Most wineries had a sticker printed up that they either slapped onto the bottle or had them incorporated into the original label for their award-winning wine. But not La Bella. I had the emblem forged into a metal stamp that I would dip into hot wax and hand-stamp onto each bottle. Each of our award winners had a different emblem and color near the neck. This year’s would be dark blue. To be honest, I was running out of color options.

“You did it.” Jeanine pulled me toward her and squeezed me. “Never a doubt in my mind.”

“That makes one of us,” I said, the grin still firmly plastered across my face as I removed my painful heels and stepped into a pair of well-worn UGG boots. They didn’t go with my outfit in the slightest, but my screaming feet thanked me the moment the fur surrounded them. My personal comfort was far more important at this point in the day than looking the part.

“Congratulations”—James appeared in front of my booth as I set about dismantling it—“again.”

My smile faltered. “Thanks,” I said without looking up. The last thing I wanted to do was give James a reason to hang around longer.

“Don’t you get tired of winning?”

Standing straight up, I leveled him with my gaze. “Don’t you get tired of losing?”

“Not particularly,” he answered with a shrug, and I wondered what his angle was.

“Ugh, Russo, what do you want?” I feigned annoyance at Mr. Honorable Mention.

“I want to take you out to dinner to celebrate,” he said, sounding so sincere that I almost believed that he had no ulterior motive.

“Yeah, right. You probably want to steal my grapes.”

“How the hell would I steal your grapes?” He looked at me like I was half-crazy.

I waved a hand in the air. “I don’t know. Distract me with dinner while your minions pull my vines out of the ground? I have no idea.”

“The only thing I ever wanted to steal from you was your virginity,” he whispered as he leaned toward me.

I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. “Ha-ha. Very funny. You already told everyone that you did that back in high school. Thanks for that, by the way. Such a gentleman.”

A surprised sound escaped his lips. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” I propped my hip out and rested my hand there.

“Come with me to dinner, and I’ll tell you.”

He flashed a grin that was so damn charming that I was sure it worked on every female he’d ever given it to. It was definitely starting to work on me. I glanced over at Jeanine for help, but she pretended not to be listening.

“Jeanine can come, too,” he added.

Oh, James Russo was good.