St. Helena Vineyard Series_Sweet Satisfaction Read online

  “I’ll take the lot.” Les grinned. He began searching for the much needed lavender. “Something is missing.”

  “I’m still working on your lavender. That’s proving to be harder than I expected.”

  “What do you mean you can’t get lavender. This is Napa Valley,” Les complained.

  “My sources just don’t have anything available yet. Most are telling me it’s too early in their season or they are sold out. It’s that or they don’t have food-grade flowers.” Tori shrugged. “I’m working on it. You said fresh. I can get all kinds of dried lavender. It’s the fresh that’s being troublesome.”

  “These are gorgeous. I guess I’ll just have to wait. I mean, you know it’s for that cheesecake I promised you?” Les teased. Maybe if he reminded her, she would work a little harder on getting him that stock.

  “Oh, I haven’t forgotten. Trust me.” Tori leaned into the van and lifted out a flat of the flowers. “Karen, he’s going to take the flowers. Can you help me lug these in?” Tori called out to the other woman, who had been sitting quietly behind the steering wheel while Tori showed off the flowers. Karen grumbled but got out of the van and picked up another tray of flowers. Without a word, she cut in front of Les off and trudged back into the kitchen.

  Les caught up with Tori so he could whisper in her ear. “Hey, I didn’t want to ask Penny, being her sister and all, but is Karen okay? She never really talks unless she has to.”

  Tori nodded. “She’s quiet and not particularly social, but she knows her stuff and is super strong from carrying all the veggies around.”

  Les didn’t think anti-social was all that was going on with her, but what did it matter? He never really talked to her anyway.

  “Did I see you at Carnita Joe’s the other night?” he asked as Tori placed her burden on the trellis table along the back wall.

  “Probably. They have good margaritas. I’m meeting my girlfriends there tonight, unless they decide on heading into Napa or something. You gonna be there?”

  Les shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe I’ll see you there. Either way, see you later.” Tori gave him a little wave. “Bye, Jenny,” she called before she bounced out the door. It was not lost on him that she did not say anything to Stevens. Les knew some people could mistake their trading of insults as flirtatious banter, but he did not miss the tone in either one’s voice. There was a strong dislike between the two of them.

  Chapter 3

  Tori inhaled deeply and stepped into the kitchen. She carried a basket with Les’s special order of much desired lavender. It was still early in the season, and she had found one grower with a limited amount, but it had taken her far too long to locate. Tori wanted to make this a memorable delivery she could leverage for a few photo ops. She had already recorded the pick-up and the arrangement in the basket. Now she wanted an image of a happy Les with his basket of coveted flowers.

  She really just wanted an excuse to take a picture of Les. Good thing her job provided the perfect cover. It also gave her an additional excuse to dress up a little bit more than usual.

  She wore her Peaz’n’Karrit’s Farm chambray work shirt unbuttoned and tied at her waist over a black tank. She paired this with a swishy navy and pink horizontal striped skater skirt. Instead of her preferred ribbon curls, she’d pulled her hair up in a messy bun and stabbed it all with a copper wire wrapped hair piece she purchased from an artist at one of the winter craft fairs in the valley.

  Could she remember who the artist was? This would be a good opportunity to give them a shout out on Instagram, especially if she took a picture of her outfit today. It was cuter than normal for work. Oh, better yet, she should snag a picture standing next to Les. Cute boy, cute outfit, a total Instagram win.

  “Hi, Chef,” she called out as she followed Karen in.

  “Tori, you look spiffy today,” Chef replied.

  “It’s picture day. I thought I’d change it up so that people know I own different clothes. Can I get a selfie before we leave?” She stepped out of the way as Karen stomped back out to the delivery van for another flat of veggies.

  “Haven’t we already done that?” he asked.

  “It’s been at least six months. Time to remind folks who I’m out here supporting. Hey, is Marc around? We can get him involved.” The more pictures she took, the less it would look like she was trying to be pretty for Les.

  Chef smiled. “That’s a great idea. I’ll go extricate him from under a pile of paper work Hernandez, your flower girl is here,” he called out as he walked through the kitchen.

  So much for surprises.

  Les emerged from behind the half wall where the walk-in refrigerators were located. He wiped his hands on a small towel, and tossed it onto the counter as he approached.

  Karen walked right in front of him off as she carried another tray in to deposit on the counter.

  Les skipped around the young woman and his eyes met Tori’s. Her stomach did a flip. He was smiling.

  “Hi, ah… Chef ruined, gave away my…”

  “Awesome! Lavender.” Les’s attention was all on the basket. He picked up a sprig of the fragrant buds and crushed it in his hand, rolling the small flowers between his fingers. His ridiculous eyelashes fanned out across his high cheekbones as he closed his eyes while lifting his hand to his nose. He inhaled deeply before letting out a contented sigh.

  Tori’s mouth went dry. She already had issues trying to form words today, and now, she’d forgotten how to speak completely. Why did looking at him have to make her skin tingle like this?

  Les opened his eyes and looked around. “Are there more baskets?”

  Tori gulped and shook her head. Her euphoria at his acceptance of the flowers crashed. “This was all I could get. The grower had a limited amount in his greenhouse for off season sales. I was lucky to get this much.”

  Les shifted his look from the basket to Tori and back to the basket. Disappointment creased his brow.

  “Look, it comes into season soon, and I can get you all you need at that point. And I can get you dried lavender like nobody’s business, but you said it had to be fresh.” Tori felt her stomach sink as she internalized the less than stella results of her paltry efforts.

  Les gazed at her and a small smile pulled at his lips. “You did good. I appreciate this much. I need to work out my logistics better. My lavender syrup can be made with dried, only it doesn’t have enough flavor. Thank you, Tori, this is great.” He flashed a toothy grin before returning his attention to the basket.

  “Do you mind if I get a picture of you with the basket to post? I’ve been documenting getting you a special order, sharing how Peaz’n’Karrit’s Farm really wants to help our clients.” She spoke at break-neck speed, getting the words out before she lost her nerve. She was asking Les for a picture for work, not for herself. This shouldn’t be this hard.

  “Yeah, sure.” Les picked up the basket and posed.

  He looked like a bad yearbook picture waiting to happen. Not on PnK’s Instagram feed. A pose like that was not hitting Facebook. Tori prodded him a bit, lifted the basket, and repositioned his hands. She unsuccessfully ignored how her fingers burned when she touched him. She really wanted to touch him more. Would all of her skin feel on fire like that?

  Karen muttered something and stopped in front of Tori.

  “I need to get a few shots, and then I’ll be right out. Okay?” Tori replied.

  Karen nodded as she trudged out to the van.

  Tori pulled over a stool and climbed up for a better vantage.

  “You’re dressed too nice to be climbing around on the furniture,” Les commented.The stool wobbled beneath her. Les had noticed she was dressed differently. Had the stool moved or just her world? After a slow breath her equilibrium returned.

  “I’m good. Have to look nice in case I end up in any pics.” She directed her phone to focus on Les, and she clicked a few pictures. “Would you take a selfie with me?” she managed to ask before she l
ost her nerve.

  Les stepped to her side and took the phone from her. Holding the phone up and away with both hands, he leaned down in front of her as she sat on the stool, bringing his face closer to her level. She wanted to figure out how she could lean on him, but it was look up at the phone and smile time.

  Les straightened and handed her the phone back.

  “Thanks,” she squeaked

  “Wait up,” Chef said as he reentered the kitchen. Marc DeLuca followed him in.

  “So you want me for a selfie?” Marc asked.

  “Yeah, you, me, and Chef.” Tori nodded. “If that’s okay.”

  “Let’s do this.” Marc, being the tallest of the three took the phone and took a handful of shots.

  “Oh God, is that woman back in here taking stupid selfies again? Is this a kitchen or a high school?”

  Tori’s good mood dissipated like spun sugar on her tongue, leaving her empty and missing the sweet. Josh was in the back of the kitchen and she hadn’t noticed him.

  “You’re just jealous because she doesn’t want a picture with your ugly face,” Les retorted.

  “Do you want take a selfie, Josh? Or I can take a pic of you doing prep work.” She should be inclusive of everyone in the kitchen, even the assholes.

  “Hell, no. I don’t want to take a stupid picture with you,” Josh replied.

  “Then shut up, Stevens, and let the lady do her job,” Chef barked.

  “Her job is making you look stupid,” Josh grumbled.

  “Stevens!” Chef strode over to the far side of the kitchen to have more words with Josh.

  Marc patted Tori on the shoulder. His glance after Chef and back to her, coupled with his shrug, seemed to say “kitchen politics, what can you do?” He pushed through the doors into the front of the restaurant as if avoiding their shouting match.

  Les approached as Tori turned to leave. “Ignore him. He’s a jerk.”

  “I try to.” Tori had dressed up for a reason today, and it wasn’t to look cute in photos. She wanted to look attractive for Les. “Do you eat?” She closed her eyes. That was about as stupid of a question as she could have asked. “I mean, do you eat other cook’s foods? You aren’t such a food snob you only cook for yourself, are you?”This was not how she thought any of this was going to go. Nope. She would show up looking adorable, deliver a Pinterest perfect basket of flowers to Les. He would thank her and ask if there was anything he could do for her in return, and then she would ask him out. Instead she was tripping over her own tongue.

  He tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy. Oh God, he was hot.

  Tori closed her eyes, shook her head, and tried again. “Would you like to go get a hamburger some night you don’t have to work late?”

  “Sure, sounds good. I’m on late tomorrow, but day after. I can meet you at seven-thirty. How’s that?”How was that? That was perfect, that was amazing, that was… oh crap, she had a date with Les.

  A grin spread across her face. “Fantastic. Meet you at Taster’s?”

  ***

  Today had not gone well.

  Tori smoothed her skirt and sat on the bench in front of Taster’s. She was a little early. Okay, a lot early. This date was the only thing that had kept her going today.

  She had spent most of last night choosing an outfit. She wanted flirty but not too sexy. Wholesome but not schoolmarm or girl next door. She needed to look like a girl he could kiss on the first date, but not sleep with. She’d narrowed it down to a choice of three.

  But her day had been so stressful there was no way she was going to fight herself into a demonic compression girdle. So she’d ended up wearing a black skater skirt covered in a pattern of stars and a fuzzy pink crop sweater. She put her hair in pigtails, twirling the ends so they curled. Pink high-tops finished the look.

  Date make-up should have been heavier than typical day wear, but not tonight. She didn’t want to call attention to her eyes, so she kept it light and wore muted natural tones. Good thing last night she had planned ahead on the lipstick. She hated the thought that Les would see her with smashing bright lipstick on one moment, and a hamburger bite later, nothing would be on her lips. So she wore a slightly tinted, super shiny lip gloss.

  It was all planned, only she had not taken into account the possibility that Penny would throw her a curve ball. Tori’s position was funded by a grant for women-owned businesses, and her challenge Social Media and Special Projects Manager was to get Peaz’n’Karrit’s Farm in front of more people. Spread the word about them in the community. And she was working it.

  She had created Instagram and Twitter accounts. She shared images of PnK working with area restaurants on Facebook all the time. They had hundreds of followers when only a few months ago they had none. But apparently that wasn’t enough for Penny. Even Tori’s networking efforts weren’t enough. Making a contact with the Rose Guild should have been a major accomplishment, but Penny didn’t consider it as much of a big deal as Tori had.

  Penny saw no improvement to their monthly bottom line, and as a result, Peaz’n’Karrit’s Farm wasn’t demonstrating the necessary growth that would lead to renewed funding from the grant. If Tori’s work didn’t improve their net income within the next two months, they were not going to be able to hire her on permanently. Basically, she needed to prove to Penny her job made PnK money or she would be jobless. And there was no other way Tori knew how to directly impact the company’s income.

  All of her work establishing a social media presence, hundreds of pictures of happy clients, hundreds of pictures of happy growers out in PnK’s fields, Penny’s baby bump watch, all of it was for nothing. Penny wanted a freaking miracle, wanted to go from zero to thousands of followers overnight, wanted every post to go viral. She didn’t understand that traction took time and constant effort. It would pay off, but it was a marathon, not a sprint. None of that mattered to Penny.

  Tori stretched her neck and looked up then down the street. She didn’t see Les, the perfect distraction from her terrible day No, she needed to breathe deep, let it go, and not worry that she now needed to track her time and document all of her activities. Apparently seeing time stamps on all the posting she did all day long wasn’t enough.

  Tori blinked rapidly as tears threatened. Again. It was bad enough she had cried most of the afternoon, and her eyes were still glassy and pink around the edges. She did not need this stress ruining dinner.

  Her thumbs flew over a text on her phone. Crap day at work, but date with cute boy commences in 3-2-1. Fill you in later.

  God, she was hungry. Where the hell was Les?

  She looked at her phone. It wasn’t that late. Only fifteen minutes past the time they’d agreed to meet. She punched in the number for the Napa Grand Hotel’s restaurant.

  Erin answered.

  “Hi, Erin, I was looking for Les. Do you know if he’s still there?” Tori asked. Damn, what was she going to say if Erin asked why she was calling?

  “Let me check.”

  Tori began pacing back and forth in front of the restaurant, hoping to see Les come down the block. Classic on-hold muzak wafted through her phone. What was taking Erin so long? Just go into the back and see if Les was there.

  Ugh. She was at work. She probably had to seat people for dinner, or refill water glasses. But still—

  “He left a while ago.”

  Tori sighed. Okay, at least he wasn’t still a work. Maybe he went home to change.

  “Thanks, I appreciate you checking.”

  “What did you need?” Erin asked.

  Tori bit her lip and scanned the sidewalk with wide eyes, hoping inspiration could be found there. “I had a quick question about some extra flowers, and I thought he might still be there. You know how restaurant people work strange hours.”

  “Tell me about it. Nope, already gone. He’s usually only here this late on the nights he covers for Chef. You know, when Chef takes his days off.”

  “I’ll try him again tomorrow,�
�� Tori said.

  Tori looked at her phone. She would give Les a few more minutes. She plopped back down onto the bench and then quickly stood and fixed her skirt.

  Her phone sang out with a song about cabbages from some kid’s show. Work. Penny texting.

  Penny had been texting all afternoon with suggestions. Maybe she felt bad for making Tori cry, but she hadn’t apologized. Not that she needed to. It was a business decision. That still didn’t make it hurt any less.

  Videos, we need to do videos like this guy. Attached to the text message was a one minute video by a guy who did an inspirational video a day.

  Oh, no. No no no no no. Penny had no clue how much time videos took. And those were filmed and edited. He didn’t just film one minute of interesting stuff and post it. He filmed lots, did retakes, and spent hours editing.

  Or…

  Maybe this was a teaching moment. This guy had a video showing how much time it took to produce one of his films. He also had one that showed how it had taken him months of posting before things snowballed for him. Tori’s thumbs flew as she located the different videos and forwarded to Penny.

  Her stomach growled. She checked the time on her phone she realized that had taken much longer than expected. She looked up. No Les.

  It was almost an hour past when he’d said he would be here.

  Well, clearly he had changed his mind. Would she be able to face him the next time she showed up with a delivery? As long as he didn’t turn into another Josh Stevens, she could handle it.

  She stood up and smoothed down her skirt. Funny, she wasn’t hungry anymore.

  Chapter 4

  Tori took a break from assisting with deliveries for a few days to see if she could come up with a new strategy to appease Penny. How could her work as a social marketer get more clients? Apparently “special projects” was more than securing local honey resources and edible flowers. She now had to broaden the scope of PnK’s sales reach.

  She scrolled through a Pinterest board looking for marketing inspiration.