“Okay if we come back?” Clay asked.
“Sure.”
He opened the gate and Homer shot in, immediately running amok with Puddy. They took off toward the back part of the property, both of them nearly running over each other.
Jason grinned at that.
“What brings you over this way?” Jason asked.
“I had to get a few things at the feed store, so I thought I’d stop by and see if you wanted to grab some dinner.”
“I thought Alice was in town.”
“She flew to LA this afternoon. She has a few client meetings set up, so she’ll be gone a couple of days.”
Jason grabbed a rag from his back pocket and wiped his hands. “Let’s go inside and get something cold to drink.”
“Sounds good.”
After he swiped the sawdust from his jeans, they walked inside and Jason washed his hands at the kitchen sink, then grabbed two beers from the fridge. They took seats at the kitchen table.
“So it’s working out okay for the two of you?” Jason asked.
Clay took a pull from his beer, then nodded. “Better than I’d hoped, actually. Alice has her office all set up at the house, and she teleconferences with a lot of her clients. Then she sets up face-to-face meetings once they’re interested in signing up with her matchmaking service. So she hasn’t been gone as much as I thought she would.”
“That’s great. I know you like having her around.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“And she doesn’t miss LA? This is a much slower-paced lifestyle.”
“She says she likes it better. No traffic, she loves the weather, especially rain, and she loves all the friends she’s made.”
“I’m really happy for you, Clay.”
“Thanks.”
They drank their beers in silence for a few minutes, allowing Jason to cool down in the air-conditioning.
“So what are we gonna do about Owen?” Clay asked.
“Hell if I know.”
“None of what happened is like him,” Clay said. “That’s what I don’t understand. The Owen I know would never walk out on his fiancée just days before the wedding. Not without a good damn reason.”
Jason took a drink and nodded. “Agree. But he’s not answering anyone’s calls, not even his parents’. So I don’t know, Clay. He’s got a lot to answer for.”
“To Erin, first and foremost.”
Clay had that pegged right. “That’s for sure. Though I don’t think she’s in the mood to listen to anything he’s going to say.”
“Can’t say I blame her,” Clay said. “At least she has the whole town on her side. I talked to his parents and even they’re pissed at him.”
Jason had talked to them as well. They were confused, hurt and angry, and even more irritated that their son couldn’t be bothered to answer his phone. He was mad about that, too. And also worried about Owen.
“I stopped off at The Screaming Hawk Brewery yesterday,” Jason said. “His employees have no idea what’s going on. When he left on Wednesday, he told them he’d see them when he got back from the honeymoon. Now, with everything that happened, and not being able to get hold of him, they’re wondering if he’s okay. They’re worried about their boss and their jobs.”
Clay frowned. “And now I’m thinking he’s an even bigger asshole. He’d better not be lying on some beach dead or I’ll kill him.”
Jason laughed. “You and me both. He’s probably fine, having the time of his life, and we’re all worried about him for nothing.”
Clay finished off his beer and pushed it away. “Which only makes me angrier. Let’s go get a burger.”
“Okay.” He supposed the back deck project could be put off for another day, because now he was hungry. And irritated at Owen. Plus, he hadn’t seen Erin for two days. He should check in on her while he was out and see how she was doing.
Then again, after her suggestion that they become sex friends, maybe some distance was a good thing. Because despite telling her no, he wanted her. Hell, he’d always wanted her. And being the sensible one was going to be really damned hard.
For now, though, the only thing on his mind was having a good meal. Tomorrow, he’d think about talking to Erin and seeing how long his resolve was going to last.
CHAPTER
seven
BURYING HERSELF IN wedding budgets and schedules, vineyard profitability forecasts and future planning was exactly what Erin had needed to keep her mind off of herself and her stupid feelings. She had been submerged in work for the past few days, exactly how she liked it.
She’d closed herself in her office every day, and had been diligently working on getting both the vineyard and the wedding business in order. Fortunately, no one had bothered her. Of course she’d had meals with the family, but other than that, she had stayed occupied.
Honor knocked on her office door, which was actually two beautiful white French doors with glass because while she liked privacy to work, she also liked to be able to see outside of her office.
She motioned for Honor to come in.
“I know you’ve been busy. I don’t mean to interrupt, but we have the Hansen/Marsey wedding next weekend and I want to discuss a few items with you.”
“Sure. Come on in.”
She pulled up the wedding file on her laptop while Honor took a seat in one of the chairs across from her desk. “Okay, what’s up?”
Honor looked down at her notes. “Ellen called and said she and Tamira wanted to increase the final guest count by fifty people. And they’ve added three more cases of the merlot and two more cases of the prosecco.”
Erin found the line items and made the changes in the wedding budget so she could adjust the final invoice. “Got it. Anything else?”
She sighed. “Nothing.”
They always talked to each other about their respective jobs within the structure of the family business, because sometimes you just had to vent. “What is it, Honor?”
“I don’t want to bother you with wedding stuff, Erin.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to crumple every time the word ‘wedding’ is mentioned, if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s what we do here. It’s May. We have a wedding every weekend from now until October. I think I can handle it. Spill.”
“Fine. The Taylor/Giani wedding this weekend? The cake decorator’s mom has to have surgery and they aren’t going to be able to make the cake.”
Erin looked up from her laptop. “Oh, crap.”
“Yes.”
“Is the bride-to-be having a panic attack?”
“She called me in tears and said her wedding was ruined.”
Not the first time Erin had heard that about a bride-to-be. The week of the wedding was always the most stressful time, and a time when if something was going to go wrong, it generally would. Erin had firsthand knowledge of that now. She only wished her own wedding disaster had been of the cake variety.
“And you told her you’d call Rietta, right?” Rietta May was their savior, a wonderful friend of the family who had been making cakes for over forty years.