She had never flown on a private jet. When her parents were still living, the year she turned fourteen, they took her on one memorable family vacation…a ten-day tour of the Greek Isles. The airline tickets were first class, of course, but the flights, though very enjoyable, were nothing like the Wolff family jet.
The pilot greeted her pleasantly, and a single attendant seated her and offered beverages. Winnie felt like an interloper, especially when Larkin sat up front with the pilot and copilot. Eventually, she fell asleep.
When she awoke from her nap, they were circling to land at Charlottesville. Winnie had read that the Wolff property was tucked away on a mountaintop in the wilds of central Virginia. But she had no idea how long the trip from the airport would take. A second uniformed driver met the plane, transferred their luggage and offered box lunches he had picked up on the way.
Winnie was impressed. Larkin seemed to have every detail under control. After she finished her fancy sandwich, she dabbed her lips and glanced sideways at her companion. She had questions, a lot of them, but again, the presence of the driver kept her silent.
After an hour and forty-five minutes, when it was clear that their destination couldn’t be too much farther, she finally broke her silence. “What will be expected of us tonight?”
Larkin drummed his fingers on the armrest. “Nothing more than a family dinner. Tomorrow I’ll take you exploring. And we might be roped into decorating if it’s not supposed to rain overnight. The party is Saturday at two.”
“Outside?”
“Apparently so. My sister always was a risk-taker. The forecast calls for blue skies and upper seventies.”
“She must be delighted.”
“I’m sure it never occurred to Annalise that the outcome could be otherwise. She tends to charge full steam ahead.”
“You love her.”
His lips twisted in a faint smile. “I love all my family, but yes…Annalise is special. How she survived growing up in a house full of men, I’ll never understand.”
“And her husband?”
“Sam? He’s been a family friend since we were kids. His father was the architect who designed Wolff Castle.”
“Do you really call it that?”
He laughed. “We never intended to, but the locals began referring to it that way, and the name stuck.”
Winnie kept the conversation going more for a distraction than anything else. As they reached the base of the mountain and waited for the massive gate to swing open, her nerves tightened. “So how did Sam and Annalise get together?”
“If you want to know what I think, I believe they’ve both had a thing for each other a long, long time. But they’re both stubborn, Annalise even more than Sam. So it took getting snowed in during a blizzard for them to admit they had fallen in love.”
“That is so romantic.”
Larkin snorted. “Oh, it is. When they’re not trying to kill each other.”
“I thought you said they were in love.”
“I did. But when you love a Wolff, life’s not always easy.”
Winnie looked out her window at the dense foliage, oddly disturbed by the tone in Larkin’s voice. She wasn’t in danger of falling in love with him, was she? Certainly not when he had made his feelings so plain.