Page 53 of Kisses Sweeter than Wine

“Well, that you don’t get from me.” Merlot laughed. “I’m lucky I graduated from college with halfway decent grades.”

“Let me call Tom. We can trust him, I promise. You and your dad can be on the call with me. I want to help end it so my parents can have their happily ever after.”

All the air in Merlot’s lungs flew out like a bird taking flight. “Let’s go find your grandfather and see what he has to say about this.”

“Perhaps we shouldn’t tell Mom.”

“Nope.” Merlot shook his head. “I’m not keeping secrets from that woman. I watched too many lies almost destroy my parents and too many of them nearly broke me.”

“You’re kind of afraid of her, aren’t you?”

“I saw a side of her yesterday when she spoke to you that absolutely terrified me, so yeah. Just a little.”

Corbin laughed, jumping to his feet. “Fair enough. Oh, and one more thing.”

Merlot stood, though not quite as swiftly as his son. “What’s that?”

“Not that I’m ready to do this, because it would be even weirder than everything that’s happened in the last day. Plus, I shouldn’t get used to it because it would be dangerous. But when the day comes that all this is behind us, and it feels right, any problem with me calling you Dad?”

“Jesus. God, no.”

“Damn. We sound alike.”

“I know,” Merlot said. “It’s making my mom batshit because I’m the most like my dad and now she’s got three of us to deal with.”

“Something tells me I’ll have fun with that.”

“Oh, hell yeah.” Merlot looped his arm around his son. Even though he couldn’t share this with anyone other than his family, that didn’t matter because family was all he cared about.

11

CARTER

No matter how much Carter loved Weezer, there were moments he wanted to hog-tie her to the bed, and not for sexual reasons.

“Weezer’s going down,” Silas said as he approached Carter near the starting line of the three-legged race. “I don’t care what young kid she brings in as a ringer, she’s not winning this year.”

“Why the hell do you care?”

“Because she cheats,” Silas said.

“And you don’t?” Carter laughed, then winked.

“All is fair in love and war.” Silas smiled. “Claudia was surprised to see Talbot’s son and I have to say, Weezer makes a big deal about family only. I’m shocked she’s not using Dax or even Toby this year.”

“The kid just landed Stateside. She’s doing her good deed for the year. She’s got to get it out of her system so she can return to living up to her reputation.”

Silas patted Carter on the back. “I wish I could come back with some nasty-ass retort, but we both know Weezer ain’t bad. Except she cheats.”

Carter shook his head. It was the same thing every damn year. “Ty Wilde and Riley Reynolds is an exciting lineup. You should worry more about them than Weezer and Talbot’s son.”

“I’m not worried about winning. I don’t want Weezer to. It’s the principle of the thing. See ya at poker.”

“Bring a wad of cash, because I’m taking it.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Silas meandered toward Claudia, who huddled next to Talbot and Corbin.

So far, other than the questions regarding the change in lineup, not a single person questioned or mentioned Corbin’s family resemblance. However, all the males in the family kept their distance, including the grandkids. The only one who knew the truth was TJ, but he knew better than to expose this secret. He’d been through his own trauma thanks to his birth mother exposing Chablis’ private medical records and what that had done to his family, not to mention his own life. That kid was as good as they came and Carter was proud to call him grandson.

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