Page 32 of The One You Want

“Hi, Jenny,” she called, giving me a wave. “Go for it, the back is empty.” Then her gaze moved over to Grant and I saw her eyes widen. “Hey, Grant,” she said, her tone completely different than it had been when she greeted me. Now she sounded…calculating. And maybe a little bitsmug.

I gave her a warning look, not in the mood for more of her plotting, and pushed my way through the beaded curtain she had blocking off the tasting room in the back. Grant followed behind me and stopped in his tracks once he took in thespace.

“Oh wow. I had no idea this was backhere.”

Libby’s tasting room was pretty impressive. It was part of the original building, all stone walls and beamed ceilings. It definitely had atmosphere. The tourists went nuts forit.

“She does tastings every day during the high season,” I told him. “Mostly local stuff from over on the peninsula, which she sells a ton of in her store. It’s a pretty good business model.” I grinned. “Probably not as smart to hold the meetings here, though. Half the time we end up raiding her winecellar.”

“You know, the more you build these girls up as epic partiers, the more I’m going to want to stick around to see it inaction.”

I plopped one of the boxes down on the table in front. “Your funeral,buddy.”

He helped me to bring the rest of the boxes in and then stayed to unpack it all. By the time we had the cases of beads out, a few of the early birds were starting to filter in. “Jenny,” Sherry called out, eyes scanning Grant. “Who’s your hot helper manthere?”

I smirked at him. “I’m telling you, get out while you stillcan.”

“I can handle a couple oldladies.”

I didn’t argue with him—if he stuck around much longer, he’d be able to see for himself just how wrong hewas.

Ten minutes later, I was having a hard time getting set up. All of my boxes were unpacked but there was barely any room on the front table, what with all the women standing around, leaning on my boxes, some of them even sitting on the table. All so they could get closer toGrant.

“Do you always have this beard?” Jill Franklin asked, leaning in close to run her fingers over his jaw. Jill liked to dress like a 1950’s pin up girl most of the time, so I was sure he was getting a pretty nice view of her low-cut top. He made a distressed sort of noise as Sherry, a middle-aged married woman, joined Jill in running her fingers through hisbeard.

“We really should put an end to this,” Libby said, leaning against the back wall next tome.

“I warned him and he acted like I had no idea what I was talking about,” I told her. “I say he deserves at least five moreminutes.”

We watched as Lilah Taylor pushed on his rolled up flannel sleeves to reveal more of his arm. “You probably have really big biceps,” she said. “Working on a farm allday.”

“It’s uh, mostly a greenhouse,” he said, pushing his sleeves back into place and shooting me a panicked look. I waved athim.

Cora and Iris came wandering over. “So,” Cora said, grinning at me. “You brought Grantalong.”

“He helped me carry over my stuff,” I explained, narrowing my eyes as she shared a triumphant glance with Iris. “You guys. Seriously. Don’t even go there,okay?”

Cora held up her hands. “I didn’t sayanything.”

“Yeah, but you were obviously thinking it.” The last thing I needed was the three of them trying to play matchmaker. Libby could be absolutely relentless when she wanted to be. Grant had enough on his plate with launching a brand new business to be dealing with herscheming.

“We just think he’s nice, that’s all,” Irissaid.

“Yes, very nice.” Cora agreed. “And also crazyhot.”

My gaze snapped in her direction. “You think Grant is crazy hot?” I blurtedout.

“Um, yeah. Duh.” She pointed over her shoulder at where most of the group was still fawning over him. “He has that whole masculine farmer thing going on. Those muscles didn’t come from a gym. He works with hishands.”

“Totally hot,” Iris agreed. “Why do you think I have David making so many repairs around the cafe? That refrigerator did not need fixing, sweetheart. And I’m perfectly capable of getting out a ladder to change a lightbulb.”

“But why would you?” Libby asked. “When you can get David Jenkins to do it, preferably with his shirtoff.”

They all burst into giggles and I rolled my eyes. “You’re as bad as those ones overthere.”

By now, Jill had completely flattened herself to Grant’s side, whispering something in his ear, so I finally decided to take pity on him. We had been waffling around enough anyhow. As much as I didn’t want to lead the meeting, part of me wanted to get it over with so we could all just drink mimosas andgossip.

Grant would probably be the primary topic of that gossip, come to think of it. It wasn’t very often this island saw new residents moving in, especially not young and eligible men like Grant. He’d managed to stay under the radar this summer, as busy as he was setting up the greenhouse and store, but we’d basically just broadcast his availability to all the women of the island. He was definitely going to be the next big thing, as far as they wereconcerned.