Always the one for me, p.9
Always the One for Me, page 9
I shook my head. “LJ’s a great guy. He’s not like his brother or his father. Though it is tricky because I told him to his face I felt like a traitor.”
“Ouch,” Alexis commented.
“Pretty much. However, I don’t think it’s going to work out. If anything, we could try to be friends, though even then, that feels weird.”
“Because you guys went on a date that ended neutrally or the fact that his father and brother are assholes?” Maddie held up her hand. “I’m going to try not to be so aggressive, but I hate them.”
“I’m not a huge fan of them either and, frankly, I don’t think LJ is either. He’s either doing this long con, trying to get into my good graces or even the good graces of the Wilders for that matter, or he isn’t like his family. Between that and the lack of real chemistry? We’re not going on another date.”
“I’m sorry. But at least you got out of the house?” Alexis put in, and I shrugged. It felt weird not telling them about Evan, but I needed time to just think. I would tell them everything once I knew what everything was.
Before we could say anything else though, a familiar voice echoed through the hallway, and Maddie stiffened.
Elijah walked in, his stone-gray suit perfectly tailored to his body, and a woman with honey-brown hair, a bright smile, and a killer dress stood by his side.
“Oh, I didn’t know you guys would be in here,” Elijah said with a broad smile.
I smiled up at him, trying not to look at Maddie. “Hi, Elijah. We’re just talking about weddings and doing a tasting.”
“It is a good job where we can do wine tastings on the premises,” Elijah teased as he looked over at his date. “Ladies, this is Joy. Joy, this is Alexis, our wedding planner for the resort, Kendall, our chef for the resort and winery, and Maddie, our tasting room and wine club manager.”
Joy waved at us, looking like a bombshell goddess in her dress, and with her kind eyes, it was hard to hate her. Because Maddie was my friend, I would hate her if I needed to, but Maddie was doing her best to look as if she wasn’t crushed.
“It is nice to meet you,” Alexis said as she stood up, and we all followed.
We all shook hands as Joy introduced herself individually to us. “It’s so nice to meet all of you. Elijah speaks so highly of everyone here.”
The man in question couldn’t keep his eyes off Joy. “I was just showing Joy around before we head out for dinner.”
I looked down at my watch and held back a curse. “It’s later than I thought. I should get back to work. Inventory tonight.”
“Sounds like an evening not to miss,” Elijah teased.
I grinned before I looked over at Maddie. “Can I convince you to help me so I can send Sandy home?” I pleaded, fluttering my eyelashes.
Maddie gave me a gracious look that I was pretty sure that no one else saw. “I’ll help for a little bit, but not the whole evening. I have plans, too.”
Elijah just nodded as Alexis led Joy and him to the other side of the room to show off some of the wine pairings we had been working on.
Maddie gripped my hand as we said our goodbyes and walked away, and I felt more than heard the sigh of relief as we left their gazes. “Well, that wasn’t awkward at all.”
“You don’t have to help if you don’t want to. Sandy wasn’t working tonight. I was lying.”
“And I love you for that. I need to get over this stupid thing. It’s ridiculous, one-sided, and all it’s doing is making things awkward for you guys. I’m better now. I promise.”
I raised a brow. “Really?”
“Damn straight. I am fine. And I’m going to go make some plans, so I wasn’t a complete liar.”
I hugged her tight, watched her walk away, and stood alone in the garden, telling myself I needed to get back to work. And not think about the night before, the years before that, or what was coming.
Relationships were complicated. Life was complicated.
And the Wilders even more so.
Chapter Nine
Evan
* * *
How today had gone from bad to worse, I wasn’t sure. Yet here I was, standing in nearly ankle-deep puddles of wine, hands on hips, glaring at the broken taps.
“It’s the valve,” Jay growled, knee-deep in the muck. While I could kneel and bend and do what I needed to with my prosthesis, Jay had practically ordered me not to dip it in wine, so I let him do the bending while I had done the heavy lifting alongside Amos.
“How the hell did we have such a leaky valve that nobody fucking noticed?” I snapped and knew that it wasn’t Jay’s fault.
Jay just looked over his shoulder at me as the rest of the team worked, trying to make sure that nothing else happened. Amos snarled low under his breath as he studied the mess.
Two barrels were lost. All of that wine, years of growing from the vines, and every process of getting the taste that we needed from that blend, as well as aging it in the barrel and going through the entire process of making wine, was lost. While not one of our most expensive, a wine that still was part of our income for the next year, gone.
“I think you’re going to want to call the authorities, while Elijah deals with the insurance company.”
I stiffened and looked down at him. “You think it was tampering?”
Jay winced. “I don’t know. But these weren’t leaking the past two days when we checked them. And we have the rest of the staff checking every single fucking piece of equipment in this building to make sure this doesn’t happen again. But something of this magnitude? It just doesn’t happen overnight. And we’re a good team. You and your brother have seen to that.”
I grumbled under my breath and pulled out my phone. “I’m going to call Eli since he’s with Elijah right now, and we’ll get the brothers on this.”
“What about East? Should I get East?” Jay asked, and I nodded, thinking of my other brother, who was in charge of the maintenance of the entire resort. Even though he didn’t work with the wine barrels and buildings much because this wasn’t his expertise, and this was what Jay and Amos did, East was still the best to help fix up anything. He was magic. He would know what to do.
“Don’t have anyone clean anything up until the authorities get here. And the insurance adjusters, I guess.”
“This will be covered by insurance,” Amos grumbled. “Elijah will make sure of it.”
I nodded tightly. “We’ll get our money back, but it’s going to be a hit.” It was a hit that the resort could take, but it didn’t make it any easier. It also wouldn’t go well if Bliss pulled out. Because if we no longer worked with Bliss for their account, that meant that we wouldn’t have the buffer to help us through this mess.
“That just reminded me who exactly was at fault for the Bliss mess,” Amos growled.
“Same here,” I added.
“Don’t go over there and make a scene. Punching the guy or drowning him in his own wine isn’t going to fix things. You’ll both just end up in jail.”
I narrowed my eyes at Jay. “How the hell did you read my thoughts when I hadn’t even thought them yet?” I asked, now thinking about drowning the Dodges in their own wine. They might not have the winery we did, but they still worked with Fredericksburg’s wines. It was a whole complicated process in which the Dodges didn’t want us to succeed, so they were trying to hurt us in any way they could, even if it had no direct correlation with them.
Amos headed off to help the rest of the team while I finished dialing my brother.
Eli picked up on the first ring. “Elijah’s in my office right now, dealing with the insurance. Everything okay over there?”
I looked down at the red staining my jeans and my boots and rubbed my temples. “No. You’re going to want to call the cops.”
Eli cursed. “Seriously?”
“Jay thinks something was tampered with, and we’re not touching anything. Fuck, Eli.”
My older brother, and sometimes boss, let out a string of curses before he finally agreed to it and hung up.
Eli would deal with it because he could act a little more rational, at least sometimes. He and Elijah could handle the front face, same with Everett, who was the CFO for the whole operation.
East and I tended to growl and curse at everybody versus remaining calm and rational. Elliot was busy with Alexis planning that damn celebrity wedding we had coming up.
I froze and turned to Jay as he stood up, wiping his hands on a towel. “Is any of this going to affect that damn wedding?” I asked.
Jay paled before he shook his head. “No. This wasn’t even going to be ready till next year. We’re fine.”
I let out a relieved sigh and quickly shot off a text to Elliot, letting him know that.
“Letting your brother know that all is not lost for him?” Jay asked, teasing.
I rolled my eyes. “Pretty much. We’ll get through this. We always do.”
“When we first opened the place with the previous owner, we had an issue where the entire stock for that year had a pressure valve issue. Not a leak, but the whole thing didn’t settle right. We lost thousands of dollars for that one wine. Not the rest, but for that one kind. And insurance didn’t cover it like this is going to for you.”
I winced. “You sound pretty sure that insurance is going to cover this one.”
“They better. Because if it’s sabotage or a faulty valve, either way, that’s on the docket. And your brother is shrewd enough to fight.”
“And that means I should be shrewd enough to make sure that everything else is on schedule. They’ll deal with the cops. We’ll deal with the rest of the winery. Because I know Maddie’s going to want tours for the rest of the place, and that means we can’t fuck things up.” My brain was going in a million different directions at once as I tried to figure out the next steps we could take.
“No, we’ll keep them out of here, and then you and I will go behind the rest of our staff, checking every single valve they already did. Because I want more than one pair of eyes on that.”
“Damn straight. This is why you’re my number one guy on this.”
Jay winked, though I saw the worry in his gaze. “Good to know. I like having job security.”
I shook my head and followed him, making sure Maddie knew exactly where she needed to be so we would keep prying eyes away from this in case the authorities came with blaring lights. I did not want to think about that, but the others would deal with it. My job was the wine, and frankly, Jay and I needed to focus on that right now.
By the time we finished, I’d changed pants and shoes and hoped to hell that Jay’s dry cleaner would be able to fix the damage. I didn’t have a dry cleaner, and since Jay knew how to get wine out of anything, I let them handle it.
My stomach growled, and I figured I could go to the employee lounge for something to eat, or I could see the person I hadn’t spoken to in a day because our paths never crossed.
And I needed to speak to her.
I passed by a few guests, nodded casually, but moved quickly through the gardens, past the stone archways where a couple was having a photoshoot of some sort, and made my way to the kitchen. Things were bustling in there, but it was after lunch, and the tour was already going on, so I knew that part of their food was already taken care of. So this meant they had to be getting ready for dinner or one of the other multiple things that I knew Kendall handled.
Kendall, Sandy, and the rest of their team were moving like a well-oiled unit. That asshole had been fired and not allowed back on the property after Kendall and Eli had taken care of him. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have yelled at him the way I had, or threatened him, but he had hurt Kendall, and I’d seen red. He was lucky she had gotten to him first. I was fortunate the disappointment in Kendall’s gaze had pulled me back from doing anything worse.
Nobody noticed me when I walked into the kitchen, but things started to quiet down. People moved about, getting ready for the next phase of their day. Kendall was at the opposite end of the kitchen and didn’t see me but moved towards the pantry.
Sandy gave me a look, one arched brow, and I wasn’t sure if she knew exactly what had happened between Kendall and me. I didn’t think so because nobody had come up to me and punched me in the face or kicked me for daring to sleep with her. For treating her like I had. In fact, since I hadn’t told my brothers, and none of the girls had come up to me in any way, I didn’t think anybody knew what had happened.
So, were we keeping it a secret? Or were we figuring out what we were together first? If we were anything.
And I hated even going through any of that in my head.
“Sandy,” I said with a nod as I moved past her.
“Evan. We’re on a small break, so we don’t have much time.”
I heard the chill in her tone, and while she was doing her best to keep it professional since I was one of her bosses, she also was standing up for Kendall. I liked that she had that because I deserved any vitriol coming my way.
“Got it. I won’t be long.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, then went back to stirring something in a pot. It looked like a bouillabaisse, but I didn’t know since most of my cooking included steak or boxed macaroni and cheese. But I did remember a few things from Kendall from when we lived together.
I made my way into the pantry, the door closing behind me, while Kendall studied the tablet in front of her.
“Hey, I think we’re going to need to order more flour. I don’t know why we keep using so much, but I think we’ve been in such a bread phase to go with all that wine. We’re going to need to at least add a different percentage.”
“Good to know,” I said. “You should talk with Everett about that. He’s the CFO, after all. He knows what can work budget-wise.”
Kendall’s shoulders tightened before she turned to me, her eyes wide. “Oh. I thought you were someone else.”
“So I gathered.”
I moved closer, not knowing if this was the right thing, but knowing it was the one thing I needed to do. I cupped her face gently, leaned forward, and kissed her softly, her lips soft and lush underneath mine. It was a gentle kiss, nothing hard or hot. I didn’t push her against the shelving and take her. But I did capture those lips and craved her taste.
She kissed me back, soft and gentle, and the relief flowing through me at that moment was enough to push away every other bad thing that had happened that day.
“You can’t do that at work,” she whispered.
I nodded. “I know. But I didn’t want you to think that I was walking away as I did before. I’m not good with words, Kendall. I never was.” I was being as honest as I could, baring as much of myself as possible. I wasn’t good at this. But I was going to try for her. For us. Because she deserved this and much more.
“Evan. You’re going to have to try harder now. I can’t do this. I can’t do the back and forth. But I can try. As long as you try too.”
“I can. I am. I promise.” My jaw tightened because today had just been a long fucking day, and it wasn’t even entirely over yet.
Then, she looked up at me, frowning as she studied my face. “What’s wrong? Not with us. Well, I guess we’ll figure that out because my heart can’t take anything else, but what’s wrong?”
She was so good at cutting to the heart of it, for understanding that, yes, we needed to figure shit out, but we didn’t need to do it all at once. But it was sort of nice having someone to ask what was wrong. After so many years of hiding, because of my own actions, nobody else’s.
“There are problems with the valves. The cops were here. We lost two barrels of wine.” I went into detail, her eyes darkening as I continued. “The insurance adjuster is on the way, the cleanup is in process, but we did the majority of it already after photos were taken.”
“Someone did it on purpose? They broke the valves?”
“That’s what it looks like. The cops will ask people questions, but it’s not like they have much to go on. There are thirty sets of fingerprints on everything. And there are cameras in that building, but not right at that angle. So you can’t see that valve.” Something that was going to be changing soon, and my CFO of a brother was already working on it.
“Okay. Damn it. Somebody ruined that wine on purpose.” She paled. “You think it was LJ.”
I growled. I couldn’t help it at the sound of his name. I just growled. “No.” At her relief, I continued. “I think it was his brother. Or his dad. They’re the most likely culprits—them or someone they hired. And though I wanted to hate LJ for liking you, he’s not an asshole.”
I honestly couldn’t believe I was saying things like that, but they were the truth, and Kendall deserved the truth after all these years.
She blinked at me. “Oh. That’s growth. That is a lot of growth.”
I snorted despite our conversation. I couldn’t help it. “I guess I’m a new man.”
She smiled softly as we stood in the pantry of the kitchen that she worked so hard in. “What are we going to do?” she whispered, and I knew she wasn’t talking about the wine or the kitchen.
I needed to be better. Going home alone, hating myself, and hurting Kendall? That wasn’t in the cards anymore. I needed to be better.
“I’m going to try to keep this place safe. And then I’m going to try to figure out exactly how you and I work together and be together.” I cleared my throat. “Will you go with me to this fancy wedding?”
I hadn’t even meant to say that. I had no idea where that had come from, but it was a token. A push. It was something different. It wasn’t me standing on the sidelines and hating myself and trying to hate her when she had done nothing wrong except fucking exist.
She smiled, her whole face lightening. “Did you just ask me to a wedding that we’re both working on?”
I growled. I couldn’t help it. “I’m trying to be romantic.”
She laughed then, her whole body lighting up, and I couldn’t help but join her. She was gorgeous. She always had been, but younger Kendall had been sexy and sweet. This new version? The one who had been through hell and had come out stronger? She was sexy, sweet, and so fucking confident even when she didn’t think so. It was hard to breathe in her presence.
