Love in the Vineyard (Tavonesi #7)(35)

Adrian grabbed the gear bag and headed for the ball field. Alex had given him a baseball glove as a birthday present. At the time Adrian had thought it was a joke. Since then he’d realized he’d be called into service anytime they needed an extra pair of legs in the outfield to chase the balls the boys succeeded in hitting.

An invitation to play at Trovare with the pros was one the boys treasured. One they worked for. Alex only let them participate if they kept up their grades in school. Clever, clever cousin. Adrian had no clue about children. He’d spent little time around them.

He slipped on the glove and flexed his fingers. But at that moment, as if in answer to his early morning prayers, he heard Natasha’s voice.

Great, now he was losing his sanity as well as his grip on life.

He looked in the direction of the voice and blinked. Natasha sat in the shade of an oak tree at the side of the playing field with her legs pulled up under her and her focus on the boys playing ball. She jumped up, clapping, when a boy on the right side of the field caught a ball.

“Way to go, Tyler!”

Adrian looked at the boy. The cap he wore partially shaded his face, but it didn’t take a genius to see that he looked like Natasha. Her son. Adrian kicked himself. He was a long way from genius. Maybe the boy was what she’d been hiding from him. Some men didn’t want to take on other men’s children. He’d seen that drama in action.

He strode toward her, and his movement caught her eye. When she saw him, she froze in place.

“Hello, Natasha.”

She crossed her arms. “I suppose it’s my turn to ask what are you doing here?” Her eyes narrowed, and her lips pressed together in a thin line. “Maybe you’re a stalker?”

Was he? No, he had every right to be there. Alex was his cousin. He’d been invited. But he would’ve come, invited or not, if he’d known he’d find her there. So maybe he was a stalker.

He nodded toward the boy on the field. “Is that your son?”

“I asked what you’re doing here.” Her tone was steady, but he also heard fear carved under it.

Time for some serious truth telling if he was going to breach the wall she’d put up.

“Alex is my cousin. So is the man playing left field. Well, he’s a…” He sought for the English term. “Cousin-in-law… Family. They asked me to help out today.”

She tilted her head, watching him with the keenness a mama bear might use to assess an approaching hunter.

“And see those two women across the field? The one on the left is my cousin Alana and the shorter woman on the right is my sister Coco. And by the way, Blair is an old friend,” he blurted out in an attempt to defuse the scene from the previous afternoon.

She lifted her chin. The set of her jaw said she didn’t believe him.

“We dated a long time ago. My sisters like her. She’s practically one of the family.”

“You seem to have a very big family,” she said, dropping her arms to her sides and squinting in the direction he pointed. “If I’m not mistaken, your sister was the great benefactor of my son’s bake sale.”



Was that a hint of a smile he saw?

“Adrian,” Alex called out to him. “You going to hang around and talk to the pretty lady or are you going to earn your lunch?”

“Be right there.” He turned back to Natasha. “Can we talk? Go somewhere and just talk?”

She studied his face as if she were reading something he didn’t know was written there.

“No surprises?” she finally said.

“No surprises. I have to go out to a friend’s place on the coast tomorrow morning. His ranch. You could bring your son. My friend has a donkey rescue ranch.” An idea hit. “And a batting cage.”

“You’re bribing me. Stalking and bribery. Serious offenses.”

“You can meet me there,” he added. “You could drive out. I can give you directions.” He was truly scrambling now.

“There isn’t anything to talk about.”

He wouldn’t let her go. He couldn’t. Just because she worked for him didn’t mean they couldn’t have a relationship. But now was no time to make that case. He filtered through the many arguments he’d rehearsed in the night as he’d tossed and turned, unable to sleep, unable to get her out of his mind.

“I think there is,” he said as calmly as he could. “I think you know there is.” He gestured palm up into the space between them. “This energy between us, it’s not normal.”

“You can say that again.”

Blast his English! Just when he thought he had a great command of the language, his supposed fluency failed him.

“Not normal, as in it’s special,” he said, groping for words. “Unusual.”

She laughed. And the sound of her laughter sent hope washing through him.

“Yo! Casanova,” Alex called out. “We have a game to play.”

Natasha crossed her arms again. “I suppose your family knows you rather well,” she said.

Adrian felt the color climb into his face. He wasn’t a Casanova. And Alex couldn’t have known the ill turn he’d just caused.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go out to this place with you tomorrow,” she said. “So, no. But thank you.”