I’ll take that as a compliment, she thought. “What is it you are trying to do, Flynn?”

“I need to come up with a menu that matches our wines.” He tapped each of the bottles in front of him.

“Why?”

“OK, so, to take part in the Divine Wine and Dine weekend people have to buy a passport. That entitles them to visit a number of wineries including Levallier Dell. They may call in just to taste the wines but I’ve also put us down for lunches on Saturday and Sunday.”

“How many people would you expect?”

“I don’t know. Could be hundreds.”

“Really?” Keely grimaced. No wonder Euan wasn’t happy about it.

“We’ll have a bit of an idea closer to the weekend. People tend to book once they’ve decided on their route for the day, some will just come for the tastings but we could get others making last-minute decisions to eat.”

Keely could understand he was under pressure. Who could possibly manage such a thing?

“Kat says they’re running their full restaurant menu at River Dynasty. That will give us some opposition.”

“Where were you planning to feed these people?” Keely thought perhaps they must have had some kind of kitchen facility at the sheds.

“Out the side in the old cellar-door area. When the house was built my mother insisted on including a bar and undercover area that could be used as a place for tastings and sales. We haven’t used it much.”

He paused, the muscle in his jaw twitched. She’d noticed Euan did the same when he was tense.

“Anyway, it needs a good clean-up but it should be fine.”

“What did you think you would feed them?”

Flynn turned and she looked down quickly. His look was intense – when he studied her it was as if he could see right inside her. A chair scraped and she peeked up. Flynn was sitting at the table again, his head in his hands.

“We need something with fish or chicken for the chardonnay, maybe a red meat for the cab sauv and finish with something sweet for the semillon.”

There was silence for a moment, as they both digested what he was saying.

Finally Keely spoke. “Let me see if I understand this. You want to supply a possible hundred or more people with a lunch, under that pergola area, without any kitchen facilities but a sink.”

Flynn’s face was full of anguish. He pushed back his chair. “I’ll ring Mary and tell her we can’t do lunch. I don’t know why I ever thought it could be done.” He strode towards the phone. Keely felt an urge to help. He certainly didn’t do things by halves but his passion was infectious.

“Wait, Flynn. Can you give me the morning to get my head around this, before you cancel?”