arted to clear the table. “While I clean up, you’re welcome to watch TV.”
“I’d rather help you.” He was determined to find out what she was hiding and handed her more dishes as she loaded the dishwasher.
She darted him a glance. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”
“Not at all.”
“Paul said you were filling in for your brother, Etienne, because he’d been sick. What is your official position in your family’s business?”
Why did she want to know that? He felt he was getting closer to her secret. “As I told you earlier, I went to Paris and studied investment banking. After graduation I worked for a firm there before I came home four months ago because my father was ill. As it turns out, I’ve been deciding on the investments the company makes. In other words, I took over my father’s job as funds manager.”
“I see. Another huge responsibility that takes brilliance,” she murmured. “You have to be an accountant whiz too.”
“That’s part of it. You wouldn’t be looking for a career change, would you? Are you after an administrative job and need an in?”
She flushed. “No. I enjoy my work. But I do a lot of thinking while I’m out picking grapes. So much goes into running a family business like yours. It’s overwhelming to me. You have to know everything about soil, grapes, weather conditions, and that’s just for starters. There’s hiring and payroll. I think about the equipment you need.
“Someone has to have the incredible expertise to make wine. Another person has to know how to distribute and advertise. A man like you has to make life-and-death decisions about money. When and where to invest. It all blows my mind.”
Dominic stared into her eyes. “Where has all this come from?”
“I didn’t realize until my stepfather died how much went into his buying the pharmacy and making it thrive. He had to learn so much to go into business after having worked for someone else. There were nights when he was up until late working on everything. I never understood what he went through.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “Now my mother has the load.”
“One you share.”
“I’m trying. Working on the vineyard has opened my eyes to so many things. We’ve only had to consider hiring one pharmacist to help out. But we have to provide insurance and make sure we can afford to pay another wage.”
“It’s a fine line at times.”
“It certainly is. Your family has to hire hundreds of workers at harvest time, not to mention your regular employees. Every application has to be vetted. You carry a huge burden in order to pay your employees and deal with all the ups and downs. I can’t tell you how much I admire a family like yours that has kept their business solvent for hundreds of years. You have an unmatchable work ethic.”
While she’d been talking with such heartfelt emotion, he heard her cell phone ring. “Excuse me a minute, Dominic.” She pulled it out of her pocket and checked the caller ID. “It’s my mother. She probably wants to know how soon I’ll be home tonight.”
“You’re leaving?”
“I always go home at night.” That piece of information came as a surprise. “I’ll call her back.”
If that was true and she never stayed here alone at night, the news pleased him. “In that case I’m going to leave now so I don’t prevent you from driving home too late.”
She looked up at him. “You’ll come tomorrow evening?” she asked in a throbbing voice. Those light green eyes beseeched him. “I’ll make the dinner.”
His breath caught. “Try to keep me away. Bonne nuit, Nathalie.” This time he gave her a long, hard kiss, then bolted for the door, not daring to stay any longer.
The more she’d talked to him tonight, the more he’d been ensnared. No other woman he’d known had shown her kind of sensitivity and understanding of his family’s unique work. The well-heeled type of women in his family’s world weren’t interested in much more than his overall financial worth.
But his fear that it could be a front was ripping him apart. Was it possible she’d seen Dominic somewhere and planned to work at the vineyard to get close to him? The thought pained him when he wanted to pull her down on the couch and start kissing the daylights out of her. Hell and hell.
CHAPTER SIX
SUNDAY MORNING, NATHALIE left home earlier than usual to buy groceries. She drove to Vence and put everything in the fridge before reporting to the vineyard.
Dominic must have wondered what was wrong with her to go on about his family. She hadn’t been able to help it. If Alain truly was his son, then he belonged to a remarkable man with an amazing history.
Her mother wanted her to give up on this. It was wrong to date Dominic when she was holding back this huge secret that could backfire. Nathalie knew her mother was right, but since he’d admitted he’d been to the Guinguet in the past, that placed him where Antoinette could have met him.
Here she’d been thinking Dominic hadn’t been the one involved with her stepsister, but this new information threw her. The one thing she had to do now was find out when he’d been to the bistro. Had he gone there after returning from Paris during one of his visits home? Once she knew if the timing fit, then she’d break her silence.
As soon as four thirty rolled around, she left the vineyard under a semicloudy sky and hurried to her temporary home. She wanted to get there first and make herself presentable.