My papa was the brand, while Thomas Bradshaw was the face. And it all seemed to work just fine for them.
I left the casita with a smile and joined Mama in the kitchen to tell her I was leaving. Trip would be picking me up any minute, and I was eager to get going. During the winter months, life in that big home felt like a fancy prison. I couldn’t tend to the vines the way I loved to, race to the hilltop when no one was the wiser, or ride my bicycle into town. So a night in the village thrilled me more than it would most kids my age.
When Trip arrived in his loud black truck, I hopped into the backseat to join Josie and squealed as we tore out of the drive. Raven was sitting beside her brother, as quiet as always.
“My dad drunk yet?” Trip asked jokingly.
“Getting there,” I said with a smile. “He thought you were taking me on a date tonight, and he was severely disappointed when I told him it wasn’t just you and me.”
Josie shot me an amused look because she thought Trip might have feelings for me. I chose to ignore her every time she mentioned it. But I couldn’t ignore that look or the silence that filled the truck cabin after the words left my mouth.
To the rest of the girls around town, Trip Bradshaw was the cream of the crop—star athlete in literally every sport offered, though competition wasn’t tough, since our classes were a quarter of the size of most schools. He already had an in with Columbia University in New York, thanks to his dad, who’d gone to school there back in the day. Since his father was my papa’s right-hand man, he had even started volunteering his free time in the vineyard.
It felt ridiculous to think a guy like him could be into a girl like me. I just didn’t believe it was possible. Besides, after too many years of him bossing me around, I saw him in a far different light than when I was younger.
“What’s happening in town tonight?” I asked.
Trip shrugged. “We can park and figure it out from there.”
“Let’s go ice skating up at Mountain Village,” Josie said with a bounce.
I gasped. “Yes, I’m with you.”
“I’ll pass,” Raven said with a snooty air. “I was thinking about riding the G with Logan and Missy.”
“Riding the G” in the context she was speaking was code for “getting wasted in the gondolas.” I raised my eyebrows and tried to catch Trip’s reaction to his sister’s deviance. Raven was in for a verbal lashing.
“No,” Trip said, staring at his sister.
Josie squeezed my arm secretly. She was just as humored by their constant bickering as I was. Plus, if Trip was busy worrying about his sister all night, then we could go our separate ways.
“You’re not going to ditch us to go hang out in a gondola, smoke pot, and get drunk all night.”
“Who said anything about smoking pot?”
Trip shot her another look, and I could have sworn he would have her by her neck if he weren’t trying to focus on the road. “The answer is no. You can hang out with us, or I’m taking you home.”
A frustrated scream burst from Raven. “I’m so sick and tired of you babysitting me everywhere we go. I’m fifteen. Let me have some fun.”
Eventually, their fight started to get old, and Josie and I tuned them out to have a chat. As soon as we parked, Josie and I jumped out of the truck and jogged away.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Trip screamed.
Josie and I hooked arms and giggled while calling over our shoulders, “Ice rink.”
Trip frowned then waved his hand in the air. “Meet back here at midnight!”
We got to the gondola station and hopped in line. We didn’t have to wait long to catch a lift to take us up the mountain. The single cabins, which were attached to a thick cable and carried us up to the small ski resort town, were large enough to fit six people, but Josie and I were lucky enough to get one to ourselves. Inside were two bench seats that faced each other and windows all around us, giving us a three-hundred-sixty-degree view of the San Juan Mountains.
Since I was six years old, the gondolas had been my favorite form of transportation to get up and down the mountain. While driving was an option, they were by far the most scenic way to go.
That night on the town was exactly what my soul needed—an escape into nature from the monotony of life on the vineyard in the winter. As Josie and I strapped on our rented skates, I looked up at the rink, and that happy feeling in my chest transitioned into something darker.
Ridge was there, in the center of the rink, and he was holding hands with a girl his age. She was a pretty girl I recognized from our high school. I could feel my heart in my throat as dread sank into the bottomless pit of my stomach.
The way he smiled down at her, the way he squeezed her hand when she lost her balance, and the way he laughed like he’d never laughed with me before made me feel sick.
“Is that Lucy?” Josie asked.
Lucy was the beautiful golden-haired girl’s name. And even though Ridge had never mentioned her to me before, he clearly liked her. I could see it. Everything looked so easy between them. Lucy’s father owned the sunflower farm on the other side of town, and their families didn’t have a rivalry. She didn’t have to sneak around just to keep a friendship with the boy she longed for. Ridge and I had been doing that, and while I cherished every single second, I desperately wanted what he had with Lucy.
“Camila, are you okay?”
I faced Josie, my head and chest swirling with each new emotion. “No. I mean I don’t know. It’s crazy that I have a crush on him, right? It’s not like he and I could ever have that.”
My best friend was the only person I would ever trust with that information, and by the look on her face, she had all the sympathy in the world for my feelings. Though it was refreshing, my heart was still breaking.
“I don’t know, Camila. I don’t think it’s crazy at all. Ridge is really cute, and clearly you two have a special friendship. But…” Her eyes slid back to the rink. “Your father would never allow it.”
Sadness was a sneaky bastard that snaked around my heart when I wasn’t expecting it. The night was supposed to be fun. I couldn’t let Ridge and his new girlfriend ruin it for me.
I stood and pushed my shoulders back, treating that icky feeling in my chest like a challenge. “C’mon, Josie. We came here to skate. Let’s skate.”
I flew onto the ice first with Josie right behind me, and we laughed as we circled the rink at top speed. Maybe I was trying to show off as I pulled out all my tricks, flipping around and skating backward while holding hands with my best friend then twirling back around and crisscrossing my shoes like a speed skater. But whatever I was doing seemed to be working. Every time I snuck a glance at Ridge, my confidence grew when I confirmed that he was watching me.
“Slow down,” Josie called with a laugh.
The moment she said it, I realized she was right. I should have slowed down. A little girl stumbling around on skates fell and skidded right in front of me, catching me off guard. I started to brake but knew I didn’t have enough time to stop, so I did the only thing I could think of. I leaped toward the center of the ice, which happened to be right where Ridge was standing.
9