This morning, I walked the grounds and felt the shock course through my body at how close the fire had actually come to both of our properties. We had gotten lucky that there was no wind last night, or it would have been a completely different story, even with James battling the blaze. The only thing we had to be concerned about now was if the smoke had done any damage or not, but we wouldn’t know the answer to that for months. Thankfully, the south side vines had already been harvested for the year, and they yielded the most resilient grapes; a little smoke might not have even affected them.

“It got close, huh?” The sound of James’s voice made me jump and my heart skitter.

Stupid heart.

I turned toward him, using my hand to shield the sun from my eyes. “So close,” I said in agreement. “Thank you again.” I waved my hand in the direction of my cliff-side vines.

He smiled, and I wished I could see his eyes through his sunglasses. “You can thank me tonight.”

“Tonight?” I asked, my voice cracking slightly.

“Dinner,” he said.

I knew he wasn’t going to give me any chance to change my mind. And to be honest, I liked that he was being so bossy, and I wondered briefly what that said about me.

“Right. Dinner. Okay,” I agreed.

“I really don’t want to go out of town. Do you?”

I knew what he was truly getting at. Was I okay with being seen by people who would do nothing but gossip about the two of us being together?

The idea of having to drive over an hour away in order to be surrounded by strangers seemed so ridiculous, especially when most people knew who we were anyway, simply from a business standpoint.

“I like supporting our local businesses.”

He cocked a grin before saying, “Me, too. I’ll pick you up at six thirty, okay?”

I couldn’t speak, so I nodded, and as he walked away from me, I did nothing but watch him go.

Why did my archnemesis have to be so damn good-looking? And why was I so attracted to the one man I wasn’t allowed to be with? Life wasn’t fair.