The Villa

corner and gone to her side if David Cutter hadn't already been there. Cutter irritated him on principle, but Tyler had to give him points for quick action. The little hand kiss had been a good move, one that seemed to annoy Rene and Avano.
    And whatever he'd said had wiped that idiot smile off Avano's face in a hurry.
    Avano was an asshole, Tyler thought, sipping his wine. But with Rene prodding at him, he could be a dangerous one. If Cutter could keep him in line, it was almost worth having him in the mix.
    Almost.
    "Why are you standing over here all by yourself?"
    Tyler looked down, frowned at Maddy. "Because I don't want to be here."
    "Why are you? You're an adult. You can do what you want."
    "You keep thinking that, little girl, you're doomed to disappointment."
    "You just like being irritable."
    "No, I just am irritable."
    She pursed her lips at him, nodded. "Okay. Can I have a sip of your wine?"
    "No."
    "In Europe, children are taught to appreciate wine."
    She said it so grandly, standing there in her layers of black and dead-ugly shoes, Ty wanted to laugh. "So, go to Europe. Around here it's called contributing to the delinquency."
    "I've been to Europe, but I don't remember it very well. I'm going to go back. Maybe I'll live in Paris for a while. I was talking to Mr. Delvecchio, the winemaker. He said wine was a miracle, but it's really just a chemical reaction, isn't it?"
    "It's both. It's neither."
    "It has to be. I was going to do an experiment, and I thought you could help me."
    Tyler blinked at her, a pretty, badly dressed girl with an inquiring mind. "What? Why don't you talk to your father?"
    "Because you're the vintner. I thought I would get some grapes, put them in a bowl and see what happens. I'd have another bowl, with the same type and weight of grapes, and I'd do stuff to it. The kind of things you do."
    "I eat grapes in a bowl," he said, but she'd caught his interest.
    "See, one bowl would be left alone, Mr. Delvecchio's miracle. The other I'd process, using additives and techniques. Pushing the chemical reaction. Then I could see which worked best."
    "Even if you use the same type of grapes, you'll have variations between your tests."
    "Why?"
    "You're talking store-bought this time of year. They may not have come from the same vineyard. Even if they do, you get variations. Soil type, fertility, water penetration. When they were picked. How they were picked. You can't test the grapes on the vine because they're already off the vine. The must in each bowl could be considerably different even if you left them both alone."
    "What's must?"
    "Juice." Bowl wine, he thought. Interesting. "But if you wanted to try it, you should use wooden bowls. The wood'll give the must some character. Not much, but some."
    "A chemical reaction," Maddy said with a grin. "See? It's science, not religion."
    "Baby. Wine's that and a whole lot more." Without thinking, he offered her his glass.
    She sipped, delicately, her gaze shifting just in case her father was nearby. Experimentally she let the wine roll around on her tongue before she swallowed. "It's pretty good."
    "Pretty good?" With a shake of his head, he took the glass back from her. "That's vintage Pinot Noir. Only a barbarian would call it 'pretty good'."
    She smiled, charmingly now because she knew she had him. "Will you show me the big wine barrels and the machines sometime?"
    "Yeah. Sure."
    "Mr. Delvecchio said you do the white in stainless steel and the reds in wood. I didn't get a chance to ask him why. Why?"
     
    Didn't he look cute? Sophia thought. Big, grouchy MacMillan deep in what seemed to be a serious conversation with the miniature Morticia. And if things were as they appeared, he was enjoying himself. He even looked good doing it.
    The fact that he did made her even more pleased she'd decided against bringing a date. Having a date meant her attention would have to be focused. Being loose gave her much more room to circulate and enjoy whoever's company intrigued her the most.
    At the moment, she thought Tyler fit the bill.
    It would take her a little while to work her way over to him. After all, she had social obligations to dispense. But she kept him at the corner of her vision as she began to work the crowd.
    "Sophia. Stunning as always."
    "Jerry. Happy holidays." She leaned in, kissed both of his cheeks. "How's business?"
    "We've had a banner year." He slipped an arm around her shoulders, steering her through the groups in the tasting room and