Chapter 1 #2
He offers me his big right hand again. When it folds around mine, engulfing me tightly, my breath catches.
“Vega,” his deep voice informs me. Then he keeps on and strangely adds, “Crew.”
I step back and frown. “Excuse me?”
“Crew. Crew Vega.”
I frown deeper. “That’s your name?”
Still no change in facial expression. “Yeah.”
“Oh, sorry. That’s just a little,” I pause, raising my eyebrows. “Unusual.”
“I know.” He finally offers me a set of new words, but alas, not a new facial expression.
“Well,” I breathe, finding him difficult to converse with. “Welcome to the neighborhood. I’m pretty new, as well, I’ve lived here a little over a year. I own the vineyard. Have you met the Kanes?”
He shakes his head. “Nope.”
“They’re great.” Motioning behind me, I blather on.
“They own the horse farm across the highway. They have three kids, all teenagers. They seem okay, the teenagers, that is. Not that we would hear rowdy teenagers here with all this land around us. I’m still getting used to living in the country. What do you do?”
Finally, he raises his eyebrows. Not much of a facial shift, but at least I know he’s alive when he answers, “Government contractor.”
“Huh,” I huff. “You and every other person around here. Everyone works for the government.”
“They’re a big employer.” He strings a group of words together—more proof of brain activity.
“They are,” I agree. “Do you drink wine?”
“Only to be polite. When I’m forced to be polite.”
This makes me smile. “I was that way, too, until I bought a winery, of course. Now I love it. You should come by the tasting room—I’ll give you the neighborly discount. One hundred percent off. All the neighbors love it and use it regularly.”
“Free?” He reverts back to simple words.
“There’s no money in wine tastings. My Buy-a-Barrel program, yes. The Wine Club, sure. Wedding receptions and private parties, absolutely. But a wine tasting? I barely break even. Plus, I hardly have any neighbors, so it’s not a big deal,” I explain.
“Thanks, but no.”
Before I have a chance to talk him into it, I hear, “Moo,” coming from afar.
I look toward my neighbor’s property and here comes Harry, slow as a snail stuck in peanut butter.
“Moo!” Scarlett answers, bellowing from behind me.
“You raise cows?”
“What?” I ask distracted, as Scarlett starts to crowd me again. I try to push her back as I explain, “Well, I have cows, I don’t raise them. They were cows when I got them.”
“I meant raise to butcher.”
“What? No, of course not.” I frown. “Why would I do that?”
“You a vegetarian? Why else would you have cows?”
“I’m not a vegetarian, but I’d never butcher them. They came with the property and I guess I’ve come to like them. By the way, sorry about the fence. I’ll try and get Morris out here today to do something about it.”
He ignores my comment about the fence and frowns back. “They’re pets?”
“No, they’re not pets.” I glare at him. “They came with the vineyard. I have forty acres of vines, forty of pasture and the other ten make up the farmhouse, tasting room, and other buildings, but they’re scattered amongst the pasture. A dog is a pet, a cat is a pet. A cow is not a pet.”
“Moo,” Harry calls as she slowly steps over the broken fence to join us. The second she does, she comes straight to Scarlett and me, joining the crowd.
I give the little black mark on her white forehead a scratch and scold her, “You need to stay on this side of the fence, Harry.”
“Harry?” I hear and look back over to my neighbor.
“Yes,” I sigh, because someone else is about to give me shit for naming the cows. When I started walking with them, I had to name them. “This one’s Harry because of the birthmark since it looks like Harry Potter’s scar.”
Crew’s expression finally cracks, even if it is by only a touch. His eyes turning from sharp to amused. “You do know cows are females, right?”
I stand up straight and immediately become defensive. I’m tired of people mocking me about the cows.
“I know cows are girls. Do I look like an idiot? Look at her face,” I say and point to Harry, the sweetest of them all.
They’re Black Baldies, all black with white heads, but Harry has a sweet little birthmark on her forehead.
The minute I saw her the first time, she reminded me of Harry Potter.
She’s been Harry ever since. “See? Harry Potter. This is Scarlett, she’s loud and obnoxious.
I have Jax, Maria, and Jimmy, but they’re off doing what cows are supposed to do—grazing. ”
Crew Vega moves, even if it is slightly, tipping his head and crossing his arms. A smirk spreads across his scruffy face, and as if out of nowhere, a dimple appears.
Smack dab on his left cheek. A dimple. Proof there’s soft under the sharp.
Hell if that dimple isn’t the hottest thing I’ve ever seen, even if it is covered in scruff, sweat, dirt, and hidden under a sharp toughness.
“Jax, Maria, and Jimmy?” the dimple asks.
I look up to his deep dark eyes, now creased because of his dimpled grin. “Well…yeah. I named them after my favorite characters. Besides Harry, I’ve got Scarlett O’Hara, Jax Teller, Maria von Trapp, and Jimmy Fallon.”
His head tips the other way. “Jimmy Fallon’s a person, not a character.”
“I know, but he’s funny,” I spout.
He nods, letting his arms fall, probably tired of talking about my cows, but agrees. “True.”
Okay, moving on.
“Sorry about the fence.” I try to change the topic of conversation. “Like I said, I’ll try and get my property manager to take a look at it today. I don’t want Harry wandering onto your property again.”
“We share the fence. I don’t have a property manager, all I have is me and I’m busy. Send me a bill for half, we’ll share the cost.”
“It’s really okay. I’m the one with the cows—you don’t have a reason to fix the fence.”
“It’s both of our responsibilities,” he keeps on.
“Yes, but you just moved in. I really don’t mind.”
“Send me a bill for half,” he insists.
I sigh. “Well, it probably won’t be much. Just consider it a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ gift.”
“Addison,” he bites out, getting my attention because no one calls me Addison. Not even my mom when she was alive. And more specifically, I didn’t introduce myself as Addison. “Send the bill.”
I frown and cross my arms. “Fine, I’ll send you a bill. Now that I’m thinking it through, I’m sure it’ll be astronomical. At least what I’ve spent on molasses cubes for the cows in the past year. They really like their molasses.”
He shakes his head with a half-smirk. “If it means I don’t have to play fetch with your pet cows when they wander onto my property, I’ll pay it.”
Tired of talking about my cows, I decide I’ve stood here long enough. I’ve got purchases to process, bills to pay, and ordering to finish. I don’t have time to stand here and argue about the cost of the fence with my new neighbor. I was only trying to be nice.
“If you decide to be neighborly, come for a tasting. If not, maybe I’ll see you around, but I don’t like being snuck up on, so don’t do that again.” I start to move out from between Scarlett and Harry. The instant I do, Scarlett crowds me but I have to make kissy noises to get Harry to follow.
“Send the bill,” his deep voice demands.
“Don’t hold your breath,” I yell without looking back.
Marching off in my rain boots, I swipe the hair away from my face.
It’s only then do I realize during the whole encounter with my new neighbor, I’m not only wearing rain boots, but cut off shorts and my old UCLA Track and Field t-shirt I acquired years ago.
And holy shit, I’m make-up free and my hair’s a mess.
Not my finest first impression, but we can’t all look great covered in sweat and dirt.
What kind of name is Crew, anyway? I’m sure it’s a stupid nickname his buddies bequeathed upon him.
“Come on, girls,” I call for the cows. “I need to get Morris on that fence right away. I don’t need our new neighbor complaining about you.”