Page 10 of A Wilder Wedding

That made me snort. “I have no idea. How am I supposed to fix this when I have no idea where to start?”

“Do you love her?” Elijah asked, his voice so soft it was barely above a whisper.

Elijah had lost the first love of his life in a tragic accident that had rocked this place to its core. Then he had fallen again, and I’d been so damn happy for him. Jealous, but happy.

Both of the men in front of me had found what they needed. They had lives that worked for them and the people they loved.

But how the hell was I supposed to answer him, when I could barely even answer myself?

“I don’t deserve her,” I answered pitifully. Eli sneered while Elijah just clucked his tongue.

“That’s not what I asked. And until you can actually answer that truthfully to yourself, let alone her? You need to think long and hard. Because both of you are our friends and I don’t like to see either of you hurt. None of us do. Get your head out of your ass and fix it. Naomi deserves the world. And I thought you were the one to give that to her. Though maybe I was wrong.”

The two brothers walked away, leaving me standing alone in the vines, the only thing I had ever been able to be truthful about, and they weren’t even mine.

* * *

The next day, I knew I had to talk to Naomi. A long night of tossing and turning made me realize I was a fucking idiot. I saw the way the Wilders moved, the way they made things work.

If they could do it, why couldn’t I?

I loved her. I fucking loved Naomi. I had for far too long, but I’d been too scared. I needed to fix this.

I wasn’t sure exactly how to do that.

I turned the corner, making my way towards the inner workings of the winery, and froze as I saw who was on the tour. Maddie and Jay worked the winery tours, and I would come in for pinch-hitting, but I wasn’t the best at it. I didn’t like talking to people; I would rather talk to the grapes. In fact, I had a mug from Naomi that said that. I still used it every week and thought of her.

Damn it, I was a lost cause.

Now Maddie was working on a tour and I wasn’t sure she even knew who was on it. We had multiple tours through the winery and the vines themselves every day, and I usually steered clear. But I’d been so focused on Naomi that I hadn’t paid attention.

And that was my problem.

Because there Joanna was. Why the hell was she here? I had heard that my ex-wife had moved back to Texas when she had run out of money up in New York. She had wanted to start a small boutique up there, which sounded ridiculous to me. She ran the family small local boutique around here, and it did well enough. It sold local wares, some clothes, and was really for tourists. And people ate it up. We even sent some of the Wilder Retreat guests there if they wanted to go shopping for local things.

But Joanna had wanted to start up something in New York because that sounded like success to her.

That had always been Joanna’s problem. Nothing was ever good enough, and she couldn’t just settle here. And settling was her least favorite word.

She had settled for me, after all.

Apparently she had come back broke, nearly putting the family out of business, but now they were running strong—and she hadn’t come back alone.

I heard she’d gotten married up in New York and brought home the man that she said swept her off her feet. I hadn’t spoken to her at all, but her family and my family were still acquaintances. They went to the same church, so they spoke every Sunday, and my mother always got the updates about her former daughter-in-law and her new exploits.

It seemed my mother had been keeping a couple of secrets.

Not just two of them in fact. With a third on the way.

Joanna held the hand of a little boy, while the big man beside her with his clean-shaven face and angled jaw held a little girl. And from the rounded belly on Joanna, it appeared a third was on the way.

I didn’t usually see families or pregnant women on winery tours, and that’s when I realized this was the full retreat tour, not an actual tasting. Well, there was that. It also meant that they would be seeing the entire retreat, including where Naomi worked.

My blood went cold, because of everybody on this property, Naomi was the only one who knew Joanna.

After all, the two of us had been here the longest, although Naomi had started after Joanna and I had gotten divorced. And the age gap had been one of the reasons I stayed away from Naomi for so long.

It seemed like my past just really wanted to slap me in the face.

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