Free It Must Be Your Love: The Sullivans by Bella Andre Page A

Colbie and Brooke. “And to both of you for being the very best friends a girl could ever have.”

Chapter Eight
     
     
    Saturday flew by with back-to-back estate showings for a big-money CEO who was planning to move from New York to Seattle. It wasn’t until Mia boarded the plane to head to Napa Valley late that afternoon that she finally had a chance to take a full breath.
    She’d always had plenty of energy—her poor mother had had to chase Mia all over Seattle when she was a little girl just to try to wear her out by bedtime—but today she’d had to work twice as hard to keep a smile on her face. Because despite the girls totally coming to her aid the night before at the wine bar, Mia still hadn’t been able to get Ford all the way out of her head as she’d tossed and turned for most of the night. Even worse, one of the properties she’d taken the CEO to was the tower house that Ford had liked so much. When the CEO said that he thought the tower was a “terrible addition” to the otherwise “decent” house, Mia had been dismayed by the relief that flooded through her, almost as if Ford should be the only person to have the house. Where, she’d wondered again and again since the previous morning, was her legendary self-control?
    Usually, she was more than happy to accept a glass of champagne from the First Class flight attendant and strike up a chat with whatever sexy, single businessman was sitting beside her on the plane. Today, however, she not only turned down the bubbly, but also paid more attention to the spreadsheet she was going over on her computer than the hot guy who’d slid into the seat next to her. The problem was that if she let herself relax for even a second with a glass of wine, she was afraid memories of the super-hot, toe-melting kiss Ford had given her would rise up...and leave her aching for him at thirty thousand feet.
    Unfortunately, just the thought of trying not to think about Ford’s kiss was enough to distract her from her computer screen. When the guy sitting next to her thought she was trying to make eye contact with him, he immediately asked, “So, is your trip to Napa for business or pleasure?”
    She couldn’t even muster up so much as a flirty smile as she simply said, “My cousin is getting married,” then pointedly shifted her attention back to her computer.
    What the hell was happening to her? First, she’d booted James out of the wine bar last night, and now she seemed to have lost not only the ability to flirt, but the will to do it as well. Ford had already stolen her heart all those years ago. She wasn’t going to give up the joy of flirting and her enjoyment in meeting new people, too.
    Mia slammed her laptop closed and shifted so far in her seat that she was practically sitting on the guy’s lap. “What I meant to say is that I’m Mia and this is a pleasure trip.” She waved over the flight attendant for one of those glasses of champagne. “What about you? Business...” She purposely lowered her voice before saying, “Or pleasure?”
    Instantly forgiven for the way she’d blown him off a minute ago, she learned his name was Scott, that he was a thirty-four-year-old sales rep for an Italian shoe company, and that he’d noticed her in the airport’s waiting area before the flight and couldn’t believe his luck at being seated beside her. The conversation was engaging, everything he said to her was flattering, and any way she looked at it, he was pretty much the perfect guy.
    But as they got off the plane and she walked toward the limo waiting for her outside the small Napa Valley airport, she couldn’t bring herself to care one single bit about whether she ever saw Scott again.
     
    * * *
     
    The limo took Mia straight to her cousin’s house in Napa. Marcus Sullivan owned Sullivan Winery, a very successful vineyard and wine business in the heart of the wine country. He and Nicola lived there together when his bride-to-be wasn’t on the road