter Eldridge,” he said. “Incredible.”

It was all fixed within twenty minutes. Porter Eldridge and his car were both off the property—the car attached to a tow truck, an angry Porter in a taxi—and he was off the wine club list, his fee refunded. His date had refused to let Noble pay to take her home, but had bought half a case of wine as a thank-you and had taken off in a rideshare. By the time Luke walked back out to the party, it was like nothing had ever happened. Margot was chatting and laughing with some latecomers, Taylor was pouring wine and talking to Avery, and the woman from the Chronicle was eating tacos.

Luke looked closer at Margot. Okay, it wasn’t quite like it had never happened. He could sense the tension in her, from all the way across the lawn. He could sense it in the way one of her hands was in a fist at her side, in the way she glanced down at her phone with narrowed eyes, in that forced, fake laugh she let out.

The party was supposed to be from noon to three, but at three, there were still plenty of people there. The food tables were all cleaning up, and Taylor and Daisy had disappeared into the barn to pack up wine for guests, but there was still some food left over that the guests were nibbling on as they hung out in the sun and drank wine. Luke checked to see what Margot was doing: still chatting with people who looked like VIPs, and it seemed like she’d be doing that for a while. So he went to go help Taylor and everyone else with the wine.