Page 24 of My Three Rivals

“Yep,” I agreed. “Atticus wants to start with our project.”

She paled and leaned forward, dropping her bare feet to the wood slats of the veranda. “You intend to dig up some of the vineyard?” she asked in disbelief.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything after all.

“You know it’s in our right—”

Her head jerked up, and venom spilled out of her mouth.

“No, it’s not! The vineyard ismylivelihood, Wyatt!”

I hesitated, swallowing. I was sure that Atticus had carefully plotted the starting point, focusing on areas that weren’t apt to affect production. It didn’t make sense that he would cut into any profits we might see until Tegan gave up her portion of the land, and I said as much, but Tegan wasn’t hearing it.

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” she whiplashed, but it wasn’t anger in her words. It was anguish. “Plants are sensitive. If you start digging and jackhammering or drilling or whatever you plan on doing, you’re going to affect their growth. And affecting their growth means affecting production. I can’t afford another bad year. The winery will fail if you do this!”

I shrugged nonchalantly and turned away, but inwardly, I felt a smidgen of guilt. I didn’t know enough about winemaking to confirm or deny her claims, but it was obvious she believed it.

“Really?” Tegan shouted after me. “That’s all you’re going to say?”

I stopped again and turned around, frowning. “What do you want me to say? We’ve given you an out, Tegan. I suggest you take it before you’re left with absolutely nothing.”

She gasped and balked as I pivoted and headed north, the rumble of the trucks on the dirt road beyond the vineyard meeting my ears. They were here, and I couldn’t waste my morning placating a little girl who didn’t know how the real world worked.

* * *

The last of the workmen piled into a pickup truck and promised to come by in the morning, leaving the machines at the far end of the vineyard. The sun broke fully over the horizon now, and my stomach growled for breakfast. Checking them over one last time, I headed back to the house.

Tegan was no longer at the front, and when I entered, the wafts of coffee emanated through the house. I ambled into the kitchen, where Maverick and Atticus sat over an old wooden table, the plans for our latest development in front of them.

They both glanced up at me when I entered. “Where have you been?” Atticus asked.

“The construction crew is here,” I informed him, and his face relaxed. “They are setting up to get started tomorrow.”

He nodded. “Right. Everything in order to start with the digging?”

I nodded, considering telling him about Tegan’s complaints, but stopped myself. The girl was going to need to learn how to deal with change. I couldn’t help her if she wouldn’t help herself. I’d already been down that road before with my mother, and look how that had turned out.

“There’s no food in this house,” Maverick groaned. “How can she live like this?”

I’d asked myself the same thing the previous night. It seemed like Tegan wasn’t exactly the rich-girl heiress I’d assumed, after all. Not that it changed anything… really.

“I’ll head into the city and do some shopping,” Atticus offered. “I need to pick up some materials for tomorrow, anyway.”

“So, when you said that we couldn’t go anywhere, you meant Wyatt and me,” Maverick said with a wry grin. “You can come and go as you please?”

“It’s work, jackass.” Atticus paused. “You two need to stay here.”

He looked meaningfully at Maverick, who blinked innocently. “What?”

“You think I don’t know you were at the Purple Pear last night?”

Maverick grimaced. “You have a tracker on me or something?”

“No, asshole. I have friends who saw you glued to some trashy blonde. By the way, that girl is bad news. Her daddy’s the sheriff or something. You didn’t bring her here, did you?”

Maverick swallowed visibly and turned his eyes to the plans again without answering Atticus’ question.

Instead, he posed one of his own, which served as a better distraction. “How many more of these projects are we doing, Atticus?”

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