Melinda Curtis - Season of Change

Harmony Valley...not so harmonious after all!

Christine Alexander needs to prove herself as a top-notch winemaker, and in Harmony Valley she’s got a chance to build something legitimate, quality and lasting. What she doesn’t need is part-owner Slade Jennings poking his nose in her cabernet.

Brooding, buttoned-up Slade Jennings won’t be making things easy for his new hire. Someone has to worry about the bottom line. Forced into an uneasy partnership, the pair faces two challenges: create a spectacular award-winning vintage within months…and figure out if their tenuous friendship can grow into something deeper and lasting.

It hit her then. Not like a ton of bricks, not a like a slap in the face, not like a cold shower.

This was a soft awareness, like picking up a sleeping kitten and cuddling it close.

He liked her. More than a boss usually liked his employee.

He liked her. Those mixed signals weren’t all just self-preservation.

He liked her. A lot.

The proof was there. But what did it mean?

Nothing, her head said.

Everything, her heart said.

It could be a silly infatuation, created by the time they’d been spending together. Something that would fade.

Or it could be the beginning of a feeling that went down like a rich red wine. Something that expanded and lingered.

One thing she did know—she wanted to find out.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Harmony Valley!

Things aren’t as harmonious here as they once were. Jobs have dried up and almost everyone under the age of sixty has moved away in the past ten years, leaving the population…well, rather gray-haired and peaceful.

Enter three young men—Slade, Flynn and Will—friends, newly minted millionaires and hometown success stories. Slade Jennings is a former Wall Street whiz who can’t seem to give up his ties, even though he’s living in the wine country. This summer, he’s running winery operations and hosting his twin girls.

Winemaker Christine Alexander is tired of wine with her name on it being changed by meddlesome winery owners. She’s taken the job in Harmony Valley because she was promised autonomy. She hadn’t counted on Slade being a control freak. If she’s not careful, he’s going to expand the winery’s production before the quality is proven in the bottle. If she’s not careful, her curiosity about Slade and his ties are going to change her priorities forever.

I hope you enjoy Slade and Christine’s journey, as well as the other romances in the Harmony Valley series. I love to hear from readers. Check my website to learn more about upcoming books set in Harmony Valley and sign up for email book announcements. Or you can chat with me on Facebook (MelindaCurtisAuthor) or on Twitter (MelCurtisAuthor), and hear about my latest giveaways.

Melinda Curtis

Season of Change

Melinda Curtis

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MELINDA CURTIS

has lived in humid Georgia and crazy-weather Texas. She prefers the possibility of California earthquakes. Her work experience prior to writing this book includes being an inventory-taker, a maid, a baseball announcer, a rodent wrangler, a copy writer, a focus group moderator and a cubicle wage-slave. She’ll take romance writer and bare feet over suits and heels (or rodents) any day.

Melinda currently lives in California’s arid central valley with her husband—her basketball-playing college sweetheart. With three kids, the couple has done the soccer thing, the karate thing, the dance thing, the Little League thing and, of course, the basketball thing. Now they’re enjoying the quiet life of empty nesters before the grandparent thing.

Melinda writes sweet contemporary romances as Melinda Curtis and red-hot reads as Mel Curtis. She loves writing romances about women who don’t realize how strong they are until a hero comes along to show them, while capturing the wry, humorous power struggle of falling in love. Because, really? What woman lets the man have the last word?

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Nothing in my life would be possible without the love and support of my immediate family, extended family and close friends. A special thank you to my husband of thirty years for putting up with me and all the voices in my head clambering for a happy ending.

As always, special thanks to A.J. Stewart, Cari Lynn Webb and Anna Adams for their support throughout the writing of this book. Every writer needs a sounding board. You guys rock!

I spent sixteen years working at a winery. In writing the Harmony Valley books, I relied on my memory, as well as questions to friends and family who still work and own wineries. Think of Harmony Valley as you enjoy a glass of wine from The Iron Gate Winery in Cedar City or the Jordon Winery in Healdsburg, but know that all mistakes regarding wineries and winemaking are my own.

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER ONE

LIFE WAS A numbers game.

Count the years, count the money, count the marriages, count the mistakes.

Slade Jennings was thirty-two years old, had millions in the bank, one failed marriage, and one horrendous mistake.

He knew what he looked like walking down the street—success. Wrinkle-free khakis, wrinkle-free button down, Italian designer tie. Rolex. Titanium and onyx pinky ring. Dark-as-midnight hair, expensively cut. Eyes the color of money, always on the lookout for the next deal. Slade had come from humble beginnings and wasn’t going back.

Except, he had. Gone back to his roots, that was, damaged though they may be.

That was what you did for friends who were also your business partners. You went with the flow, even if that meant returning to your hometown, to the house you’d grown up in, to the house where both your parents died, the scene of the horrendous mistake.

Harmony Valley’s bridge club called the house at 1313 Harrison Street the Death and Divorce House. In Slade’s lifetime there hadn’t been any divorces. But there had been plenty of deaths. His mother gave in to melanoma in the master bedroom. His father hung himself six years later in the closet of the same room. It was the culmination of everything that was wrong with Slade’s life—he’d lost his career, his bank account, and then his family. That was eight years ago. The house on Harrison represented failure, which was why it was vital Slade present only success to the world.

While in Harmony Valley, Slade was living in the Death and Divorce House. To stay elsewhere seemed like a betrayal. But stay in the master bedroom? No. He slept in the bedroom of his youth.

He’d returned to town earlier that year with Will Jackson and Flynn Harris, his childhood friends and the two programming geniuses behind a successful farming app. Slade was their sidekick and the partnership’s moneyman, the one who managed the bottom line, watched their backs, and made sure they didn’t get screwed in any negotiations.