Let It Breathe by Tawna Fenske Read Free Book Online

Dick, the guy you just met from Larchwood Vineyards. It’s the whole ‘we’re not in this to make money, we’re in this to make wine’ thing a lot of vineyard owners like to say.”
    “And what’s your take on that?”
    Reese shrugged and picked up her letter opener. “We already make great wines. Doesn’t do us much good if no one knows that.”
    “Good point,” Clay said, leaning back in his chair in a way that pulled his T-shirt snugly across his chest. Reese tried not to stare. “So how does the rest of the family feel about the big expansion?”
    Reese began to roll the letter opener between her palms. “They’re all really supportive—Mom, Dad, Axl. We’ve been taking it slowly, starting up a wine club that’s been really successful, holding events and tastings. This event pavilion is sort of the next big step.”
    She shut up as she realized Clay’s eyes were fixed on her hands. She stopped rolling the letter opener between her palms and waited.
    Clay gave a nod that seemed to signal a change in tone, and Reese braced herself for whatever was coming next.
    “Let’s talk numbers, shall we?” he said.
    “Yes, let’s,” Reese agreed, annoyed by the formality in her own voice. She began to roll the letter opener again, comforted by the curve of it against her palms.
    “You want the good news or the bad news first?”
    “Good.”
    “Okay. The area you’ve staked out looks great. I don’t anticipate problems with excess rock or anything like that, and the permits should be pushed through by the end of today. We could break ground as soon as tomorrow.”
    “What’s the bad news?”
    Clay sighed. “As we spelled out in the bid, the materials estimates were based on market conditions and prices at the time of the bid. We gave that to you two months ago.”
    “Has something changed?”
    Clay nodded. “For starters, you’d planned to use wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council for green building—that gives you the points you need for LEED certification.”
    “Right. So what’s the problem?”
    “FSC-certified wood just doubled in price in the last month.”
    Reese stopped rolling the letter opener between her palms. “Oh.”
    “It gets worse. The plan was to use recycled fly ash in the concrete so you get LEED points for that. But there’s been a recall after significant amounts of arsenic were found in a large shipment of fly ash from several big mines in Virginia. It’s tougher to get now, which means—”
    “Let me guess—the price has gone up?”
    Clay nodded and handed her the stack of papers he’d been holding. Reese took them from him and studied the figures in silence, feeling sick. She looked back at Clay. “Why didn’t Dorrington Construction plan for this?”
    Clay cleared his throat. “We did. There’s a contingency in the bid for shifts in market price. If you’d signed off on the estimate two months ago, we might have been able to purchase materials sooner, but—”
    “Things don’t move that quickly in a family-owned operation like this,” she said, swallowing back a surge of panic. “You know that. It took a lot of time to get our finances together, and then the whole family had to agree.”
    The tension in her own voice made her cringe, and Reese wasn’t sure if it was the result of grim news or how unsettled she felt having him so close after this many years. She was almost sure she could feel the heat of him from across the desk, could smell the wood shavings on his skin. The thought made her cheeks grow warmer.
    “Look, we can alter the plans here,” Clay said. “If you want to change tracks and not go the green-building route, there are a lot of less expensive things we can do.”
    Reese closed her eyes, feeling her head start to throb. “Not an option. Wine Spectator is doing a huge spread on Gold LEED certification. It’s been all over our website for months, and we’re holding a special Memorial Day event where we’ll be unveiling