In the Vineyard Ch. 07

Ana descended the stairs and went into the bathroom, taking another quick shower. Miles suggested that they shower apart – he said he was afraid that they'd never leave if they took another shower together. Ana carried her clothes down, the green gauze dress and dark green lace bra and underpants. After she was done in the shower, she found a hairdryer on the towel rack. Miles came in as she was drying her hair. He liked the way the outline of the lace bra showed under the lighter colored dress. He also noticed the button front on the dress, and looked forward to taking it off, button by button, later that night.

"I'm sorry to rinse off the smell of Ana," he said as he went into the shower. "But I broke a sweat. I'd feel self conscious if I didn't clean up." He started the shower and opened the door. Ana finished drying her hair. She left it full and wavy.

"I'm going to get my makeup." She said.

"You don't need any," said Miles. "You're beautiful no matter what!"

"Flattery," she said smiling. "But, it's working." She went out of the bathroom and found her cosmetic case. She applied a light amount of blush, a small touch of eye shadow in the outer corners of her eyes, and a slight amount of mascara. She found a sheer lipstick and applied it. Miles was out of the shower and running the blow dryer. Ana put her shoes on. Miles came out of the bathroom, dry and naked.

"I hope you don't mind this. It's a habit. I like to hang around like this, at least when its warm out."

"No, not at all. In fact, I like to do the same, when I'm alone."

"Much more fun when you're not alone!"

Ana laughed.

"If you're all ready, you can go on out. I mean, if you're afraid that it's obvious, or whatever."

"More like you don't want Miss reporter to see you with another woman," she said, with some humor in her voice.

"I doubt it. In fact, anything that makes her more likely to leave, is, well, better than anything that makes her more likely to stay!" He looked serious. "Ana, really, that is just business. I don't want you to think for a minute that I care for any woman in the world but you. Cassy Combs could come in here stark naked, and I couldn't stop looking at you."

Ana raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Well, Ok. I 'd at least look at her. But not for long. Don't tell anyone this, but she's really not my type."

"What is your type?"

"Um. Hard to describe." He looked up and down Ana. "Or maybe not. About 5'6", reddish hair, long lean body with nice breasts". He leaned forward and touched them. "Intelligent, articulate, and capable of hard work." He leaned back and looked her over, top to bottom. "I'd say you're it. One of a kind." He looked at her, questioning. "So, Ana. I've done it. Define your type. Let me help….successful, clean cut, corporate type…"

"Miles, that's not fair."

"So, enlighten me. I'd bet you never imagined yourself with me."

"But I didn't really know you."

"Know me? Or know what I used to be?" He had a serious, questioning look on his face. "Come on, Ana, tell me."

"The truth? Miles, I didn't care where you came from or what you were running from. "

He raised his eyebrows.

"Believe me, Uncle Chester keyed me into the fact that you had some sort of 'mysterious' past. He also warned me the weekend before I laid eyes on you that you were a lady killer of sorts. And, while I might have been curious, I certainly didn't have any interest based on that. Besides, there was still Greg." She remembered that she hadn't yet told Miles that she had broken up with Greg. "But, Miles what I found attractive wasn't what I expected. I mean, it wasn't that you were dangerous, or mysterious, it was that you had so much love and passion for what you did. " She looked at him. "It didn't hurt that you seemed to find me attractive, too."

"I did. And still do." He kissed her on the check. "Again, no more serious talk. Including amateur analysis. I'm going to get dressed. Why don't you go out and wander around? The music starts at five – it's a couple of minutes to. And, please let Jimmy know I'm on my way. You should see him around the grill somewhere."

Ana nodded. "I'll see you soon." Miles smiled. "You bet. You're not getting away from me for at least the next 24 hours. Maybe longer!"

Ana walked out of Miles' front door. She didn't see anyone near, but could see that the parking lot was filling up with cars. And she heard the sounds of guitars tuning up over a loud speaker system. She could hear an amplified voice saying, 'testing, testing.' She headed toward the main winery building, intending to cut over to the stage. As she approached, she thought she saw a familiar looking person. It couldn't be, she thought to herself. As Ana approached, a blond curly haired figure in a floral print dress happened to turn and look her way.

"Surprise!" said Mary Pringle. She was flanked by figures Ana soon recognized – Veronica and Chris, with Alicia holding her mother's hand.

Ana couldn't suppress a grin. "You guys had to come and check up on me, didn't you?"

Mary laughed. "Vern and I made our reservations the other night. We decided no matter what, we needed to check this place, especially this Miles person out. Where is he, by the way?"

Before she thought about it, Ana replied "He's getting dressed." Vern and Mary looked at each other making some encouraging sounds. Chris looked as if he wished he wasn't there. Noting this, Veronica said," Why don't you take Alicia over there where the music is. Then we can have a few minutes of girl talk." Chris looked thankful and took Alicia's hand. "Come with Daddy, sweetheart"

As soon as they were out of earshot, Veronica started. "So, what happened? Did he show up? Did he spend the night? What about today? What happened today? What do you mean 'he's getting dressed?'"

Ana smiled. She was glad to see her friends. In some way, their' presence made the whole situation seem more real. And, she would value their impressions of Miles. She was afraid that she was being swept away by the physical and the emotional parts of her being, without using her logic or intellect.

"Lets just say that after some initial obstacles, we got along well. And still are."

Mary looked at Ana closely. "I'd say you got along within the past hour, judging from the glow." Ana couldn't hide a little grin. "So, when do we get to meet Mr. Wonderful in person?"

Before Ana could respond, another person joined their group.

"Hey, I know you. I took your picture a couple of times today." It was Manny, minus his rolling bag, but with two cameras strapped around his neck. "We haven't officially met. I'm Manny. And you are…" Manny extended his hand toward Ana's, but his eyes lit on Mary Pringle and stuck.

"Ana . " Noting Manny's focus, she gestured toward her friends. "Veronica. And Mary."

Manny grinned. "Hi, Mary. And Veronica. I work for the Messenger. Photographer, features section. I'm here with Cassy Combs. We're profiling the winery for this Wednesday's food section." Manny, for a change sounded serious. Ana noticed that he had changed his clothes. He had traded the tee shirt and nylon pants for a light weight sweater, and cuffed dress pants, also black. The combat boots had been exchanged for a pair of square toed black lace up shoes.

Ana looked around for Cassy but didn't see her. She tried to sound nonchalont. "So, you're staying around for awhile?"

"Yeah. Me and the, …I mean me and Cassy took rooms down the road at some bed and breakfast place." Manny sounded like himself again. Realizing this, he went back into the serious voice. " Cassy and I always travel prepared to spend the night when we leave town. Just in case the story warrants it." He couldn't help himself and became Manny again. "And, the…, I mean Cassy wants to party tonight!" He laughed and looked back at Mary. Mary noticed that this somewhat strange looking young man seemed to be interested in her. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but she dreaded the prospect of being a fifth wheel with Vern and Chris, Ana and Miles. What the hey, she thought. No ring. He must be single. And, hopefully college educated, if he's a photographer for the paper.
"What kind of cameras do you have there?" Mary asked Manny.

"Do you like photography? " he asked her back. "I've got a shit load of stuff with me." He looked up. "Sorry. You know, in the newspaper business, you tend to pick up some bad language."

"I bet," said Mary. "You can't fool me. I'm a teacher. I've heard it all."
Seeing his surprised expression, she added. "And used it all. What do you think teachers' say to each other, when they're in the teachers' lounge? All we do is smoke and cuss." Manny looked relieved. "Come on. I'll give you a demo. Then I'll take your picture." Mary started off with Manny, walking toward the parking lot. "Don't worry about me, girls. I'll be back before its time to eat!"

Manny and Mary passed Cassy, who had just arrived. She, too had cleaned up and changed. She was wearing a tightly fitted red dress and carrying a red fringed shawl. She had the same turquoise and red shoes and hand bag. "Have you seen Brandon?" Cassy asked Manny. She glanced at Mary Pringle but didn't say anything to her. Manny shook his head. "What about Miles?"

"Nope," said Manny. But his friend's over there." He pointed back toward Ana. Cassy walked past without another word.

"Tell me, Manny," said Mary, "what is it you really call her? The..?"

Manny started laughing. "You can guess," he said.

Cassy Combs tried to decide if she wanted to approach Ana. She had a feeling that Ana would know where to find Miles, but she didn't particularly want to defer to Ana. She enjoyed her ability to control things, at least temporarily. She was spared any further deliberation by the approach of Miles. He had cleaned up, too, she noticed, his hair still damp, he was wearing loose khaki slacks and an off white button down shirt decorated with the Creek Valley Winery logo.

"Miles!" Cassy squealed, as if they were long lost lovers. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see with satisfaction that Ana was looking their way. Miles looked up at his name, and looked around. Seeing Ana in conversation with a woman he didn't recognize, he decided he could spare a few seconds.

"Hi, Cassy. You look great! Did you guys find a place to stay?"
"Oh, yes. Brandon is such a dear! He set us up in the cutest little bed and breakfast, very old fashioned and charming, but with all of the modern conveniences, you know, bathrooms for each room. And, thank you. I was glad to have the chance to clean up. We always leave town prepared to stay, just in case things become….you know… interesting….."

Miles felt Cassy focusing on him and tried to steer her away.

"Have you seen Brandon?" he asked.

"Not since I got back. But, I'm sure I'll run into him eventually."
"I can have him paged." Miles started to walk forward. He noticed both Ana and the other woman looking his way. Cassy grabbed him by the arm.

"No, don't bother. Its not worth the trouble. " She let go, moving in front of Miles at the same time. "We plan to cover this cook out thing, top to bottom. We're going to watch the first seating, take pictures, I'll interview some willing victims, then we'll eat with the second seating." Noting that Miles seemed to be looking beyond her, she took his arm again. "I hope you'll do me the honors of being my dinner companion. Then we can finish talking about your philosophy of winemaking." Miles started to speak, then, with relief, heard his name.

"Hey, guy. You gonna make me do all of the work?" It was Jimmy, wearing an apron and chef's hat, each made form fabric featuring a grape print.

"No, of course not," said Miles. "I was just on my way. Cassy, if you'll excuse me.."

Jimmy chimed in, "Brandon is looking for you," he said to Cassy. "He's in the winery now. Probably looking out the window."

Cassy excused herself.

"I owe you," said Miles.

"It never stops. Good thing I keep track. Hey, my man. Your lady friend is up there, looking luscious, with another beauty. Why don't you introduce me? By the way, no time to waste, I don't actually know where Brandon is."

"You're too evil! Anyway, I don't know Ana's friend, but nothing would give me more pleasure."
They walked over to where Ana and Veronica were standing. Miles tried to look serious but couldn't suppress a huge smile as he drew closer to Ana. His expression wasn't lost on Veronica. She looked back at Ana and noticed that she was blushing, and likewise had a slightly silly grin.

"Hi," said Miles to Ana. "I hope you're doing OK." He waited for her to nod before he acknowledged Veronica. "I'm Miles Delong. Winemaker and General Manager. Welcome to Creek Valley."

"Veronica. Ana and I go way back."

"In that case, I'm honored to meet you. I hope that Ana and I can go far forward."

Veronica's first thought was that his words sounded cliché, almost contrived, yet he looked absolutely serious and sincere. And, there was no mistaking the intensity in the way that Miles and Ana looked at each other.

"I'm Jimmy." His hand was outstretched toward Veronica. "Gofer, clean up, and all around number two." Veronica laughed lightly. Jimmy leaned toward her, and in a stage whisper said," Don't mind those two. They're in their own world right now." He leaned back. "Aahhh. The joy of young love." Veronica laughed again. "OK, not so young, but love all the same." Jimmy could tell that Ana's friend had a sense of humor. He also noticed the rings on her finger and wasn't concerned that she might take his jokes as flirtation. He was usually direct. Tonight was no exception." So, where's your better half? Don't tell me he let you loose around the likes of Miles, the lady killer here."

Miles and Ana had been drawing closer, speaking a few soft words back and forth. He was holding her hand and caressing her hair. At his name, he looked up. "Hey, watch that kind of talk!" Miles' attention immediately went back to Ana, she looking shyly down though sometimes glancing up at him, nodding and smiling, and speaking a few soft words.

Veronica couldn't remember ever seeing Ana act so girlish before. Ana the business woman was all business. And, Ana with Greg was different, but nothing like this. Ana treated Greg like a necessity, more like a brother than a lover. Ana was fascinated with Miles to the extent that she was barely aware of anyone else's presence. Jimmy decided he had to spoil the moment. Fun was fun, but business was business. And, it was getting later and later and there was cooking to be done.

"Hey, there, Miles, old buddy, old pal. Can I prevail upon you to assist me with the food preparation."

Miles heard Jimmy but chose to ignore him for about a second. In fact, Miles heard all of the conversation between Jimmy and Veronica, he couldn't shut off his ability to think of more than one thing at once, not during official working hours. He dissolved a brief vision of unbuttoning Ana's dress to respond, "Yes, boss. We've got to get to work!" He looked back at Ana. "You'll be OK?"

"Don't worry. Vern's husband and daughter are here, and Mary Pringle, another friend. But, it's the funniest thing, Mary went off with that Manny photographer guy. He's got to be years younger than her, but he started hitting on her as soon as he saw her."

"Manny's not as strange as he looks," commented Miles. "I wouldn't worry about your friend – I think Manny is just trying to stay out of Cassy's direct line of fire." Miles was smiling. "So are some of the rest of us!" He looked at Jimmy. "How's the fire?"

"Needs some help, mister grill master."

"We'll save you some prime seats," Miles said to Veronica. "Take care," he said, kissing Ana lightly on the cheek. They walked off toward the shelter houses.

"Lets go find Chris and Alicia," said Ana.

"Not so fast," Veronica replied. "Ana, I've never seen you like this. He is gorgeous, and what a body! And he seems nice enough. And, he obviously can't keep his eyes off you. Or barely keep his hands off! But, Ana, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you are finally falling in l-o-v-e."

Ana hoped that Veronica would keep chattering, but she didn't. She was waiting for a response. "Oh, Vern. I don't know. What if its just some physical thing?"

"Don't undervalue the physical part. In fact, if you want my opinion, that is exactly what you and Greg didn't have going for you. But, now that I think about it, what about mysterious Miles? What about his deep, dark secrets? Did you find out?"

Ana frowned as she thought about Miles and Em. "We talked about it. I mean, he told me about it. Its just some stuff that happened a long time ago, and he still feels bad about it." Ana didn't want to be too explicit. "There is one little difficulty, but its nothing that can't be taken care of. Just something he hasn't gotten around to." She heard her own words and wondered if she believed them. I don't want to think about that right now, she decided. Take one day at a time.

Veronica seemed to sense Ana's inner dialogue. "Well, if you're OK with it, then its Ok with me. The important thing is that you're happy!"

Ana didn't have to think. "Yes. I am happy when I'm with Miles. He makes me feel so, I don't know, so cared for. What's the word I want?" She thought for a minute. "He makes me feel cherished. And I've never quite felt like that. Not even with my family." Ana started to notice the music coming from the amphitheater.

"I need to see what my husband is up to. Likely feeding Alicia a lot of junk food. Come on, Ana. I suspect you'll have ample time with Miles as the evening progresses."

They found Chris and Alicia standing just outside the amphitheater. As Veronica predicted, Alicia was sticky from the remnants of an ice cream cone. Most of the pink ice cream seemed to be on her face. "Oh, honey," worried Veronica. "You're so messy. " She looked at Chris. "Great job, Dad."

"Sorry. I was getting into the music. I can take care of it."

"No worry. Mom always travels with extra wipes." Veronica opened her massive purse and extracted an entire container of pre moistened wipes. She clean Alicia's face and hands. "No harm done. So, the band is good?"

"Excellent. You know, this seems to be a really nice place. I don't know why we never made time to come here before. I'd really like to bring Mom and Dad. Dad used to make wine, you know."

"Yes, I remember. The black raspberry. "

Ana jumped in. "Now that your dad is retiring, maybe he'll want to come out and help when they pick grapes. Most of the people here are retirees, and amateur winemakers."

Chris nodded. "Yeah. I thought of that when Veronica told me about you coming out here. I think Dad would get a kick out of that, especially if he could hang around with some other old farts. And, I know that he's not ready to slow down, even though he claims he's retiring. Dad has been working all his life. He is going to need something other than golf to fill his time. I'll talk to him about this."

"Excuse me, but what's the time?" asked Veronica.

"Coming up on quarter to six." Chris responded. "Better head toward dinner. And where's the other one?"

Veronica and Ana realized that they hadn't seen anything of Mary Pringle. '"Hopefully she'll meet us there," said Ana. "I thought Manny said that he was going to take pictures at the first seating. "

They ambled toward the shelter houses. Between the two shelter houses sat a long iron grill. Flames shot upward from various points, and Miles and Jimmy were sitting in a couple of folding chairs next to several coolers.

"Chris, I want you to meet Miles and Jimmy, " said Ana. I don't know what Vern's said, but Miles is sort of.." she fumbled, not knowing how to refer to him. Not a boyfriend, maybe a date? But that didn't describe someone you spent the night with, did it. What was Miles to her. Chris saved her the trouble.