Free Take Me Higher by Roberta Latow

sensually interesting to Syrah in those brief moments when they had seen each other. But she had been too busy with her Malibu life to do anything about it. In the midst of her sadness and the family strife she was distracted by the thought that leaving James Whitehawk behind when she left the Valley might just have been a mistake.
    She joined a group of men whom she did not know and offered her hands to James. He took them in his and held them while telling her, ‘Syrah, this is a sad day for us all. My deepest sympathy, I know what Ethan meant to you.’
    He made lengthy introductions, explaining to Syrah as he went along who the men were and what vineyards they owned.
    James and Syrah were cautious with one another, both sensing they wanted to know more about each other, where they were in their lives.
She
knew only the most rudimentary facts about him: that he was married, the father of two girls whom he adored, his vineyard small but prestigious.
He
knew that she was a single mother of a boy whose father was Hawaiian, and that she lived a jet-set lifestyle and flew her own plane. No more, in short, than anyone in the wine trade already knew.
    In spite of working at playing down their attraction for one another, for a brief moment sexual sparks flew between them and something happened. Embarrassed by their feelings they broke the momentary spell when James reached out to a man passing by and took his arm, wanting Syrah to meet him. He continued introducing her to people there whom she had never met: small, struggling, not so successful growers, the less famous wine people of the Valley who nevertheless saw Ethan’s death as a great personal loss.
    They had grown to quite a good-sized group before Syrah realised that they were her father’s kind of people: passionate about their industry and the betterment of it. Then a man she had seen before joined them.
    James introduced Syrah to Sam Holbrook, owner of a cooperage famous as one of the best on either side of the Atlantic. His name was familiar to Syrah as a long-time business acquaintance and friend to Richebourg-Conti, and in particular Ethan. Her mind flashed back to her father who had often spoken to her of Sam. She imagined them together, vital and exciting men who enjoyed themselves in work and at play. And she thought, Oh, Ethan, such a blow to lose you for so many people.
    It had been at the church, when Syrah had approached Caleb and Paula about the cars going to the cemetery, that she’d first seen Sam. The three of them were talking about the service. Neither her brother nor her sister-in-law bothered to introduce them. In spite of that, for asecond their eyes had met and one of those inexplicable instant attractions happened that can flare between strangers. That look declared they knew they would meet again and be friends. And, thought Syrah, here we are.
    It had been obvious to Sam that the lack of an introduction had been deliberate, Paula and Caleb’s freezing indifference towards Syrah had been blatant. It had long ago registered with him that Paula Richebourg was an over-ambitious, self-promoting bitch. Now, with Ethan gone, she was wasting no time in wielding her power, cutting Ethan’s favourite down to size. It was remembering this incident that decided him to befriend Syrah. He sensed she would need every real friend she could get now her father was gone.
    James and several other men shook hands with Sam, and James introduced him to Syrah.
    ‘We should have met before,’ he told her.
    ‘Well, we have now.’
    ‘Yes, and you must consider me your friend, for Ethan’s sake. Remember you can always, at any time, call on me.’ And he gallantly raised her hand to place a kiss upon it.
    Syrah realised that Sam had picked up on the hostility that her brother and sister-in-law felt for her. She was relieved that someone had seen it, that it was not something she had over-reacted to when they’d expressed it so clearly at the cemetery.
    The men