Rebound Revival (Book 3 in the Rebound Series

Chapter Four

Tonight's my last night in the hotel. I'm meeting my new landlord after work to get the keys to the house I'm renting on the outskirts of Walla Walla. My signing bonus covered the deposit with some left over for furniture. It's a cute little three bedroom with a small yard. I went furniture shopping right after signing the lease. They'll deliver everything tomorrow, so I'll be all set. I can't wait to have my own kitchen and not have to eat out every meal.

I never did call Max again. I put his number in my purse, not quite able to make myself throw it out. While it's nice to know that a man can give me an orgasm, I'm not sure that someone with the amount of experience that Max obviously has is a good choice for me right now.

Or that anyone is a good choice right now so fresh out of a relationship—and a bad one—with Pierce. The point of this move was to get away from my old life, a chance to establish myself on my own, and figure out what it is that I want out of life. Sure, some no-strings sex to go along with that sounds like fun, but I know myself well enough to know that sleeping with the same guy too many times is bound to produce strings. I can't divorce sex and emotions. I already feel a stronger sense of connection with Max than I should given that we only knew each other for about an hour before he was in my pants.

I may have gone to the tasting room again on Friday evening, telling myself I needed to check out the place at a busier time as well, on the off-chance I would encounter him again. I even stopped by the ice cream shop on the way home just to relive the night before. I know, it's kind of pathetic since I could've probably made some new memories if I would've just called him, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. If I happened to bump into him and we got together again, then that would be fate. And if he was chatting up someone else and didn't acknowledge me, that would definitely put an end to these feelings. No, reaching out to him is a bad idea.

The vineyard for Scabland Wines is as breathtaking this time as it was when I came for my interview, a bright spot of green in the otherwise barren landscape on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River. There's a historic house where the vineyard hosts events, with the main offices on the first floor. Roger, my new boss, told me that the old owner used to live there, but the new one prefers a small house he built closer to the vines and farther away from the main activity center. The owner, Mr. Romero, is from a family of successful winemakers from Chile who wanted to go off on his own rather than take over the family vineyard near Viña del Mar. I haven't met Mr. Romero yet, but I'm sure I will soon.

Roger spends the morning acquainting me with the systems and operations of the business of the vineyard. He has me take over the event planning part of the job right away, happy to have that off his plate. Mr. Romero wants to increase that part of the business, and Roger doesn't have a knack for events planning or coordination.

"It's all a little frou-frou for me." He hands me a stack of file folders with a wink. "It needs a woman's touch. I'm happy with functional stuff and couldn't care less about decorations, and you know that's not what anyone wants when they're planning a wedding or fancy reception."

I give him a reassuring smile. "I can handle it." I say it with more confidence than I feel. I helped plan a few things for my sorority, and that is the extent of my events planning experience. But I'm a quick learner, so I think I'll be fine. The purpose of my position here is to take the load off of Roger, so I want him to feel confident that I can. As business expands, both with wine distribution as well as with the events planning side of things, I'll get to choose either to continue working under Roger as his assistant business manager, or do event planning full time. Mr. Romero's rather ambitious goal is for that to happen within the next two to five years. At this point I'm leaning toward the assistant business manager position. I'm happy to take over the events planning, but it's not my dream job.