Autumn in the Vineyard (A St. Helena Vineyard Novel) Read Online Free PDF

vineyard. His interest lie in wine caves not vines, so he agreed to act as the front man with Saul, securing the land for Nate and his family, if Tanner Construction would be named the exclusive builder for all future DeLuca projects.
    It was a win-win.
    Except for the fact that Nate couldn’t do his usual background check on the land prior to escrow closing without risking their anonymity. And if Saul Sorrento discovered he was really selling to a DeLuca, he would have pulled his offer indefinitely.
    “What am I looking at?” Trey picked up the map.
    “It’s different from the one filed with the bank.”
    “Different, how?” Marc asked, leaning forward, phone forgotten, focused.
    “Different as in we are screwed.” Nate smoothed the assessor’s map across the booth top and pointed to a strange line on the map that cut diagonally through the property. “This wasn’t on the map Saul filed with the bank. That one didn’t have this easement dividing the property.”
    “Dividing?” Trey said. “It hacks it in half. Are you telling me we paid seven and a half million dollars for twenty acres of cow pasture that the city is planning to cut a road down the middle of?”
    If only they were so lucky. His brothers had been hesitant to pay Saul’s insane asking price to begin with. Thinking he was selling to a developer, Saul jacked up the price. And it wasn’t as though Nate could call the greedy twerp on it. This was the only chance Nate and his family would have to own this land and finish what Grandpa Geno had started. So he’dconvinced his brothers of the long term potential and made the offer. Only he hadn’t done his homework and now they were screwed.
    “Actually, we paid seven point five million for ten acres,” Nate said, sitting back in the chair. “That isn’t a road, it’s a property line. From what I can find out, about fifteen years ago Saul had the land split into two separate parcels. We bought the south parcel.”
    “Holy shit,” Marc said, slumping back in his chair. Nate knew what he was seeing. Every plan they’d made was going up in a fucking cloud of smoke. “We need all twenty acres to make this work.”
    As though Nate didn’t fully understand. This was the proposed site of their premiere winery, Opus. A vineyard that yielded small quantities of high-end wine.
    Nate’s dad had spent every spare moment crossbreeding vines and experimenting with what he’d called his grand opus. As a teen, Nate had been right there with him, tinkering, as his dad called it, trying to find the perfect blend for an extraordinary wine. Nate never forgot those times with his dad, or their dream.
    “Ninety percent of the vines are on the north parcel,” Marc continued. “Without those, we won’t have producing vines for at least three or four years.”
    “I finalized those grapes yesterday,” Trey added, his face a little pale. “Susan Jance was so impressed with your pitch that she is positive her client will want every barrel.”
    Marc whistled. “Every barrel? That’s a lot of wine for one collector.”
    “Not when the collector is Pierce Remington,” Trey said.
    “Of Remington Hotels?”
    “The very same,” Trey said and everyone fell silent.
    “Shit,” Nate sighed. Today was just getting better and better.
    Susan Jance was a wine broker to the rich and entitled. Her clientele included some of the wealthiest wine collectors in the world, with Remington being at the top of her list. He was the new face to an old money hotel empire and as such liked to scout out the up-and-comers before their wines went to auction.
    “Remington isn’t just looking to grow his own collection. Susan says he’s looking for a wine that is fine enough to grace his personal cellar while also wooing his high rollers in his hotels. Kind of a ‘sample my life by sampling my collection’ kind of treatment for his VIPers. Ten acres won’t cut it and we can’t lose this deal.”
    “I know,” Nate said,