Love in the Vineyard (Tavonesi #7)(54)

After work she dropped Tyler off for his baseball practice and headed for the grocery store. She had to stop worrying about Eddie.

But as she unloaded the groceries from her car, the knot tightened. She glanced around the housing project. Cars lined the street. There was no activity in any of the small front yards.

She stacked the bags on the kitchen counter and called Petey.

Eddie hadn’t been back to the casino, Petey reported. She worried too much, he said. But when she told him about the ballgame, about the shots of her and Tyler on the Megatron, the photos in the papers and online, his tone changed. He promised to keep her informed. It was early in the season, he said. Only serious fans were tuned in this early.

She hoped Petey was right, but she couldn’t ignore the gnawing anxiety oozing in her belly. Still, Eddie didn’t know her last name. Even if he managed to bribe the casino HR manager, he’d come up with exactly zilch. She’d changed her name from the false one she’d used on her fake ID to get the casino job. Maybe returning to using her mother’s last name hadn’t been the smartest choice, but it was all she could come up with at the time. She’d been eighteen years old and scared. Clear thinking was a skill she’d learned the hard way since then.

But the online photos made her more than uneasy. If Eddie had been at the game or had even seen the photos… God, she had to stop worrying; it was making her sick. If only she’d listened to her intuition and not allowed Tyler to go to the dratted game. Or had stayed on the edges of the field, out of the limelight.

She stacked the cartons of almond milk in the fridge. Tyler’s lactose allergy had shown no signs of receding. Luckily for her, the local grocer had several alternatives. The fridge was new with gleaming shelves and great produce compartments. She’d never lived in a place with a new refrigerator. She tucked a few cucumbers from the store into the produce drawer beside greens and root vegetables from the Casa garden. There was always more than the staff and family meals required, and the bounty kept Natasha’s grocery budget in range.

Tyler’s tablet lay on the kitchen counter. She flipped it open. She hadn’t learned how to work it yet, but she’d seen him type words into the bar at the top. She typed in Adrian’s name. The screen blinked, and then rows and rows of entries popped up. If she read the number at the top right correctly, there were hundreds of thousands of entries. The lines began to blur and before they morphed into an unintelligible mass, she touched her finger to a random line of words.

A photo of Adrian in full polo gear came up.

He was smiling and had his arm around a woman in similar gear. It wasn’t his sister Zoe. He and the woman held a trophy between them. But the woman wasn’t looking at the camera or at the trophy. She was looking at Adrian—with a look in her eyes that Natasha imagined she’d have seen in her own had she looked in a mirror the night they’d made love.

She glanced up at the print Coco had given her. She’d hung it on the wall across from the kitchen. Looking at the photo of the hills she’d seen from Adrian’s window had allowed her to reconnect with the bliss she’d discovered in his arms. But his arms weren’t her future. And remembering the joy she’d felt in them didn’t ease the sadness that crept in as she scrolled through image after image of Adrian with beautiful, smiling women. Women from his world. She clicked off the tablet. And removed the print from her wall, rolling it and replacing it carefully in the tube Coco had given her. Wishful thinking would only feed the hurt licking at the edge of her heart.





Chapter Sixteen



ADRIAN’S HEART THRUMMED AS HE OPENED the door to the Casa’s back kitchen garden. But Natasha wasn’t there. He strode over to a man separating the roots of some very small plants.

“Hello. I’m Adrian Tavonesi.” He extended his hand. The man took off his glove, wiped his hand on his jeans and then shook it.

“Enrique Bailas, sir.”

“No need to call me sir. Adrian will do.” He glanced through the back gate at the new garden going in. “Natasha back there?”

“She’s gone off with your sisters for the polo game, sir—uh, Adrian.”

Great, Coco’s meddling in action. He’d been hoping for a few moments alone with Natasha. Hell, more than a few moments. He’d imagined replaying the last night they’d spent together and extending the pleasure by a couple of days. Maybe a lifetime. It was that thought that had shocked him when he’d boarded the plane in Rome. Imagining a future with Natasha had lit a fire under his enthusiasm for his plan. Timing how and when he would tell Natasha was important, but the joy he felt made waiting harder than he’d imagined.

Even Rafe had been amazed at the depth of his feelings for Natasha. And though Adrian had come up with a few particulars about why she was the one when his brother had asked—her passion for her work, her love of plants, the way she looked out for her son but didn’t hold him too close, her laugh and her giggle—none of those attributes could demonstrate the depths of Natasha, the magic of the woman. He’d even tried to explain how she’d blown Adrian away with her beauty, her spunk and her courage.

But in truth, her effect on him was a mystery to Adrian.

Rafe had laughed when Adrian had told him he’d just have to fly over and see for himself.

Adrian turned his attention back to Enrique. “You’re the new assistant gardener?”