Chapter 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 once ran 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 had money, lots of it, but he 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 doubt.”

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 whined 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 just bottled 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.