Page 12 of Bit's Bliss
I nearly whimpered when he released me and turned his body away from mine.
“Be careful what you wish for, Eberly. You might not like it as much as you think you will.” He stood and took his plate to the sink. “See ya Monday,” he said as I watched him walk out the same door he’d come in.
5
BIT
The drive from Eberly’s to Los Cab was too short to assuage my overwhelming itch to get the hell out of town. Disappearing is what I did best, and it had started long before I was attacked in the wine caves.
It was the reason I hadn’t agreed to join Los Caballeros or even work in our family’s vineyards or winery. No responsibilities meant no one expected me to show up at a certain place at a specified time.
Once I reached the ranch’s main gate, I forced myself to pull my truck through, then drove up and parked in front of the cottage where I’d been living for the last few months—far longer than I’d intended to.
So how in the fuck had I gotten here? By making the mistake of stopping in to see my brother Cru to let him know I was heading out of town.
I couldn’t say it was his fault that I’d ended up staying. If anyone was to blame, it was our oldest sibling, Brix.
When he decided he was finished running the family business, he’d essentially dumped the bulk of it on Cru’s shoulders. He’d gone from second-label winemaker to handling both it and the first-label varietals, and he’d also become the de facto vineyard manager.
Then again, when our father died suddenly when Brix was twenty-eight, hadn’t the same thing happened to him? Brix had been expected to take over the management of the family’s estate and business whether he wanted to or not. While I might agree he deserved to step away, had anyone asked my opinion—which no one ever did—I would let them know I didn’t care for the way it had been at Cru’s expense.
Whether he realized it or not, Cru was more similar to our dad, both in looks and demeanor, than the rest of us. My fear that he’d also suffer the same physical ailments that led to my father’s premature death was what had instigated my decision to remain on my family’s property for what was supposed to be a few days.
Then Cru had hired Daphne Cullen to take over the second label. My plan was to ensure that—unlike me, albeit for entirely different reasons—he’d be able torelinquish control of producing the wines that had been his responsibility for years.
Sheer boredom had led me to wander the estate that day, so many months ago, when I stumbled upon the old winery that was almost entirely camouflaged by overgrown vegetation. I remembered my father saying our production levels had outgrown the facility before I was even born. He’d probably intended to rip it down someday. It was one on a long list of things he’d wanted to do but hadn’t gotten around to when his life was cut tragically short at the age of fifty-two.
I was still sitting in my truck when I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Cru approaching.
“Everything okay?” he asked when I opened the door and got out.
“Fine. You?”
“Never better.”
“Yeah?” I motioned for him to follow me inside.
“I guess you didn’t hear what happened last night.”
My breath caught. “What do you mean?”
“Daphne showed up. Which reminds me, where’d you run off to?”
“I had something to take care of. So, Daph’s here?”
Cru beamed. “She was a late entry into the auction. First bachelorette.”
“Wow. I had no idea.”
“Best surprise of my life. Anyway, you were up and out of here early.”
“Yeah,” I muttered under my breath. I wasn’t in the habit of explaining my comings and goings to anyone, and I wasn’t about to start.
Cru’s eyes scrunched, and he studied me.
“Something else you need?” I asked.
“Nah. I came by to let you know Daphne’s here.” He hesitated as though he expected me to say something else. When I didn’t, he added, “I guess I’ll catch you later, then.”
