Read Online Love in the Vineyard (The Tavonesi Series Book 7) by Pamela Aares - Free Book Online Page B

felt like he fit in. Almost.
    “It’s hard to believe such open countryside still exists,” Tasha remarked as he turned onto the road leading up over Sonoma Mountain.
    “Are you new to the area?”
    “Yes.”
    Her tone told him he’d hit a nerve. This anonymity business was harder than he’d imagined.
    He pointed out a few landmarks, showed her the turnoffs for the roads that led to public parks as they passed by.
    “There isn’t as much open space as there is in Marin, the county to the south of here,” he said, aware that he was chattering like a tour guide. But yammering on was better than silence. The brief silences ramped up his awareness that nothing about this day, this date, was likely to be normal.
    “Ranches make up much of the lands we’re passing,” he went on. “And vineyards,” he added. Although that fact was obvious. The hillsides were covered with them. In fact, he’d just passed his own.
     

     
    Natasha brushed a piece of hay off the leg of her jeans. Hay in a flashy sports car? It struck her as odd. Maybe she’d been more than foolish to get into a car with a man about whom she knew next to nothing.
    Impulsive .
    The social worker’s word from years ago rang in her head. She’d worked hard since those days to tame her impulses.
    “So many vineyards,” she said, still fighting the impulse to ask him to take her back to the café.
    She sounded like an escapee from a mental institution. Except such places didn’t exist anymore. People with mental challenges ended up in homeless shelters— if they were lucky. That was another reason she was determined to save money from her new job and get her own place for her and Tyler—to open up a spot for a woman who had no alternative. A spot for a woman who hadn’t landed in a shelter because she’d made a stupid bet.
    Adrian looked over at her. “You don’t like vineyards?”
    She snapped back to the present, to the car, to the man.
    “No, I do.”
    Did she? She hadn’t spent any time in a vineyard. The orientation tour at Casa del Sole was the first time she’d set foot in a vineyard. She might not be revealing specifics about her life, but she didn’t want to lie to him.
    “Honestly, I haven’t spent much time around them. Vineyards, I mean. I have more experience with flowers and vegetables.”
    “Then you’re way ahead of me. I couldn’t grow a vegetable if my life depended on it. But I do love flowers. Flowers were my mother’s great love.”
    Were . She heard the past tense, heard the hitch in his voice. Knew that his mother hadn’t just given up growing flowers. Knew that she was dead. Oh yes, she knew the sound of her own voice when she spoke about her mother.
    “I’m sorry.” She meant it.
    He nodded, not taking his eyes off the road. “I thought that after a year had passed, I’d be through it, the grieving. But it’s been more than a year and it turns out none of us are.”
    “It gets better,” she said, resisting the urge to pat Adrian’s arm. She didn’t want to tell him that it took years. Decades. That the missing never went away.
    Us . He had sisters; he’d said so. Eight. A huge family. He couldn’t know he’d poked a sore spot. She wanted Tyler to have a family—a family that navigated the ups and downs of life together. A family that could protect him in case anything happened to her. But so far, she hadn’t managed to take even one step in that direction.
    Taking that step would involve marrying. Maybe having another child. She should’ve looked for a suitable man years earlier, but she hadn’t been ready. And wasn’t ready now. Maybe she never would be.
    She knew all men weren’t like Eddie, but even after years of trying she couldn’t erase what her body knew, what her body feared. Head knowledge had an uphill battle to trump fear.
    Guilt knotted in her chest, making it hard to breathe. She pressed a button and lowered the window, letting in cool, fresh air.
    If she could get past her