Read Online Once Upon a Wine by Beth Kendrick - Free Book Online Page A

assured her, “This happens to everyone out here. It’s harder to fill up when the nearest gas station is clear across town.”
    â€œBut I . . .” Cammie pressed one hand to her cheek, mortified. “I don’t do stuff like this. I’m really smart, I swear. I just graduated magna cum laude.”
    â€œThey’re not going to take away your diploma for this.” He settled back against the car, watching her. “I’m Ian McKinlay.”
    â€œCammie. Cammie Breyer.” She reached up and toyed with the silver pendant at her neck. “So, what are you doing out here in the cornfields, Ian?”
    â€œWorking. These are my family’s fields.”
    She regarded him with renewed interest. “You’re a farmer?”
    He laughed, his smile easy and white. “Yes.”
    â€œIs that the right word?”
    â€œYeah. I’m a farmer.”
    â€œI’ve never met an actual farmer before.” After growing up in the suburbs, the idea of farming seemed like something out of a fairy tale or a TV series. Not real life. Not something someone her age would do.
    â€œIt’s your lucky day. Farmers are the best.” He strode over to the nearest green stalk. “Here, take some with you. Best sweet corn you’ll ever have.”
    â€œNo, thanks.”
    â€œTake it,” he insisted. “You’ll thank me later.”
    â€œI don’t like corn,” Cammie confessed.
    â€œWhat?” Ian looked almost offended. “Everybody likes sweet corn.”
    â€œEverybody except me.”
    â€œYou’ll like this. This is a whole different experience from the corn you’ve had before. Just try it.” He handed her the corn, and she accepted without further protest. “So, what do you do?”
    â€œRight now, I’m waitressing, but I’m starting graduate school in the fall.”
    Ian closed the car door and turned toward his truck. “Come on. I’ll drive you into town, and you can get a few gallons at the gas station.”
    Cammie fell into step beside him, and they were halfway to his truck before her magna-cum-laude common sense kicked in. “How do I know you’re not a serial killer?”
    â€œHow do I know
you’re
not?” he countered.
    She smiled sweetly. “You don’t.”
    And that was the beginning. By the time they got to the gas station, it was like they’d known each other for years. By the time they drove back to the cornfield and refueled her car, she was wondering what it would be like to kiss him.
    So she decided to find out. As he screwed the gas cap back into place, she got up on tiptoe and brushed her lips against his cheek. His skin was warm and he smelled wholesome, like sun and grass.
    He turned to face her. “What was that for?”
    â€œI owe you, remember?” She kissed him again, this time on the lips.
    He slid his arms around her waist. They kissed and kissed under the bright summer sun, out in the middle of a dusty road surrounded by tall green fields.
    â€œLet’s go somewhere,” he said when they finally broke apart.
    â€œWhere?” Even as she asked this, she knew what he would answer:
My room. Under the boardwalk. Backseat of the truck.
    â€œLet’s count the rows.”
    She glanced at him, confused, and he laughed. “Come on, I’ll give you the full farmer experience.”
    â€œLike a field trip?”
    â€œBest field trip ever.” He took her hand again and led her to the far end of the rows of corn.
    â€œWhen you walk the field, what you’re really doing is counting the rows,” he explained. “Checking the spacing between plants, checking to see if everything’s growing, checking to see if there’s any damage from birds.”
    He started walking slowly. Cammie matched his pace, trying to see what he saw: creation in progress, life all around them.
    But all she saw was