The Winemaker

by Michelle MacQueen

  I sucked in a breath, knowing the next words out of my mouth were a betrayal of my brother. Was I really doing this? Yes, apparently. “You have to stay away from Carter.”

  All light faded from her eyes, all hope that what I’d offer was a good deal. It wasn’t. This was terrible. I was about to make her choose between her business and her best friend. My father had tried to teach all his kids friendships were liabilities. It seemed three of his four children took it to heart.

  Now, I was trying to force that reality on the only one of us who never had.

  Lena’s jaw tensed. “No.” She turned and climbed down the rocks toward the strip of beach.

  “No?” I scrambled after her. “It’s what you want, the land. It’s a good deal, Lena.”

  I’d almost reached her when she turned on her heel, anger flashing in those deep brown eyes. “A good deal? You want me to give up my oldest friend for a parcel of land? You’re a real piece of work, Conner Ashford. Just like your father.” She towered over me from her perch on the rocks.

  I climbed up the rocky slope until we were eye level. “You know nothing about my father.”

  “But I know plenty about you.”

  I was so close I could feel her breath. “Oh, really? Enlighten me then. What do you think you know about me?”

  Her eyes narrowed in challenge. “You’re cold. The only thing that matters to you is business and your family’s image. There’s more to life than what other people think of us, Conner.”

  “Like I thought, you know nothing.”

  “And you know so much about me?” She lifted her chin. “This feud between our families is stupid, but even if it wasn’t there, I’d never want to get to know someone like you. And you’d never know me. That would require you to see anyone other than yourself. Like your brother, for instance. What would he think of your little offer? An offer I reject, in case you hadn’t surmised as much.”

  I couldn’t take my eyes off hers, the way her pupils dilated as she grew more angry. Angry Lena was a force, and she had principals. A quality I never knew I admired so much. Her loyalty to my brother was something to see.

  She heaved a breath. “You could never understand what it’s like to have a friend who gets every part of you. That would require you to surrender this stoney strength you seem to think is such an asset. You know, being a jerk will never be a good thing.”

  “Do you ever stop talking?” I couldn’t stop the words before they spilled out.

  Lena’s lips clamped shut, and she stared at me for a long moment. At any second, I expected flames to come shooting out of her nose, to burn in her eyes. Which was probably how I hadn’t seen it coming.

  I was so focused on her intense gaze I didn’t feel her hand on me until it was too late. She shoved me through a gap in the rocks, and unlike with her, there was no one willing to catch me before I tumbled off the edge.

  7

  Conner

  I tried to sneak in through the sliding glass door from the patio, not wanting my dad or my grandfather to see me return home dripping wet. Not like that was the worst outcome of Lena pushing me into the bay.

  The leather seats of my Mercedes were now sopping with bay water. I’d have to get someone to clean it out.

  Our housekeeper, Mrs. Cramer, stood in the kitchen when I entered, her eyes going wide. “What in the world happened to you?”

  “Don’t ask.” I was going to get back at Lena. She’d pushed me in, and by the time I swam back to the small beach, she was gone, leaving me with a key fob that no longer worked, and a ruined phone.

  She’d regret every action. I’d make sure of it.

  I’d almost made it to the stairs that spiraled up to my wing of the house when someone cleared their throat. I closed my eyes for a brief moment before turning to find my grandfather watching. His brow arched toward his gray hair.

  “You know, Conner, you’re supposed to wear a bathing suit if you’re going to take a dip.” He had the decency to bite back his laughter.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Too late for that, I’d say.” Glee danced in his eyes, and it reminded me of Carter. Granddad was so different from his son, it was hard to imagine him raising someone as cold as my father. He’d once run the winery and the vineyard, but in tandem with his wife. They hadn’t expanded it quite like my father had, being content running a smaller operation, though it still generated more profit than most.

  My father liked to say Grandad’s greatest flaw was a lack of ambition. I never saw it that way. He didn’t yearn for power, for control. He’d had money, lots of it, but he’d never used it to exert his influence.

  “Go on.” I sighed. “I know you have some jokes in you.”

  Granddad grinned. “Thanks for your permission. Wouldn’t want you to be a wet blanket.”

  “That was just bad.”

  “Oh, go cry me a river … or a bay as apparently you’ve been doing.”

  “Oh, man.” I rubbed my eyes. His jokes were getting worse with age.

  “We have washing machines, you know. You didn’t have to clean your clothes in the bay.”

  “I’m going upstairs now.” I started climbing.

  His voice trailed after me. “I know there are plenty of people who wish you’d swim with the fishies, but I don’t think this is what they meant.” Did my grandfather just say there were people who wanted me dead?

  I shook my head as I changed into dry clothes. Well, at least he was good at taking the edge off my anger. I suspected he knew exactly what he was doing.

  When I went back downstairs, I found both my father and grandfather in the library. I didn’t spend much time in there as the room was tinged with the smell of tobacco from my father’s pipe.

  “Conner,” his gruff voice called. “Come here.”

  I entered tentatively, waiting for my father to speak again.

  “Well, what did the girl say?”

  At the mere mention of Lena, anger curled in my gut. “She won’t listen to a word that comes out of my mouth. That girl is infuriating.”

  “Hmm ...” My father crossed his legs where he sat in a high-backed leather chair.

  Granddad pretended to read on the couch.

  “We can’t let her get the land.” Not after she practically laughed in my face about the deal. I sat on the open end of the stiff couch.

  “No, we won’t sell to her.” He seemed to be thinking hard. “But it won’t be enough.”

  “Is that where you were, Conner?” Granddad asked. “Talking to the Contreras girl?” I could see his mind working, putting the pieces together, how I’d come home soaking wet. He suppressed a smile. “Interesting.” He murmured something about the apple not falling far from the orchard.

  A nose nudged my hand, and I curled my fingers into Duke’s fur, letting some of the anger ebb away like it tended to do when he was around. It had been a long time since I had a good human friend, but he was ten times better than most humans.

  Something my dad didn’t understand when he scowled at the dog’s presence.

  Tearing his glare from Duke, Dad pinned his gaze on me. “We need to find out more about this plan of hers. If the Contreras family intends to expand their business, we will make sure it doesn’t happen.”

  “You don’t get it, Dad.” Duke lay his head on my lap, looking up at me with wide chocolate eyes that seemed to be saying it wasn’t okay to try to defeat her. What did he know? He was a dog. “Lena … she’s not like normal people. She won’t make mistakes, she won’t give up. Her plans … no matter what we decide about the land, she will reach her goals. I’ve never seen anyone with so little quit in them. She won’t back down.” I’d never been more sure of anything.

  “Sounds like you admire this girl.” Granddad’s voice was quiet, soft.

  “No, I just …” What? Did I admire her? Respect her? “I don’t want us to deceive ourselves.”

  Dad stood. “I know that family, Conner. Sooner or later,
she will sink herself.” He walked out, issuing a sharp, “Dad, we have business to attend to.”

  Granddad stood more slowly. “I don’t know what I did wrong with that man, but apparently he now needs me for business he’s pushed me out of the last few years.”

  I knew the truth. Dad just wanted Granddad away from me for fear he’d encourage my admiration.

  When they were gone, I leaned my head back, staring up at the ornate wooden bookcases.

  I didn’t even hear Carter come in.

  “You’re right, you know.” A sigh hissed past his lips as he took Dad’s vacated seat.

  I didn’t look at him. “That’s not a phrase I hear much from you.”

  That earned me a chuckle. “Well, because you’re usually a colossal jerk. But about Lena … there isn’t anything an Ashford can do to stop her once she sets her mind to something.”

  “Dad will try.”

  “And you?”

  I was quiet for a long moment. “She pushed me into the bay.”

  A loud laugh barked out of him. “I’d have paid good money to see that.”

  “She refuses to end your friendship.”

  I could practically hear his smile, it was so wide. “Never any doubts.”

  I slid my eyes along the room until they met his. “Are you in love with her? Tell me you are because I don’t understand what else could be worth all this trouble.”

  He didn’t answer for a long moment. “No.” That surprised me. “I’m not in love with her, but I do love her. I feel sorry for you, Conner, that you don’t get it. Friendship … it’s worth disappointing Dad for, it’s worth having more restrictions put on my trust, it’s worth more than any amount of money.” He stood. “If you try to interfere again, you’ll see just how much I’m willing to give up for her.”

  He walked out, leaving me with a giant pit in my stomach. How had today happened? I’d gone from fighting her in the downtown streets, to trying to persuade her to abandon my brother, to being pushed in the bay.

  I couldn’t be in this house any longer. I needed a distraction.

  Through all the tasks of running the business, there was only one I cared about. Making wine.

  “Come on, Duke.” He was whining after Carter, but as soon as I patted my leg, he followed me outside and across the lawn to the barn that held both my office and the small wine press.

  In a meticulously clean room, a room that looked nothing like the inside of a barn, barrels of various wines were stacked along the far wall. I’d equipped the space with all the gear I needed to experiment with small batches, combining various kinds of grapes, as well as trying out some of the rarer hybrid grapes I cultivated myself in small quantities.

  I loved the science behind wine making. It got me out of my own head, let me forget this awful day.

  And almost wiped the image of beautiful brown eyes and dark hair from my mind.

  Duke whined at me, as if he could sense the direction of my thoughts. “I’m trying to be better, buddy.” I didn’t want to end up like my father, revered but not exactly liked. Alone, save for children who were scared of him and a father who was disappointed in him.

  Duke leaned against my leg as I filled a glass from one of the wines I’d just bottled up last night. I took a sip, letting the sweet liquid flow down the back of my throat and hit every taste bud.

  It was missing something.

  Seemed like that was going around.

  8

  Lena

  “Mi cielito, be careful with that step ladder.” My mother, ever the worry wart, clucked at me like one of her chickens.

  “I’m fine, Mami. I’ve been training apple trees since I was five.”

  “But that one time you fell off the ladder.”

  “I was eight.” I rolled my eyes, tying a length of soft twine around the slim branch of a two-year tree. Training trees was mindless work, but it took the whole family and most of our skeletal staff to get the work done every year. We usually finished by mid-May, but this year, with fewer hands, it was taking us longer.

  Enzo moved on to the rows of three-year trees with the taller ladder, barely hiding his amusement as he worked quietly with our dad.

  Wiping the sweat from my brow, I climbed down the stepladder and moved to the next tree. Mom removed the training ties from last year, giving a nod of approval when last year’s solid branches stayed put without the ties. Apple trees craved sunlight, and they produced the best fruit when the bulk of the trunk wood was exposed to it. I tied down the new growth to train future branches to remain wide open to the sky.

  “It’s going to be a good harvest this year, Mija. The fruit buds are looking lovely already.”

  “Music to my ears.” I tied a branch down, securing it with a heavy rock so the tender young branch arched down toward the ground. As it continued to mature throughout the season, the branch would harden and remain in this ideal position permanently. A good harvest this year would make up for the last few harvests that hadn’t fared as well. It would be a small step in the right direction, but we still had a long road ahead of us.

  If my family would trust me. I knew I could breathe new life into Orchard Hill Farm, but I needed them to listen to me and not hear little Lena with the big dreams. That was hard when your family still saw you as the kid in pigtails, skinning her knees from climbing trees with the boys.

  “What’s on your mind, Lena?” Grams asked, handing me a cool glass of lemonade from the truck.

  “The usual.” I sighed, moving into the shade for a rest. “Work. Things that need to be done around here. More work.”

  “And secret bank loans for secret Selena projects?” my grandmother whispered in a hushed voice.

  “Grams.” I shushed her, looking over my shoulder to see if Mom heard us. She would not approve. Neither would Dad.

  “I’m not sharing your secrets, Lena. I have faith in you. But the Ashfords can be a sly bunch. As soon as you attempt to make big moves for Orchard Hill, they will swoop in like vultures to push you back down.”

  “So, I shouldn’t try?”

  Grams gave me a dirty look for putting words in her mouth.

  “Of course you should try. You just have to be smart about it. Smarter than all of them put together. You will find a way to get the loans you need.”

  “How can I when the Ashfords refuse to sell the land I need? As soon as they found out a Contreras was the interested buyer, they rejected my offer.” I turned back to my work, gathering a bundle of training ties for the saplings we planted last week.

  “If I know the Ashfords at all, they’ll want something other than money.”

  “If it was just money, I would find a way.”

  “They want something that will hurt?”

  I nodded. “They want me to stop seeing Carter.” I looked up at the clear afternoon sky, wishing I was anywhere but here. The mindless activity left me free to think about all the things. Plans for Orchard Hill led to thoughts of how to make it happen and thoughts of buying the property I needed. Then, Carter’s betrayal and Conner Ashford, which sent me into a fury.

  Though the last time I’d seen him was a supremely satisfying moment, I would likely regret it. Dumping the heir to Ashford Estates into the bay was not the best way to get ahead in this town.

  “I’ve been telling you for years, your friendship with that boy will come to no good. Trust me, I know.”

  “I trust him.” Grams and I walked along the fresh mounds of new saplings. This would require a more delicate hand to train the youngest saplings. Grams was the best at this particular chore.

  She sat down on the ground, talking to the baby trees in Spanish. She claimed they responded more to the romance of the Spanish language. I wasn’t so sure she was wrong.

  “Of course you do, he is your friend. You two have been sneaking around since you were young. No friendship would last that long through such trials if it wasn’t a true friendship. I didn’t say I don’t approve of the relationship.” />
  It felt good that she understood, but I knew there was a ‘but’ coming.

  “But his family will use him against you to get what they want. Ending your friendship with Carter would be the first of many conditions they would put on you. You don’t want the Ashfords holding anything over your head, so don’t give them a precedent.”

  “I won’t let them manipulate me.” I trimmed a spindly growth from the first sapling. “I’ll find another way to get the land I need. I wanted the parcel close to town to draw in tourists and still remain close to Orchard Hill, but maybe we can make it work with something farther from town.”

  “Don’t compromise on your dreams, Mija. You will find a way to get what you want. Just be careful. Old man Ashford is like your Carter, but his son and grandson are cut from a different cloth.”

  “Deep down, Conner is just a spineless coward.”

  “You work too hard.” Grams shifted the loose soil around the root ball of the sapling. “You and your brother. You’re too young to spend all your time working to keep this orchard afloat.”

  “We do what we have to, Grams.” I smiled at my grandmother. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

  “Well, the old ones can handle the rest of this work.” Grams climbed back to her feet. “Enzo, take your sister sailing.” She dusted the dirt from her grandma jeans.

  “You’re not old, Grams.” I leaned against her. I could try to talk her out of sending us sailing, but I knew from experience I would lose that argument. Plus, it had been an age since we went on the boat Enzo had fixed up two summers ago.

  “Of course not, I’m talking about those two.” She flung a hand out at her son and daughter-in-law shuffling along the rows of young saplings.

  “Right.” I grinned at my grams, draping an arm around her. “Maybe you should come sailing with us and leave the olds to the work.”

  “But then, who will tell them what to do?” Grams deadpanned. I loved this woman. Of all my family, I felt the most connected with her. My mom was Mom. She was the best mother I could have asked for, but Grams was special.