Forbidden: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance

With that knowledge guiding us, we acknowledged we couldn’t all try to be in charge. Five strong personalities weren’t going to mesh well if we didn’t lay down some ground rules and make sure everybody knew what they were doing and what they weren’t doing. Officially, there was a hierarchy with Cam and Derek at the top leading the two realms of the vineyard. They were considered the executives, the administration of the vineyard.

The other three of us had our own responsibilities and areas of expertise in the operation. That ensured everything that needed to get done would get done, and that we weren’t stepping on each other’s toes all the time. It streamlined operations, ensured faster decisions, and avoided misunderstandings and complications.

It also meant only Cam and Derek had access to the personnel records. As much as I told myself that would be an option for fishing out Ally’s contact information, I knew I actually couldn’t.

That didn’t mean I was going to give up. I needed to find her, and I would figure out a way.

Storming out of the kitchen, I was back on the phone calling her as I stalked toward my truck. It went straight to voicemail again, and I left another message asking her to call me. I drove away from the vineyard and tried to come up with places where she might be.

I thought back to every conversation I had with Derek when he mentioned Ally and tried to sift out any details I might be able to use. He’d talked about the restaurant where she used to work, and I drove there first. Searching the entire parking lot didn’t come up with her car, but I wasn’t going to take that at face value.

Parking, I rushed inside. A hostess stopped me at the door. Her pen poised above the wait list, she gave me a questioning look over her podium.

“Good evening, sir. Do you have a reservation?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

“How many in your party?”

“None.” She shot me a strange look, and I gave my head a hard shake. “I mean, I don’t need a table. I’m not here to eat. I’m looking for someone. I just want to know if she’s here.”

“We don’t give out information about our patrons,” she said.

That seemed to be a theme of the evening.

“I understand that. I don’t need you to. She’s not really a patron. Actually, I guess she is now. She used to work here. That’s why I thought she might be here. Maybe she had come by to see everyone. Ally?” I squeezed my eyes closed, thinking hard. The sound of Derek teasing her with her full name popped into my head. “Allison. Allison Sanders.”

The hostess nodded. “I know Ally. We worked together for a couple years. She isn’t here. I haven’t seen her since she left to go work at the vineyard. Have you tried looking there for her? Holly says she’s been spending just about every waking hour there.”

“Yeah,” I said, trying not to give anything away. “I tried there. Wait. Holly. That’s her best friend, right? She works here.”

The hostess nodded. “She does. But she’s not here either. She’s on a business trip.”

I was disappointed at the dead end and nodded. “Thanks.”

Leaving the restaurant, I realized I had no idea where to go next. I needed to think of something. I couldn’t just give up.

I ended up driving around town for the next few hours, just searching parking lots for her car. I stopped short of starting a full-on scour on the residential neighborhoods around the area. That was venturing a shade too close to stalking for me.

The next day I couldn’t find her, and by the third of not being able to track her down and her still not answering her phone or calling me back, I was getting seriously on edge. Few times in my life had I ever needed to talk to someone like I needed to talk to her. But I couldn’t find her anywhere.

The whole situation was only made worse by the fact that Derek pretty much hated me now, and I couldn’t fix that until I talked to her. She wasn’t answering his calls either, and he was determined she had given up and was never going to come back to the vineyard.

Eventually he relented and told me he went by her place, but she wasn’t there. That was a few hours ago, and I was still pacing back and forth in my living room, waiting for something to happen and wondering if I was ever going to get a chance to make this right.

Suddenly, my front door burst open and Derek stormed in. I paused, then took two long strides toward him.

“Did you hear from her?” I asked.

“Noah, Ally has been in an accident. She’s at the hospital. Come on,” he said.