Let It Breathe by Tawna Fenske Page B

down and turned to Eric. “Thanks for getting me off the hook there.”
    Eric nodded once, eyeing him with an expression Clay couldn’t quite read. “No sweat. I’ve always got your back. You know that.”
    “I appreciate it.”
    Eric picked up a bottle of wine on the edge of the shelf and studied it, not looking at Clay. “You didn’t really want to stay out here, did you?”
    Clay shoved his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat. “No. Not at all.”
    “I figured the temptation might be too much.”
    Clay stared at him. Eric stared back.
    “All the alcohol and everything,” Eric added. “Why take risks with that sort of thing?”
    Clay nodded. “Temptation. Right.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    Reese was exhausted after spending the morning crunching numbers with her mom and the afternoon negotiating prices on new wine barrels from her favorite cooperage in France.
    Exhausted and hungry. She glanced at her watch as she stepped out into the overcast evening air and turned to lock the winery door.
    “Calling it a day?” Eric shouted from his perch on the picnic table.
    She looked over her shoulder to see him reading one of the tattered romance novels she’d left lying around. “Yup. I’m done. Why are you still here?”
    “Waiting for Sheila to pick me up. You doing anything fun this evening?”
    Reese shrugged and rolled her shoulders, trying to ease the tension in her neck. “Thought I’d hang out at home, feed the opossum, maybe read a book, and catch up on some of the online orders we got for that new Pinot.”
    “Let me guess,” he said as he held up her book “You’re rereading this one again?”
    “I like Jennifer Crusie.”
    “And you prefer rereading old books to experiencing new ones. Or doing anything to meet new people and extricate yourself from your over-idealized fantasies of love and relationships.”
    Reese rolled her eyes. “You know, this Freud thing is getting old.”
    “Tell you what,” Eric said, setting down the book and pulling out his cell phone. “I’ve got a buddy in Newberg I think you’d really click with. Let me see what he’s doing this evening. If he’s free, you and me and Sheila can meet up at the Vineyard Grill for a quick dinner and some drinks.”
    “Eric, I don’t really think—”
    “I’m dialing right now.”
    “Come on, is this really—”
    “It’s ringing.”
    “Eric, I don’t want—”
    “Hey, Bob—how’s it going?” Eric held up his hand at Reese to silence her, so she settled for kicking him in the shin.
    “Listen, man,” Eric said. “A few of us are getting together at the Vineyard Grill in about an hour if you feel like meeting up for a beer.”
    Reese folded her arms over her chest and considered, not for the first time, how much more convenient it would be to hate an ex-husband the way most divorced women did.
    Eric grinned at her, still talking into the phone.
    “So we’ll meet you there?” he said. “Later!”
    He clicked off and gave Reese a smug look. “See? You’re getting out. You can thank me later.”
    “ A few of us are getting together? You make it sound like a party instead of a ridiculous attempt by my ex-husband to fix me up with his loser friend.”
    “Bob’s not a loser. He’s a financial analyst. I think you’ll really like him. So you want to meet us there, or drive yourself?”
    Reese sighed, resigned to her fate. “I’m driving myself, and I’m bringing Larissa. Assuming she doesn’t already have a date.”
    “That’s not a safe assumption. Doesn’t she always have a date?”
    “Sometimes she gives herself the night off to line up new dates.”
    “God help them.”
    “Okay, I’ll go on this date, but only because I’m hungry and I really like their crab-stuffed mushroom caps. And because I wanted to talk to Sheila about the signage for next week’s event.”
    “I’ll let her know. So we’ll see you there?”
    “Fine.”
    Reese trudged back across the lawn and let herself into the house.