“Yes. Normal.” He punched her lightly on the shoulder. “Like us.”

“Us. Yes, and us is going to help Simon and Marco.”

Derek cringed. Not because he didn’t want to help, but because he was about to get in more trouble. “Um, babe…?” Yep. Another endearment. “You’re going to hate me, so I’m going to say it quickly and get the pain out of the way.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve got to fly out to New York on Thursday, so I’ll be here when everyone first arrives, but after that…” Derek wrinkled up his nose. “Don’t look at me like that with those baby blues. You’re killing me. I don’t have a choice here.”

“ New York!” Nikki shouted.

“I know. Look, I planned to take you, but this came up. You remember meeting old man Vicente a few months ago? The Italian winemaker and owner of the Salvatore Winery?”

Nikki knew her face was turning red because the heat spanned all the way to her ears. She remembered old man Vicente from the Salvatore Winery. The man had more money and power than Caesar had, and he ruled in the same fashion. And he’d had the gall to smack her on the butt when they’d all gone out for dinner after a business meeting. She’d about cold clocked the old fart (who had to be somewhere in his eighties) when Simon convinced her to chalk it up to the antics of an old Italian Romeo. “Please don’t patronize me. How could I forget Vicente? So, what’s the New York thing about?”

“The deal isn’t sealed with him. He’s balking at some of the prices.”

She frowned. “You think you have to go and deal directly with him in New York?”

“He likes the Big Apple, and it’s halfway. And he has some family there. He didn’t want to come to California and I can’t take the time to go to Italy right now.” He shrugged. “Pretty much, if we want the deal, I have to meet with him. I’m sorry. I wanted to take you. I’ll be home Monday night, so it’s not like I’ll be gone the entire time this group is here. Only a few days.”

“A few days?” she whined. The sound of her voice even annoyed herself. She sighed, knowing that ever since Derek had walked through the door, she’d kind of sounded like a brat. She hadn’t always been his girlfriend. She’d started out as an assistant and manager of the winery, and a couple of years ago she wouldn’t have balked if he’d told her he needed her to manage this large affair by herself. Well, she might have a little on the inside simply because she hadn’t exactly started out as best friends with her gay pals. But things had changed, and no matter what type of personal relationship she had with her lover/boss-lover (she liked that description much better)-she still had a job to do for the company. “Okay, I give, what do you need me to do?”

He kissed her cheek. “Thank you. I won’t leave you hanging. In fact, I begged off the charity event with Alyssa and she said she could handle it.”

“You planned all along for me to say yes, didn’t you?”

“I was hoping.”

“Stinker.”

“I’m getting off easy. With Alyssa taking care of the charity deal, I’ll take care of the distribution issues myself. I’ve read all of your notes about the problem, and since we’ve gone over it, I don’t see why I can’t give them a call and try to use my finesse to work things out.” He winked at her.

“Bad. You are bad.”

“To the bone, baby.”

“And cheesy, too.”

“Like a slice of Felipe’s extra cheese.” He smiled.

They finished their wine and he detailed what he needed for the Alan Sansi event. It wasn’t going to be easy, but she’d do it, and she’d do it to the best of her ability. “You do realize that Simon isn’t likely to be much of a help?” she asked.

He nodded. “I know, but Marco is the best. He’ll dive in.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he will. Thank God he’s there for Simon.”

“And thank God you’re here for me,” he said.

“Oh, no, there you go with the cheese ball crap again.”

He took her face in his hands and shook his head. “I know it sounds like a line from a soap opera, but I mean it, Nik. I wake up every day and the first thing I think is how grateful I am for you.”

She swallowed hard, and then smiled. “You are a lucky son of a gun, aren’t you?”

He laughed and kissed her, and she kissed him back, thinking she was damn grateful and lucky she had him, too.

What is Nikki about to get herself into? All she wanted to do was get moved in with the love of her life and get all domesticated, as Simon put it. And she had a decent start there with that pork loin meal she was preparing for her honey. But Nikki is a sucker for those baby blues of Derek’s, and when he said the word, she didn’t need much more convincing.

When you want to impress your other half, put this meal together with some sliced tomatoes on the side and rice pilaf. This is one of those dishes that are so tasty and unforgettable that it will likely become a requested meal in your household.

A great wine to drink with the pork loin is the Côtes de Tablas by Tablas Creek Vineyard. It has a wonderful blend of 43% Grenache, 24% Mourved, 18% Syrah, and 15% Counoise. It’s similar to a French Rhone. It’s not too fruity and has a nice peppery spice flavor on the palate.

SERVES 4.

3 lb boneless pork loin

salt and pepper

1 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp honey

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp red pepper flakes

10 fresh thyme sprigs plus 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves

¼ cup red wine

3 tbsp warm clarified butter (recipe follows)

1 lb small pearl onions

1 lb red seedless grapes (about 3 cups)

FOR CLARIFIED BUTTER

unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

Prepare the pork loin by trimming off any excess fat except for about an ⅛-inch layer on the outside. Salt and pepper pork on both sides. Combine vinegar, honey, garlic, red pepper flakes, and thyme in a small bowl. Marinate pork in ingredients for 4 hours up to overnight.

TO CLARIFY BUTTER

In a heavy saucepan melt butter over low heat. Remove pan from heat and let butter stand 3 minutes. Skim froth and strain butter through a sieve lined with a double thickness of rinsed and squeezed cheesecloth into a bowl, leaving milky solids in bottom of pan. Pour clarified butter into a jar or crock and chill, covered. Butter keeps, covered and chilled, indefinitely. When clarified, butter loses about ¼ its original volume.

When ready to cook pork, drain marinade and add ¼ cup red wine into a small saucepan and boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about ½ cup, about 5 minutes. Pour glaze through a fine sieve into a small bowl, discarding thyme, and reserve. In another small bowl stir together 2 tbsp reserved glaze and 2 tbsp clarified butter.

In a saucepan of boiling salted water, blanch onions 3 minutes. Drain onions and peel.

Heat a flameproof roasting pan, 15 by 10 by 2 inches, in oven 10 minutes at 350°. In the heated pan, toss onions with remaining tbsp clarified butter, and salt and pepper to taste and roast in upper third of oven, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Take onions out.

While onions are roasting, prepare pork loin. Brush pork loin with about ⅓ glaze-butter mixture.

Roast pork loin for 15 minutes at 350°. Add grapes and onions to the roasting pan. Arrange pork loin over onions and grapes, and roast 15 minutes. Turn pork loin over and baste with about half of remaining glaze-butter mixture. Roast pork loin, basting with remaining glaze-butter mixture, 10 minutes more.

Transfer to a platter. Arrange grapes and onions around pork loin.