Just a Kiss: The Single Girls Wine Club (A Wine Country Romance #1) (4 page)

Jamie turned from the stove. “I’m ready to start again if you’ll have me.”

“I’m in the middle of lavender and thyme cookies,” she said on her way to the sink. “Do you want to help?”

Jamie nodded.

“Then come over, and we’ll wash our hands.” She waited to turn on the faucet until Jamie scooted next to her.

The angle of his jawline and the profile of his lips fascinated her. His lips were only inches away, and she had an overwhelming urge to lock on to his mouth. Noticing a few strands had escaped from his beanie, she reached to touch them but stopped herself.

“We need to, um… ”

“What?” He glanced down at her.

“You need to tuck your hair into your beanie before we use the soap." Sarah pointed to his hair.

“Oh right, health regulations.” Jamie slipped the rest of his hair under his hat in one quick sweep. “Better?”

“Yep.” She stole another look while turning on the faucet.

He held his hands palms up, and she squirted them with a little soap. She did the same for herself and tried desperately not to touch him while they scrubbed in silence under the warm water, but Jamie’s hip kept bumping against her.

Her body pinged excitedly every time he touched her. Using the deep breathing techniques she learned in yoga class, she inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with air. Then she let go of a long slow breath of air and made it last three seconds.

“Want me to help you soap up?” Jamie moved a slick hand over hers under the water.

She stole a look from the side and shook her hands in the sink. “I’m good.” Sarah grabbed a towel on the counter, dried her hands and tossed the cloth, making a basket in the hamper on her way to the pastry table.

“Come here,” Sarah said over her shoulder from the safe distance of the table. “I’ll show you how to roll out the dough.”

Finally away from his crazy sexy body, she prayed her hormones would settle down so she could focus. She leaned across and used her rolling pin to slowly press forward, putting her whole body into one long motion and back again, concentrating on smoothing the dough. Again, she bent over the table, straining a little, pushing the pin all the way over the dough as far as she could reach. When she rolled back, she bumped into a hard wall. Jamie stood behind her, trapping her against the table.

Stunned and staring at the dough on the table, she sucked a breath of air when she felt his strong arms reach around her. She didn’t breathe the entire time it took Jamie to stroke her arms all the way down before covering her hands with his on each side of the rolling pin. Turning slightly into his shoulder, feeling the softness of his T-shirt, she snuck a whiff of heaven.

He rested his chin on her shoulder and breathed on the back of her neck. The rough fabric of his jeans pressed against her back. He relaxed even closer behind her and her stomach flipped. She’d envisioned training Jamie Santino in her kitchen hundreds of times since getting the word from Danica, but never thought anything even close to this would happen. He exhaled into her ear, and she shuddered.

Sarah didn’t dare move, wishing she could freeze time and save the exact second her world merged into his. In this solitary moment everything changed. For the rest of her life, she would never look at a rolling pin the same way.

The playlist on the stereo stopped. Sarah’s heart pounded so ferociously she thought Jamie could hear it.

From miles away, deep in a hazy fog, she heard Manny yell. “What the heck is going on Sarah? The Egg Guy has a question out in front. Sarah?” Manny walked into the room and stopped in his tracks when he saw Jamie. “Whoa, I thought you got fired?”

Sarah pushed away from the table, and Jamie took a few steps back behind her.

“No, he’s not fired.” She smoothed her hands on her lucky apron. “Just a misunderstanding Manny. He’s back. Would you please handle Bobby and his egg questions?”

“Will do, and the staff is coming in now.” Manny skewed his head and leveled a stare at Jamie and then at Sarah. “Want me to open up?”

“That'd be great." Sarah bit her bottom lip. Glancing at the movie star next to her and turning to Manny, she said, "Do you think you’ll have time to teach Jamie the register and maybe show him the ropes out in front?”

“Nah, I think it would be much too complicated for him,” Manny said, heading out through the swinging doors.

Jamie gave Sarah a quick grin before following Manny. “I can handle it chief. Just show me which buttons to push and I will.”

What the hell just happened?
Sarah's hands were trembling so much she shoved them in her apron pockets to make them stop.
How am I supposed to concentrate on work now?

She opened the fridge and pulled out the trays of chocolate raspberry gateaux, pumpkin tarts, and cranberry-apple crisps. It took her several tries to get the platters to balance on her shaky arms, as she headed out of the walk-in.

Wearing a big, seductive grin, Jamie blocked the doorway. “You didn’t think you’d get rid of me so easily?” he teased. “Let's roll some more dough.”

Danica smoothed blobs of thick blue conditioner on her long hair under the hot sun. “I felt so lousy about Jamie not working out, that I called the Sonoma Register and got an interview for you.” She ran a comb through her hair. “They’re sending a reporter over tomorrow and shooting for around eleven.”

“You didn’t have to call the paper.” Sarah adjusted the pillow on the chaise and stretched out on her tummy like a cat. She gazed over the oyster shell path and out at the renowned Castelli Zinfandel grapevines glittering in the sun. Although Lulu’s family sold most of their land for various reasons throughout the years, Lulu retained ten acres. No fences bordered the property, so Bella Villa essentially enjoyed the same view it had for over a hundred years. A cool crisp breeze tickled her nose.

“It’s my fault Jamie caused you grief.” Danica shook her head. “Six hours late? I’m sorry. I didn’t know he’d be such a flake.”

Sarah had hoped they’d just skip over the whole Jamie Santino topic, and checked to see if the other women were listening. Juliet seemed preoccupied with whatever she was doing. She had a pen in hand, a legal pad in front of her, and thankfully, the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones she wore, most likely drowned out any sound within a fifty-mile radius.

Sarah surveyed Lulu in her big brimmed hat hunched over the dirt in the adjacent garden. She plucked a fat weed from the base of a sunflower, waved it at her, threw it in a pile and went back to her work. Sarah turned back to Danica. “It’s over, not a problem anymore.”

“I thought you fired him,” Danica asked.

“I did, but I hired him back.”

Danica put her comb down and rushed to Sarah’s side. “Oh, this is getting good.”

“It’s nothing to get excited about. He apologized. I accepted and hired him back.” Sarah took a sip of Ceja Chardonnay with the best nonchalant air she could muster.

Juliet wrote on her legal pad and hummed.

Danica waved at her calling out, “Yo! Juliet, take those phones off!”

Lulu raised her head, looked at her and went back to her gardening tasks.

“Why are you screaming? I’m not deaf, yet.” Juliet put her pen down, shaking her head until her headphones rested on her neck. “Well?”

Danica flicked a grin at her. “Sarah hired Jamie back after he apologized and now she's in love with him.”

“Hold up!” Sarah almost spit out her wine. “I never said that.”

“You wouldn’t be the first to fall hard for Jamie.” Juliet sat up in her lounger, putting her notes by her feet. “I interviewed a director babe he dated. Remember her, Danica? His last serious relationship, the super-hot one? What's her name?”

“Clarissa Thomas." Danica looked past Sarah to Juliet. “And we pronounced it Toe-Mas.”

“Right,” Juliet said. “We used to call her More Camel Toe because she always wore those tight leggings.”

“How could you forget a name like that? Never mind the visual,” Danica said. “Jamie’s still not over her, according to his brother.”

Danica and Juliet settled on their backs but angled their bodies to eyeball Sarah. Sarah shielded her eyes from the sun with her hands and peered left and then right.

“Okay, yes, I’m interested,” Sarah said. “What happened? What did More Camel Toe do to Jamie?”

“You tell her Juliet, you talked to her. I only got the sordid details after the fact,” Danica said.

Juliet adjusted her pillow. “From what I know, Clarissa used Jamie to get two of her pictures financed. He trusted her because he thought they were in love. Naturally, he believed she had his best interests in mind, but she didn’t. She pretty much trashed his career and broke his heart.”

“How?” Sarah asked.

“Remember the first film Jamie starred in,
After the Lost?
You know the movie Sarah, we’ve all seen it,” Juliet said. “He won a Golden Globe nomination for it and everyone wanted to hire him. Well, that’s precisely when Clarissa got her claws into him, poor guy. Talk about blind love.”

Danica squinted. “I remember Michael being so worried about him at the time but what did she actually do to him?”

“Her production company bought the rights to
Dying Out Loud
and
Die, Die, Baby
,” Juliet said. “She lured Jamie into a relationship and somehow got him to agree to star in those two fiascos. She only got the financing because of Jamie. So she managed to make a few bucks, but he got thrashed in reviews, and she dumped him.”

“She dumped him? After casting him as an action hero?” Sarah shook her head. “Unbelievable.”

“He hasn’t made a movie until now, after waiting three years,” Danica said.

Juliet reached for her notes and pen. “Well, he seems to have rebounded in the romance department anyway.”

Sarah hoped she wouldn't get caught fishing but took a shot. “Anything lately?”

“Nah, just flings,” Juliet said. “Lots of them, but nothing serious or I would’ve come across something in all the show prep I do.”

“See Sarah, you’re not the only one who has a shitty ex. I’ll bet Michael would never treat anyone that way. I know for a fact he doesn’t have a girlfriend. I even—”

“Must we?” Juliet asked. “Do we have to hear another Michael Santino story? Couldn’t we keep the conversation down to one Santino brother at a time?”

“I have absolutely no problem with that.” Danica snuggled into her chaise lounge.

“Neither do I,” Sarah said to herself.

The green glowing digital numbers of Jamie Santino’s San Francisco Giants baseball clock pierced through the darkness three feet from his face and blasted four fifteen! Four fifteen!

He shifted under the thick comforter in his boyhood bedroom, reached to shut off the alarm and thought of his plan and Sarah. It didn’t take much effort to recall her every curve because he’d spent the whole night dreaming about her. Before he’d gone to bed, he’d made the decision to put his plan into action before the Vine opened, the only time they’d have alone.

With his eyes still half closed, he flung the covers off and meandered to the bathroom. When the shower reached the right temperature, he stepped inside and didn’t rush. As the steamy, wet trickles poured over him, his mind raced to Sarah. Was it the heat of her kitchen that had made her scent so overwhelmingly enticing yesterday? From the second he’d touched her, he'd been mesmerized. When his nose had grazed her neck, he’d had to bite his lip to hold back.

When he poured a dollop of thick shampoo in his hand and rubbed it through his hair, its sharp pine scent refreshed him, and his need for Sarah became more insistent. The shampoo tingled on his scalp while he reflected back on the moment he’d wrapped his arms around her from behind. He’d been so lonely lately, and she’d felt so good.

He loved the way she’d adjusted her body to fit next to his.
How would she feel now, under the warm water with me?
Closing his eyes, he remembered every detail of the gentle curve of her arms, and how silky her skin had felt when his hands had brushed over her.

Why didn’t I kiss her?
When her thick black lashes had blinked over her beautiful eyes, she’d seemed comfortable displaying every emotion she felt. It wasn’t like him to get shy. She had been inches away from his mouth and judging by the way she’d looked at him, she’d probably have liked it.

Sarah hadn’t acted like most women. She hadn’t even asked about any of his movies or seemed the least bit impressed by anything about him, and that turned him on more. Lathering the soap across his chest and under his arms, he closed his eyes. She was there in the shower with him, just like she’d been with him every second throughout the night in his dreams.

Jamie rinsed off, stepped out of the shower and wrapped the bath towel around his waist. Refreshed, relieved, and more committed to following through with his plan.

Wine Country was so far away from the glare of Hollywood, the plastic faces and people who only cared about themselves. Jamie had almost forgotten what it was like to be home where he could let his guard down.

He grinned at the irony of feeling like a horny teenager in his parent’s house while he dried off and got dressed. Without turning on a light, he strolled to the kitchen, sliced a piece of his mom’s banana bread to eat in the car and left for the Vine Café.