Weddings and Wasabi Read Online Free PDF Page B

squeezed her fingers slightly—she wasn’t sure what that meant. Her brain was firing Run away! Run away! synapses like exploding fireworks, but she followed him to the bike.

    He slid a helmet over her head, its weight making her neck feel fragile and breakable, especially on a doorless machine going at 30 miles an hour …

    No, she couldn’t think about that. She’d be with Edward, who seemed like a safe … well, she didn’t know if he was a safe driver. He seemed like a safe … no, she wasn’t quite sure he was a safe person, either, which she had to admit added to his appeal.

    Um … God, keep us safe!

    She climbed on board.

CHAPTER FIVE

    She took his breath away. In more ways than one.

    Or maybe it was because Edward had sucked in his gut the entire short ride to Armstrong Winery, because she’d been clenching him around his middle so tightly. She hadn’t seemed the flirty type. Actually, he would have interpreted her touch as a death grip if she hadn’t said she’d always wanted to ride a Harley.

    She’d socked him in the stomach with her first glance at him, when he’d been passing her truck and she’d caught his eye. Something about her made him think of the moon over the vineyards on a clear night in summer. She gave him that same sense of peace and rightness and belonging.

    He’d never felt this way about a woman before. It exhilarated him. It scared the rips off his jeans.

    They pulled into the long driveway to the tasting rooms of Armstrong, but he led David to the back of the property to one of the main office buildings instead. The noise of the Harley brought Barry out of his office into the parking lot. “Oh my garlic,” he exclaimed. “Look at you.”

    Here was a good excuse to show off his birthday present to Barry. Edward parked the bike and made to get off, but Jennifer’s arms were still in a vise lock around his midsection. He paused. “Uh …”

    Jennifer started. “Oh. Sorry.” She slipped away from him, and the day got cooler.

    “When did you get this bike?” Barry demanded with a wide, envious smile.

    “Today. Late birthday present from Uncle Ron.”

    “Lucky dog.” Barry bent to take a closer look at the engine.

    “Happy belated birthday,” Jennifer said softly. She had a deep, sultry voice that made him think of old black and white movies.

    “Thanks.” His coolness factor had skyrocketed just because of the bike and leather. Except how would she react if she knew he was normally not a mysterious biker dude, but just a rather nerdy farmer?

    David had parked the truck and Trish climbed out. “Barry, this is Trish Sakai and her cousin Jennifer Lim.”

    “Call me Jenn,” she said, taking his hand.

    Jenn. That sounded more like her than Jennifer.

    “We have an appointment with your tasting room manager,” Trish said.

    “They had an appointment with your tasting room manager,” Edward said. “I told them you’d treat them better, Barry.”

    Barry’s eyes narrowed as he surveyed first the women, then Edward. “Why aren’t they at your winery?”

    He snatched at the opportunity. “Oh, so you don’t want them here? No prob—”

    “I didn’t say that, chump,” Barry replied with a playful chop to his arm.

    “Actually, Edward and David are helping us out after our car broke down a few miles down the road,” Jenn said.

    He chose to think of it as an act of God that their car got a flat only seconds after he’d passed them on the road. He’d been reluctant to continue on his way after that first startling look he exchanged with Jenn, but he didn’t really relish being flattened by an oncoming car.

    And now he had the next hour with them at Armstrong, and hopefully another hour at Castillo. He’d never before felt this kind of urgency to get to know a girl—then again, he’d never before been flattened by a first look from a woman, either.

    They all trooped to the tasting room, where Barry served them himself. He also opened a