Page 22 of Love You Too

And so far, all the investigations have turned up nothing.

“I don’t get how that’s possible,” Jax says. “It’s their job to investigate arson. That’s what they do.” He spreads his hands out like it should be obvious.

Archer rubs a hand over the stubble on his chin, which I’ve noticed has the first hints of a graying beard if he were to let it grow into a full beard. It makes him look more seasoned, and also exhausted. Like the rest of us.

“Don’t know what to tell you. They haven’t found anything that leads anywhere substantial. It was literally a Duraflame log tossed from the road onto our property. No cameras picked it up. Could’ve been anyone.”

“We should get more cameras,” Jax says. “I’ll meet with the security company and go over our system.”

Archer nods. “So here’s where we stand with production.” He passes a sheet to each of us. It’s covered in columns of numbers I don’t bother to read because I know he’ll explain everything anyway. “In order to meet our quarterly growth targets and keep shareholders off our backs, we need to buy grapes from Graham. Autumn Lake will sell to us as soon as their vines are established and producing fruit, but that’s a couple years off. Even after the fire, he’s producing enough to get us where we need to be, but it means we’re in business with a guy I’d just as soon forget exists. Anyone have a problem with that?”

The question is met with silence as we all accept that we’re between a rock and a hard place.

My phone pings. Ren has sent me a gif of a disco dancer moving across the floor with moves like John Travolta inSaturday Night Fever. The guy in the image looks a lot like Ren, so much so that I expand it a little. It’s not him, and I roll my eyes at myself for believing it could be.

Me: Seems like you have a little too much time on your hands

Ren: Nah, Coach is working us to the boner

Me: ??

Ren: The BONE. Damn autocorrect. My phone is not my friend

Me: Or maybe it knows you too well

Ren: Come again?

Me: (eye-roll emoji)

Ren: I’ll take that as a yes

I don’t realize that I’m grinning at my phone until PJ nudges me. “What are you smiling at?” I feel my cheeks heat as I stash my phone under a pile of papers on the table. “Nothing. Just Julie.”

PJ gives me a skeptical nod, and I redirect my attention back to the meeting. I need to focus on how to speed up the renovation so our winery can start putting money into the coffers instead of spending it. Once my siblings see that we can sustain the higher prices we’re charging for rooms, everyone will calm down. I know they will.

I should not be thinking about a hot guy who brought me orgasms on a silver platter of hard pecs and abs. I don’t trust him, and I don’t like him.

And after he picks up Truman, I won’t see him again.

CHAPTER 8

Ren

My planeback from Vermont lands late, so Beatrix agrees to keep Truman for one more night. I crash hard when I get home, wake up amped for hockey, and go straight to practice.

Our team’s chemistry on the ice is nonexistent.

It’s a big problem. We’re still a couple months away from the start of the season, so there’s wiggle room, but in ten years of playing, I’ve never seen a team with this much talent look as unprepared as we currently do.

And our coach is staring at me.

Coach Barrington doesn’t suffer fools. When he bestowed the captain title on me, it was with high expectations that I would make his job easier, not harder. He knows the job is tough, but that doesn’t make him any more willing to cut me any slack.

Barrington is an interesting combination of a Yoda-like master of quiet wisdom, his sharp blue eyes piercing any bullshit in the room, and a drill sergeant. When he gets riled up, he yellsand curses like a thunderstorm, rattling the ice and anyone in range. His temper gets tested when we aren’t meeting our potential individually or as a team. Right now, we’re failing on both counts.

I’ve yet to gain control of all the egos driving this team, and our shoddy performance during training is starting to affect team morale. It’s also messing with my confidence as a captain.

I take the disasters on the ice personally because if I can’t get us to play better, my teammates stop respecting me. If they stop respecting me, they stop listening. When that happens, I lose any chance I had at motivating them, to say nothing of our potential to win games when the season starts.

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