She’d love to attend the trade fair, she really would, but the timing was crummy. It was May, and Jack Jr. had baseball games three times a week. Tessa was dancing every day and then there was Gabi and her horse. Just thinking about the kids’ hectic schedule made her stomach churn. If she left, who would manage everything while she was gone? Jack loved the kids, but he had no clue as to the work required to keep the family running.

“I don’t think it’s practical,” she said quietly, feeling a flash of resentment for being the one to handle everything at home. There might be two adults in the house, but she was the one responsible for kids, meals, laundry, shopping, holidays, and bills. And it’s not as if she didn’t have a job.

“I need you, Meg.” All banter was gone. Chad’s voice had dropped, deepening, his tone earnest. “We make great wines, but nobody in Europe knows it.”

“That’s why I want you to visit China—”

“Can’t think about China when I’ve got London on the calendar in two weeks.”

She exhaled slowly and tucked a strand of straight brown hair behind her ear. She was already heading out of town this weekend, heading to the beach house in Capitola in the morning for the annual Brennan Girls’ Getaway. “I’m already gone this weekend. I just don’t know if I could leave my family again so soon.”

“At least talk it over with Jack. Let him know we really need you there. Obviously I can go to London on my own, but I can’t do what I want and need to do without you. You don’t just know our wines, you know the business, the European market, and what we’re up against.”

It was rather heady being wanted…needed. It felt good to know she was considered valuable to the winery operations. “I’ll talk to Jack,” she said, “but I might not have an answer for you until Monday.”

It was a thirty-minute drive home through miles of vineyards illuminated only by the huge white moon. The hills rolled and undulated on either side of her. The first Napa wineries were founded in the middle of the nineteenth century, with early pioneer and settler George Yount planting the first grapes in Napa Valley. A few years later, in 1858, John Patchett produced the first commercial harvest, and Charles Krug’s wine cellar was established in St. Helena in 1861. By the end of the nineteenth century there were more than 140 wineries in the region. One hundred and fifty years later, Napa Valley is home to more than 450 wineries.

The wineries defined Napa, and Napa helped define California. Meg couldn’t imagine one without the other, and she loved being part of the wine industry. It was exciting and interesting, especially working with the Hallahan brothers.

As Meg headed toward Petaluma, she thought about the party, the turnout, the media who’d attended, as well as Chad’s invitation to go to London. The invitation to attend the London Wine & Spirits Trade Fair was certainly appealing, but Meg didn’t travel for her job. That had been one of her conditions for taking the position. She’d work hard for the winery, but she needed to be home every night with her family to cook dinner, and then later, to tuck the kids into bed.

The kids were older. Gabi was now ten and she was the youngest, but Meg still needed the nightly traditions and rituals.