Free Something in the Wine by Jae

as the rays of the setting sun. She’s bonded to this land. It must be incredible to be so sure about who you are and where you belong.
    “Hey, why the sad face?” Drew stopped at the bottom of the hill and tilted her head to look at Annie.
    Annie forced a smile. “It’s nothing. I’m just glad you’re happy with your life.”
    “And you aren’t?”
    “Of course I am,” Annie said. “As I told you before, I love my job.”
    “But life is more than just work, isn’t it?”
    The wind rustled through the leaves behind them.
    Annie wrapped her arms around herself.
    “I’m sorry,” Drew said. “That was too personal.” She gently touched Annie’s elbow. “Come on. Let’s go to the tasting room.”
    Annie gave her a reluctant smile. “You think the wine will loosen my tongue?” She tried not to tense up at the thought.
    Laughing, Drew directed her toward a small building next to the house. “We’ll see.”
    * * *
    Annie looked around the tasting room, taking in the wood floor, the large windows overlooking the lake, and the fireplace opposite the long bar. Small tables that looked like wine barrels were placed at discreet distances from each other, but all of them were empty.
    Almost six o’clock on a Saturday evening. Shouldn’t the tasting room be brimming with people? She looked at Drew, who had taken up a position behind the bar. “Are you closed on Saturdays?”
    Drew glanced up from the bottle of wine she had just uncorked with efficient movements. “Just today. I promised you a private wine tasting, so having other customers around wouldn’t do, right?” She grinned, her white teeth flashing against her tan face.
    Annie gaped at her. She closed the tasting room just for me? When she had told Jake that she would be going to a private wine tasting, she hadn’t expected it to be this private.
    “Here.” Drew poured an ounce of white wine into a glass and slid it across the bar.
    “What about you?” Annie asked.
    “I never drink when I pour. We’ll take a bottle and sit on the patio after you decide which one you like best.”
    “I can’t have too much,” Annie said. “I still need to drive home.” Besides, she was a lightweight when it came to alcohol and didn’t want to get drunk in front of Drew.
    “Don’t worry. We’ll find a way to get you home safely. Come on, try this one.”
    When Drew kept looking at her expectantly, Annie stepped up to the bar and lifted her glass. “I have no clue how to do this properly.” Heat crept up her neck at the admission. She had wanted to do some research on the Internet so she wouldn’t embarrass herself, but then her mother had asked her to drive to Fresno and help her clean the attic, so Annie had run out of time. “I like wine, but I’m not a connoisseur or anything.”
    “First, you tilt the glass and look at the wine’s color,” Drew said.
    Annie tilted her glass toward herself.
    “The other way.” Drew reached across the bar and turned the glass away from Annie. Their fingers brushed against each other; then Drew pulled back. “Do you see the greenish-yellow color? That means it’s a younger wine. White wines tend to get darker with age. Okay, now swirl it around. The swirling releases the aromas of the wine.”
    Gently, Annie moved the glass in tiny circles. She had always wondered when she had seen people do that but never wanted to embarrass herself by asking. Again, she realized that Drew often went out of her way to make her comfortable and not make her feel stupid.
    “Go ahead and smell it,” Drew said.
    Annie bent, held the glass up to her nose, and inhaled. She lifted her brows and looked at Drew. “It smells like freshly mowed grass.” That couldn’t be, could it?
    Drew leaned on the bar and grinned like a proud teacher whose student had gotten the answer right. “Yes, it does. Now take a sip and let it roll around your mouth.”
    The wine left a sharp taste in Annie’s mouth as she swallowed.
    “What do you