You Had Me at Merlot: Part 2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

this holiday,
     why she was here.
    Jamie took our hands and helped us out. Once my feet were back on the solid, if rough, terrain I flicked chunks of grape from
     my dress. ‘How do I look?’
    ‘Like my favourite wine,’ he said.
    ‘Like your favourite wine, or your favourite wino?’
    ‘Wino?’
    ‘Drunkard.’
    ‘Ah, both: my favourite everything.’ He removed a crushed grape from my hair, sending a cold shiver down over the sweat on
     my skin. ‘George,’ he called. ‘Have you ever seen such a beautiful creature?’
    ‘Hey Bella, how are ya?’ said Sebastian, squinting into the evening sunshine as I walked back to my room to clean off.
    ‘Good, thanks, though I look like an extra from
Carrie
.’ I motioned to the blood-like splatters of juice that covered my feet, legs, hands and forearms.
    ‘Fun, though, isn’t it?’
    ‘It was so much fun. It’s satisfying just to squash the hell out of something – not to sound like a psychopath – and watch
     it splatter all over the place, knowing you don’t need to clean it up.’
    ‘Did Jamie work you hard in there?’
    ‘No harder than anyone else,’ I countered.
    Sebastian hauled a large wooden bucket onto his shoulder and we walked up towards the house. ‘So he hasn’t asked you to be
     my daughter-in-law yet? What’s wrong with him?’
    ‘I think you should give up.’
    ‘Never.’
    ‘He clearly isn’t interested.’
    ‘Now why would you say that?’
    ‘Because never has a guy devoted this much attention to setting me up with another man.’
    ‘But you’re interested, right? I can see you like him. You look at him the way most women look at me.’
    I laughed. ‘But it’s kind of beside the point if the guy would rather marry me off to some old American dude rather than be
     alone with me.’
    ‘He’s just testing you, Bella. He wouldn’t admit it, but he’s a little broken, and he’s seen many women – and men – come and
     go on these holidays. They get seduced by the wine, and the food, and the sun, and more wine, and their attention can swing
     back and forth like a bloody great pendulum.’
    ‘Are you saying he’s trying to push me away to see if I’ll stay?’
    ‘Well, I wouldn’t have put it in such a self-help book way, but yeah, that’s the gist of it.’
    I watched Jamie as he skirted around the edge of the lounge that evening, pausing to examine nicks in woodwork or to brush
     dust off wine bottles.
    ‘I’m gagging for a coffee, do you want one?’ Donna asked. She hadn’t left my side since dinner.
    ‘Sounds perfect.’ Off she went and I continued to watch Jamie with interest. Eventually he reached me.
    ‘
Ciao
again.’
    ‘
Ciao
.’
    ‘You told my dad on me.’
    I laughed. ‘I what?’
    ‘Yeah. He just told me off, said I had to stop being mean to you.’
    ‘Did he now?’
    ‘I said I wasn’t being mean, I just really believed in you and George. But he was all,
you’ll regret it if you don’t treat her well
, blah blah blah. So I have a question for you.’
    Little teenage butterflies awoke inside me. ‘Yes?’
    ‘Would you like to escape for the day tomorrow? Go to Florence with me?’
    ‘Just me and you?’
    He kicked at the ground. ‘If you want.’
    ‘To Florence? We can do that in a day? Or did you mean … um … an overnight stay?’
    ‘No, it’s, like, an hour away; we don’t have to spend the night together. There. Spend the night together there.’
    ‘Good. I mean, cool. I mean, that sounds brilliant. How will we get there?’ As if details like that really matter when Jamie
     has just asked me on a full-day date and I have to be entertaining and fabulous for hours on end. Holy crap, I just agreed
     to a date. Maybe I should just have said no.
    ‘We could go on my Vespa. If you’d be happy with that?’
    ‘Yeah, that sounds … really not like a hardship. Thank you, I’ve always wanted to go to Florence. I can’t believe I’m going
     tomorrow!’
    ‘I like seeing you smile