Page 83 of Shine For Me

“You’resodrunk,” Jas says through her laughter, trying to hit River’s arm. She ends up swiping her hand a good foot to the left of him.

“Hate to break it to you, Jassy, but you’re not doing so hot yourself,” I tell her, grabbing her arm to steady her. “I think you’re both cut off.”

“We probably should have done that a few hours ago,” Rose says. “They’re going to be in so much pain tomorrow.”

“Totally worth it,” River says, slinging an arm around his wife—and nearly knocking her into the van.

“Can we please just get in the vehicles?” Leo asks. “Some of us are sober enough to have sex with our spouses tonight, and I wouldn’t mind getting back to the villa.”

“Dude,” River groans. “Way too much info. Your spouse is mysister.”

“Then get it in the damn van, River,” Rose snaps. “And he’ll stop talking about it.”

June shoves her face into my arm, her shoulders shaking with giggles.

“I apologize for all of them,” I tell her, but she just laughs harder.

Of course Jasmine and River fall asleep on the way back to the villa, and Will and Wyatt practically have to carry the two of them out of the vans. Before she goes inside, Everly throws her arms around June. “Thank you so much for the most amazing day,” she says. “I can’t wait for tomorrow!”

June looks surprised—and incredibly pleased—when she pulls away. Her surprise gets even more evident when Alex also hugs her. I meet my business partner’s gaze over June’s head and she gives me an apologetic smile before thanking June for the day. So maybe I don’t have to yell at Alex after all.

Rose and Eva both hug her too, and June has the cutest blush on her face when they all go inside. “I think you’ve gotten pretty popular with the Ransome clan, Miss Cain,” I tell her.

“I guess wine is the key to most people’s hearts,” she says.

I slip an arm around her. “How about I walk you up to the cottage? It’s too nice a night to drive.”

“But then you’ll have to walk back alone. In the dark.”

I shrug. “I suppose I could stay in your bed.”

“In my mom’s house?” she squeaks, sounding so scandalized I have to laugh.

“Fine, you giant prude. I’ll come back here and sleep all alone.”

“Poor baby.” But she leans her head on my shoulder and starts up the driveway. The walk up to the cottage isn’t far, and the night is warm. We walk in silence for a few minutes, listening to the nighttime sounds of insects in the trees and the muffled laughter and music coming from back at the villa. It sounds like at least some of my family members have gotten a second wind.

“Why did your mom decide to live at the cottage?” I eventually ask. “That villa is pretty amazing.” Amazing is an understatement. The sprawling house has seven bedrooms, a pool, a huge library, and a movie room in the basement.

“She talks about eventually turning it into a boutique hotel,” June says. “Right now they just rent it guests when they host weddings at the vineyard.” She’s quiet for a moment. “I think it felt too big for her to live in alone.” June’s voice sounds small now, sad, and I immediately regret bringing it up. I want her to open up to me more about her family but I don’t want to ruin the good mood she’s been in tonight.

“Jude doesn’t live with her?”

“He has an apartment over the processing center. Heaven forbid he sleep more than twenty yards away from his grapes.” She surprises me by going back to the subject of her Mom without any prompting. “The villa is more like our house in Beverly Hills, and Mom wanted a change after the divorce.”

“That must have been hard for you,” I say cautiously. “Her moving all the way up here.”

“Yeah,” she agrees. “But I had Grey.”

I don’t know her twin very well, but from what I’ve seen of him, that wouldn’t have been much of a consolation prize.

Before I can ask her any more about that time in her life, she changes the subject. “Is your family going to get annoyed with me for dragging them all over the place on this trip? I wanted to plan some nice things but now I’m wondering if it’s too much.”

“It’s not too much,” I assure her. I don’t like that she thinks she needs to impress my family. And I really don’t like thinking about how much money she must have spent to make all of this happen. “But you also don’t have to do so much for us. Everyone would have fun just hanging out here, you know?”

“If you’d rather do that,” she says, her voice embarrassed now, “we totally can. I can cancel the balloon thing—”

“Don’t you dare,” I interrupt. “I think Everly would kill me if she doesn’t end up in a hot air balloon tomorrow.” I squeeze June’s hand. “I just don’t want you to put pressure on yourself. Everyone likes you for you.”