Casey mixes her berries into her oatmeal. “Not officially, but he keeps hinting at it.”
A smirk appears on Daniel’s lips. “You won’t have to wait much longer.”
Casey freezes, her spoon near her mouth. “What do you know about the situation?”
He shrugs. “If I knew anything, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Since when are you the greatest secret keeper on the planet?” she asks, shoveling the oatmeal into her mouth.
Daniel appears wounded. “I’m telling you, Casey, I’ve changed. If you’ll give me a chance, I’ll prove it to you.”
“Does proving it involve your plan for the vineyard’s future?”
“Yes, in a roundabout way. Considering my history, I have no right to ask this of you, but I need for you to trust me about the plan. Can you do that for me, sweetheart?”
Casey considers her words before responding. “I can try. I’ll give you another chance, Daniel. But you’d better not let me down again.”
He places a hand over his heart. “You have my word.”
His word means little to her now. But he’s her father, and she can’t help but love him.
CHAPTER 3
SHELDON
Sheldon stands in the kitchen doorway watching his wife nurse their newborn son. He never realized love could be so tender, so profound.
Ollie looks up with misty eyes. Breastfeeding still moves her, even after a month. For a woman who never wanted kids, she’s a natural at motherhood.
She eyes his five-pocket khakis and golf polo. “You look nice. Are you going out?”
“I’m headed over to Valley View. Gray invited me for coffee. I got the impression he wants to talk about our offer.” Sheldon kisses his wife’s upturned face and rubs the downy hair on his son’s head.
“I hope he has some good news for us. The waiting is killing me,” Ollie says, moving her infant to the opposite breast.
Sheldon raises his hands to show fingers crossed. “We’ll know soon enough.”
He grabs his keys from the wall hook beside the open back door and steps onto the porch where jasmine-scented air greets him. The sky is a brilliant blue and the temperature is mild. He pockets his car keys. Why waste a beautiful morning when he can walk to his meeting instead of driving?
Exiting the porch, he strolls up the driveway toward the country highway.
His life has changed for the better since marrying Ollie eight months ago. Her boutique vineyard, Foxtail Farm, now feels like home. He much prefers her comfortable farmhouse with its cheerful yellow door and black shutters to his family’s stone mansion with its vast rooms and memories of his unhappy childhood at the vineyard next door. He can be himself here, without the pressure to live up to his father’s high standards.
Sheldon crosses the highway and continues past the black split-rail fence with dangling wooden sign identifying the property as Valley View Vineyard. Purchasing Gray’s vineyard will double the size of Foxtail Farm’s real estate. Their expansion plans include converting Gray’s farmhouse into a welcome center, consolidating the winemaking from both vineyards at Valley View’s newly updated winery, and transforming Foxtail’s rustic winery building into a space for private events and tastings.
Ollie will be heartbroken if the deal falls through. But the deal is taking longer than necessary, and Sheldon has a gnawing feeling in his gut that something has gone wrong.
The trees clear and the vineyard comes into view with rows of grapevines sloping downward into the valley. His heart races as he imagines the views from the porch-wrapped farmhouse overlooking the vineyard—not only spectacular sunrises over the valley but also prime sunsets descending beyond the mountains from Ollie’s tasting room cafe.
Gray, waiting on the porch with two coffees in to-go cups, hands Sheldon a coffee. “I need to stretch my legs. Do you mind if we walk?”
“Not at all.” Sheldon extends an arm. “After you.”
They leave the porch and head down the dirt path toward the fields. “I’m afraid I have bad news. An anonymous party has made an offer on the vineyard.”
When Gray tells him the amount, Sheldon stops dead in his tracks. “You can’t be serious. That’s nearly double the value of the property.”
“Isn’t it crazy? It doesn’t make sense.”
“What do you know about this anonymous person?” Sheldon has a sneaking suspicion his oldest brother, Hugh, is the interested party.
“Not much. The individual contacted Miranda directly. According to her, the person insisted on keeping their identity a secret. I don’t trust Miranda, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if she knows who it is. She’s determined to suck every last dime out of me. Her divorce attorney is adamant we accept this offer, but I convinced them to give you and Ollie an opportunity to match it. You have two weeks.” Gray claps Sheldon on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, bro. I realize it’s a lot of money. If you can even come up with half the difference, I might convince Miranda to let you have it.”
Sheldon’s spirits sink. “But you both agreed to our offer months ago.”
Gray kicks at a pebble on the path. “In hindsight, we should’ve drawn up an official contract, maybe even gotten a Realtor involved. I wish I could do more, but my hands are tied.”
They start walking again. When they reach the fields, instead of entering the rows of grapevines, Gray turns toward the winery. “If it were up to me, I’d sell you the vineyard today. But Miranda’s being a real bitch.”
“I can’t figure out how you two ended up together when you’re so different. You’re so laid back, and she’s strung as tight as a guitar string.”
Gray lets out a sigh. “We were twenty-four when we met at a friend’s wedding. We hadn’t been together long when she got pregnant. I wanted to do right by her, and I honestly thought she was the one. We ran off to Las Vegas and got married. Two weeks later she suffered a miscarriage. Truthfully, I’m not sure she was ever really pregnant.”
Sheldon tucks his chin and looks at Gray over the top of his sunglass frames. “Are you saying she faked the pregnancy?”
Gray hunches a shoulder. “Maybe. I’ll never know for sure. The miscarriage devastated me. We started trying again right away. I started getting suspicious when we still hadn’t conceived after ten years. Then one day in June of last year, I was rummaging through the trash looking for a bill I’d misplaced when I found an empty packet of birth control pills. We had a terrible argument, and she moved out the next day.”
Sheldon’s heart goes out to him. “I’m really sorry, man. That’s a bummer. But you’re still young. You still have plenty of time to find the right woman and start a family.”
“I appreciate your sincerity, but another woman is the last thing I’m looking for right now,” Gray says, and they walk the rest of the way to the winery in silence.
Sheldon admires the building, remodeled to resemble the farmhouse with white siding, copper roof, and dormer windows. “You and Miranda certainly did a bang-up job on the renovations.”
Gray grunts. “A simpler plan would’ve worked just fine. I let Miranda talk me into this extravagance. I overextended myself trying to make her happy, and now I have to sell the vineyard my family has operated for three generations.”