Page 49 of Love Among Vines

CHAPTER FORTY

RETT

“You want to stay at the house?” Rett clarified.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Alexa simpered.

“I forgot how the hotels fill up here in the fall,” Chris said. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Oh, he very much minded. Having his brother and his cheating ex under his roof? He’d rather be drowned in a vat of bottom-shelf merlot. But he could only imagine what his parents would say if he turned his own brother out into the cold.

Nails scrabbled over the hardwood behind him, and he turned to spot Penny and Jade. Thank god. Jade’s eyebrows were drawn together and her mouth was scrunched up.

“There you are,” he said to her. He held out his arm, and she slid into his side like she had been specifically made to fit there.

Alexa went rigid, and her smile was frozen in place as she took in Jade and her paint-splattered overalls.

Penny, who had historically jumped on every new person she had encountered in the last week, cowered behind Jade.

“This is Chris. My brother.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jade.” She reached over and shook his hand.

Chris flinched, and Rett suppressed a smile. He could feel the tension wafting off Jade.

“And this is Alexa,” he said flatly.

“Hi,” Jade said, administering what looked to be another very firm handshake.

Alexa flexed her fingers when they broke apart. Good.

“What brings you two to town?” Jade asked.

“We thought we’d come up early for the party. Spend some time with my little bro,” Chris said. He jokingly punched Rett in the chest.

“They were hoping to stay at the house,” Rett said to Jade.

“Your house?” Her grip tightened on his arm.

He nodded. If he didn’t relax his jaw, he was going to crack a molar.

“Rett was coming to my place anyway tonight, so you’ll have the place to yourselves,” Jade said smoothly.

That was definitely not something they had discussed, but she had gifted him with an out. He drew her in a centimeter tighter. Anything to avoid having to listen to his brother hump his ex-girlfriend through the wall.

“Don’t worry, we won’t be in your space too much. We’re going to do some wine tours while we’re here.” Chris said. “But maybe Alexa and I could make dinner for you tomorrow?”

“Sounds great.” Rett said with a forced smile. That wasn’t going to be torture at all. “Well, we’d better get back to party planning. The spare key is where it always was.”

“Thanks, man.” Chris took Alexa’s hand, and they walked out the front door.

Jade whirled around. “Did you know they were coming early?”

“No.” If he had, he would have boarded up every window and door on the property.

Jade glowered out the window as Chris and Alexa departed. “You say the word, and I will make them believe in their bones that your grandmother is haunting that house. They will run screaming for the hills before morning.”

He sighed. “It’s not worth it. They’ve never had much of a concept for boundaries.”

“I’m so sorry. It must be awful to see them together.”

“Nothing you don’t already know about from first-hand experience.” He turned away from the window.

“Come stay with me tonight. At Margie’s. Or let me come over and have extremely loud sex with you. They shouldn’t be in your safe space because they were too dumb to book a hotel.”

His hand found hers. “Let’s go to Margie’s—or I guess we should call it your place now.”

She smiled. “That’s right. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” He turned back to the wine crate that was sitting on the floor and began shoving bottles onto shelves with gusto.

“I picked out your décor,” she said gently.

“That’s great. Thank you.”

“I have something that might help distract you,” she said. “Let me just get the laptop.”

She disappeared for a moment, and he went down the row of wines until all the labels were perfectly centered. This, at least, was something he could control.

“Here.” Jade’s voice startled him.

She held the computer in his direction. Onscreen, a wine bottle label in a striking art déco style stared back at him. And there in the center was a picture of his grandmother he had never seen. Valentina was written in script font above. His grandmother would have absolutely loved it.

In spite of the shitstorm that had just occurred, his heart grew in his chest.

“It’s perfect. I love it. Thank you.”

She stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Do you need some space?”

She read him like the well-worn takeout menu for the Tavern that was stuck to his fridge. “I think I do. Let me give you a ride.”

She took a step back and slung her backpack over her shoulders. “It’s okay. I could use the fresh air. I’ll see you tonight if you decide you’re still comfortable coming over.”

She picked up Penny’s leash and started for the door, then turned back.

“It’s going to be okay,” she said before turning away and hustling outside.

When he popped the door of her cottage open that night, Jade screamed and flung a kitchen towel at him.

“A kitchen towel? That’s your grand plan to defend yourself?” His leather overnight bag hit the floor. “I thought you were a hardened city girl.”

After Jade left, he had buried himself in party preparations until every detail was covered. He might not have been able to control his family members, but he sure as hell was going to make this party a success. He had to, especially now that he and Jade might actually have a future together.

“For your information, I would have fashioned it into a garotte and murdered you with it had you been an actual intruder.”

“My mistake.” He shut the door behind him and stepped into the kitchen. Penny trotted up to him and planted her paws on his chest, breathing heavily into his face until he petted her.

He wasn’t going to be great company tonight.

Seeing Chris and Alexa together earlier had knocked something in his brain loose.

The second he saw her, all he could think about was throwing open the door to the guest bedroom in his old apartment and finding her tangled in Chris’s sheets.

It had been two years, but he still remembered the crimson color of her bra on the floor.

The casserole dish of shepherd’s pie hit the counter with a clunk, joined by the leftovers of Baked Alaska.

“Thank you for bringing food.” Jade swooped in and snaked her arms around his neck. Her lips pressed to his, bringing with them the taste of chardonnay.

“I’m surprised to see you already,” she said when she pulled back.

“I got everything done that I needed to.”

“Great. You got the decorations ordered and everything?”

He nodded. “They’ll deliver everything on Thursday to give us time to set up.”

“I’m happy to help with setup. The mural should be done by then.”

The mural. He almost slapped himself in the face. He had been so caught up in his own drama that he hadn’t even congratulated her on her incredible breakthrough.

“That’s right. It sounds like you made real progress today. I can’t wait to see it. I’m sure it’s incredible.”

“I don’t know about incredible, but it’s at least a slight improvement on a totally blank wall. Hungry?”

“Very.” He helped her shuffle some portions of shepherd’s pie into bowls. They stood in silence as they rotated in the microwave. For someone who claimed she didn’t cook, the meal had been delicious.

“Are you okay? Relatively speaking?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” he said.

“I’m not trying to patronize you. But I want you to know that it’s okay to not be okay.

” She sidled up next to him and slipped a hand around his biceps.

He didn’t turn to face her. “The first couple of times I saw Nate with Ashley it almost broke me. I didn’t know if I wanted to murder them both or just run away and hide in a Mexican restaurant somewhere. ”

Rett sank onto a barstool but said nothing.

What was there to say? Alexa and Chris’s abrupt appearance had reminded him that he had never been good enough?

He was always going to be second fiddle to his brother, even in his parents’ eyes?

Even though Chris had a gambling problem, Rett would inexplicably never measure up.

And there was still the very real possibility that the family legacy would crash and burn under Rett’s watch. That, at least, was a fair criticism.

Jade set a steaming plate and a glass of wine in front of him.

He lifted the glass to his nose reflexively, then set it back down.

“It needs to rest,” he said when he noticed her gaze.

“Of course. That wine must be exhausted from carrying the crushing weight of all this silence.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. I have a hard time talking about it.”

“I know. It’s okay. I’m worried about you, though. There’s been a night and day difference in you from before your brother got here and after.”

“I hate that it has this effect on me,” Rett said vehemently. “It’s been two years. I should be over this.”

“A betrayal of that magnitude is not something you just get over,” she said quietly. “It takes time. And a lot of wine. Even an adopted dog in my case.”

“I wish it was that easy. He’s going to be in my life forever. He’s my brother.”

She put another plate into the microwave. “Yeah, that definitely complicates things. They don’t live around here, though?”

He shook his head. “In the city.”

“Good. That’ll make it harder for them to drop in unexpectedly in the future.”

Silence stretched between them as they ate. An internal alarm went off, and he downed his glass in a couple of gulps.

“Did they teach that tasting method at sommelier school?” she asked with a smile.

“No, that was all undergrad.” He managed to smile in return.

There was no point in endlessly ruminating on Chris leeching off him yet again.

If he knew his brother, dinner tomorrow was going to involve either a request for money or an outlandish business proposition.

Even though the vineyard had been left to Rett, Chris couldn’t help but try to insert himself every time trouble brewed. It was exhausting.

But at least Jade would be with him. She, at least, seemed to believe that he was enough.

She finished her glass and clapped her hands. “Okay. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this, but I think you need it.”

“Need what?”

She opened a kitchen cabinet and started pulling out baking ingredients. A minute later, she pushed a set of ramekins across the kitchen island.

“Stress bake me a chocolate soufflé.”

“A soufflé? I’ve never attempted one. I don’t even have a recipe.”

His phone chimed.

“Now you do. No excuses. Go.”

“I doubt Margie keeps a double boiler in her guest house.”

She leaned across the counter and looked him dead in the eyes. “If I can attend my ex-boyfriend’s wedding, recapture my muse, paint a gigantic mural, and try to get a driver’s license a decade later than most people, you can make a soufflé.”

“Fair enough,” he said. He loosened his collar and rolled up his sleeves. Maybe a new challenge would be enough to pull him out of this rut.

Baking gave him such peace. It was a delicate science, just like winemaking. But unlike wine, he didn’t have to stare at a barrel for a year before discovering the outcome.

One heavy-handed measurement could ruin the whole thing, especially with something as finnicky as a soufflé. But there was something invigorating about the challenge.

Jade tapped away on her new laptop as he chopped chocolate and whisked yolks. She already knew him so well. Ninety percent of the people in his life had no idea that he even baked, but she could tell when he needed it to distract him.

And she was staying. A world of possibility had opened. What would their future together look like? Would she get tired of him when she realized his sixty-hour work weeks were not an exaggeration?

The winery drifted into his mind. It really was a lot of work. Beyond the actual winemaking, most of it wasn’t something that required him specifically. Even his grandmother had outsourced most of the administrative stuff, so why was he so insistent on doing everything himself?

Jade’s suggestion about outsourcing some of the grunt work was interesting, but not the most fiscally responsible choice he could make. What would he even do with the extra time?

His gaze drifted back to her. She was sitting at the island in silence, brows furrowed in concentration.

There was his answer. As Jade had pointed out time and time again, tomorrow was never a guarantee.

Maybe it was time he loosened the reins a little.

If he could pull the winery out of its flatline with the help of the sparkling wine, anyway.

An hour later, he carefully cracked open the oven door. From his periphery, he spotted Jade sitting up and leaning forward expectantly.

The baking sheet screeched against the oven rack as he withdrew the soufflés. They had risen like a dream. They were gorgeous. They were stunning. They were?—

“Shit.”

Flat as fuck. They had plummeted almost as quickly as his hopes and dreams. Well, not all of them.

Jade cringed like she was expecting a bomb to go off. They looked at each other, and he burst into laughter. She laughed, then clapped a hand over her mouth.

“I’m sure they still taste amazing,” she said gently.

“I can think of something that tastes better,” he said. He left the soufflés on a cooling rack, grabbed her hand, and pulled her into the bedroom.