"And nothing else we can do for him or his family?"
"Not at this stage. I've told him to take as much time as he needs off work." She watched to gauge his response, but if she was expecting any protest at the likely effect on her bottom line, she didn't get it. Nick nodded his agreement. "Is this for me?" She lifted up the bag.
"I didn't know if you'd have had time for breakfast. We can stop somewhere along the way, once we get out of the city, but that's-" he pointed at the bag "-just in case."
Did he know that she was almost constantly hungry? The pregnancy book she had bought informed her that the baby, at just under three months, was only a couple of inches long. How did something that size have such a profound affect on her appetite? "Thank you." She broke a corner off the scone, light and buttery and still warm from the oven, and popped it into her mouth.
"How was your dinner?"
"Good." She paused. "You could have come if you'd wanted to."
His laughter was the last thing she expected, filling the interior of the car with its warmth and surprising a laugh out of her too. "All right," she admitted, "I was relieved when you turned the invitation down."
They lapsed into silence. Callie sought for something to say. She glanced across at him. Her gaze caught on his hands, strong and capable on the steering wheel, took in the light covering of hair on tanned forearms. The urge to touch her fingertips to those arms to see how the play of muscle would feel caught her by surprise. She swallowed and looked resolutely out the windshield.
Uncomfortable in the confined space, hyperaware of his presence and Nick's nearness, Callie made phone calls to keep herself occupied, following up on Marc's arrangements, satisfying herself that everything was under control.
Nick remained silent, keeping any feelings on her impending presence at Cypress Rise to himself. Outside, the vast summer-browned countryside slid by.
She finished a phone call with the caterers and looked across at him. "Does Melody know I'm coming?"
He nodded.
"And she's okay with it?"
"She understands why you need to come." After a pause, he added. "She never knew I'd told you to cut the contact. She had asked me to check you out, so to speak. After which, all I told her was that she didn't have anything to worry about."
"I don't understand how someone like Melody, who would appear to have it all, gets to be so insecure."
"A woman like you wouldn't."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Callie bristled.
Nick flicked a glance in her direction. "It's a compliment. You're strong."
"Oh." He thought she was strong? He had no inkling of her uncertainties, her fears of being inadequate for the things ahead of her.
"Have you always protected her?"
He shot her another glance, took his time answering. "I guess so. Because of the gap in our ages, in some ways I was more like a father to her. Our own father wasn't around that much."
"Where was he?"
"He was heavily involved in his work."
"And your mother?"
Nick paused, this one even longer than the last. "Died when Melody was three."
Callie hid her shock at the thought. Nick could only have been thirteen. Her heart ached for the boy he'd been, and for Melody too.
"Rosa, my grandmother, stepped into the breech," he continued. "We never wanted for anything."
Callie studied his profile as he pulled out and passed a tractor towing hay-baling equipment. He looked so strong, and he was strong-not letting himself need anyone-but it had come at a price.
"Not wanting for anything didn't mean you weren't hurting."
He gave a slight shake of his head. "We were okay. It made us closer at the time."
"And you're still close?"
"We're family." He said it as though that simple statement answered everything. And last night he'd said she was now a part of that family. "Mel's been better the last few years. Along with the success of the winery, her self-confidence has grown. She's intelligent and savvy. But those days cast a long shadow, and she's always been a little insecure."
And how had those days affected Nick? Clearly, they'd made him protective of his sister; but were they, combined with his girlfriend's betrayal, behind his reluctance to commit emotionally? Was that how he was able to keep marriage as a solution to a problem, without offering anything of himself?
"Mel's okay now. She's partially blaming hormones for her concerns over you."
There were two of them dealing with that particular issue. Callie was aware of the exaggerated peaks and troughs of her moods and emotional responses to things that wouldn't usually bother her, like sappy television commercials, like the times when a perceived gentleness in Nick could make her want to throw away her principles as she threw herself into his arms. "When does Jason get back?" And how would that affect the mix?
"Do you want him to be there?" Nick's gaze stayed trained on the road, but she knew his attention was on her.
Callie considered the question. "I haven't spoken to him since he sold out to you. So there are some things I'd like to say to him." She grinned. "But it's probably for the best if I don't."
"He's in California. He's due back in just over a week."
The subject sat uneasily between them. She wanted Nick at least to think better of her than his sister did, but he revealed so little of what he really thought. Maybe that was for the best, because if someone knew him and grew to care for him too much, that person would ultimately be the one who got hurt.
She had thought that she would be stronger after what had happened with Jason, that she would develop a tougher outer shell. But Nick had already shown her the cracks in that shell. She would lean on him, if he let her, like at the hospital. And she couldn't afford to lean.
They drove through vine-covered land rich with the greens and browns of late summer. "It's beautiful here." Nonchalant, uninvolved. She could do it.
"Do you want to go to the house first, or straight to the winery?"
"The winery, thanks. I have a feeling it's going to be a big day."
A few miles farther along, Nick swung the car off the road and drove through an imposing gateway set in a low, stone wall, and lettered with the flowing logo for Cypress Rise Wines. They followed a side road that took them behind the public reception area used for wine tastings, and then around the back. She undid her seat belt as they eased to a stop, and they got out.
Nick led the way to a simple office building. Off to one side, stainless steel vats and stairways rose from the ground. He pushed open a door and stepped back for her to precede him inside.
Melody sat at a desk, computer monitor in front of her, neat piles of paper stacked on her left. This was the woman who'd thought Callie was trying to sabotage her marriage. Callie wasn't sure whether she should still feel angry about that, or just sorry for her. Melody looked up, and at the sight of Callie a slight flush rose up her face. She stood and came around to meet them. "I'm so glad you could make it. How's Marc's sister?" There was a wariness in her eyes. Eyes that Callie saw now were the same green as Nick's.
"She's stable, but other than that there's no change."
"We were so sorry to hear about her accident. We don't know her, of course, but all the staff were enjoying working with Marc. He had such a great sense of humor. We've sent her some flowers. Irises and daisies … " She trailed off.
Melody was definitely babbling, and she'd never struck Callie as a babbler before; so that meant Callie, and whatever lay between them, was making her nervous. A quagmire spread before her: did she mention the wedding, the honeymoon, ask after Jason? Questions that, with another client, would have been no more than polite. "I imagine things are really heating up here. Is there anything pressing we need to address?"
"Yes." Mel's face relaxed. Getting straight to business obviously suited her fine. "There's an interview scheduled with a local radio station in half an hour. It was supposed to be tomorrow, but they brought it forward. I hate that sort of thing, and Marc was going to do it."