Free Casa Parisi by Janet Albert

vacation had served its purpose, providing her with a much needed mental and physical break. She had driven to Montreal to visit her father and had stayed there until Thursday morning. The rest of the week was spent at home stocking up with groceries, doing every piece of laundry, and catching up on her reading. Once Tuesday rolled around she was sufficiently bored and more than ready to start her new job.
    As soon as she walked through the door of the barn she spotted Luke standing by one of the display racks in the sales area. "Good morning, Mr. Parisi."
    Luke flourished an expansive smile. "And a good morning to you, Ms. Renard. I'd recognize that accent anywhere."
    "I guess it gives me away, doesn't it?"
    "Let's just say I'd know it was you without seeing you." Luke pulled bottles of wine from five or six open cases sitting on the floor near where he was standing. One by one, he slid them into the appropriate racks. "You look rested. How was your vacation?"
    "Very nice," she said. "But now I'm excited about getting started."
    "That makes two of us." Luke brushed his hands off on the sides of his jeans. "I'll finish this later. How about some coffee before we get started?"
    "I'd love some. I didn't have any at home," Juliet said as she followed him to the bar. "But don't make it just for me."
    "It's already made. We make it every morning." Luke set a couple of mugs on the bar along with napkins, sugar, milk and two teaspoons. "I don't know about you, but I can't start the day without coffee."
    "I can't either. I need at least one cup." Juliet fixed her coffee and took a sip. "This is really good. What is it?"
    "It's hazelnut cream." Luke drank from his mug. "Lucia brought it in one morning and now I'm addicted to the stuff." He stared at Juliet for a moment before letting her in on his thoughts. "Have I told you how good it is to have you with us?"
    They chatted while they drank their coffee and when they were done Luke cleared everything away. "I'll introduce you to the rest of the staff tomorrow. Susan and Dennis are graduate students from Cornell who are working with us as part of their work-study program and we have two full-time employees, Kim and Rob. That's all of us except for a few part-time vineyard workers and a crew of seasonal workers that help during the harvest. Oh, and there's the café staff, but they're not here today."
    "That's all right. I'll meet everyone eventually."
    "Yes you will, Ms. Renard. Now where would you like to begin?"
    "First of all, call me Juliet. There's no reason for us to be formal, is there?"
    "No there isn't. You'll soon find out we're not formal around here. But if I'm going to call you Juliet, I insist that you call me Luke."
    "I feel more comfortable already." This was one of those rare moments in life when you know something with absolute certainty and Juliet knew she was going to get along famously with Luke Parisi. Beyond that, she had an inexplicable feeling that one day she would be grateful for having met him and his sister. It was as if their coming together was predestined. For now, though, he had asked her where she would like to begin and she still owed him an answer. "Why don't you tell me about your wines? I'd like to know what you're currently selling."
    "You can taste them if you want."
    "I will taste them and soon, but I have to do that later in the day. Why don't we just talk about them for now?"
    "Fair enough," Luke said. "I've made wines from our first two harvests using only a portion of our grape crop. The rest I sold to other wineries because it was too much for me to deal with." Luke shrugged his shoulders. "I did as much as I could and we didn't want to have grapes rotting in the bins."
    "You did what every new winery does," Juliet said. "From now on, we'll be using all of your grapes, I promise you that. Within the next four or five years you're going to have an extensive inventory of wines for sale."
    "We want our winery to be one of the best. And we don't