by Linde, K. A.
“Thanks, Jen.”
“Anytime.”
“Mom and Dad aren’t going to be this cool.”
I stepped back. “No, I suspect not. But you don’t have to tell them until you’re ready. I would recommend responding to their messages, so they don’t show up, like I did.”
He ran a hand over his five o’clock shadow. “Yeah, my bad.”
I nodded at him. “You’re still coming for the fireworks, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be there. I’ll let them know.”
“And Peter?”
Chester looked anxiously back to the house. “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”
I put my hand on his. It was this very moment when it felt like everything shifted between me and my brother. He wasn’t any more perfect than I was. He hid things from our parents. He wanted to live his real, true life but didn’t want to risk their judgment. I knew exactly what that was like.
“I’m here whenever you’re ready.”
And I meant it.
31
Jennifer
My brand-new Canon hung around my neck as I paced my house, waiting for Julian. He’d gotten me the new camera when we returned from Mexico, and I couldn’t even hold in my excitement about the newer, fancier model.
Piper and Blaire had already gone on ahead to the fireworks. They’d offered to take me with them, but I’d assured them it was unnecessary. I wanted to hear what had happened with Julian’s dad. He’d been vague and unavailable all afternoon. So, I was jittery with nerves about this and my last shoot of the day.
When the doorbell finally rang, I yanked it open before Julian even removed his finger. “There you are!”
I threw my arms around him, and he laughed.
“Hey, you.”
“How are you? I’ve been wondering how everything went all day.”
“Good. Things went…good.”
“Good?” I asked. “Really?”
He cringed. “Eh, I don’t know. Good-ish.”
“Tell me everything on the way.”
His gaze followed me as I walked past him and locked the door up. Bacon meowed from the bushes, coming to twine herself around Julian’s ankles.
“She likes me.”
“Don’t let Cado see. She’s protective of Bacon,” I said warily. “She still hasn’t forgiven me for moving. I don’t know if she ever will.”
“But she’s shown up for food again?”
I nodded. “Yeah. She’ll eat my food, but she doesn’t have to like me.”
He chuckled. “Sounds like a cat.”
“For real. This is why I never liked cats.”
“Too bad.”
I pet Bacon a few times. “We have to go. Give Cado my best.”
Bacon meowed, as if in answer. Then we headed over to Milli, idling in the driveway.
“Do you really think it’s wise to bring the Jag to find parking?”
“Would you rather park the SUV in a tiny parking space?”
I considered it. “No. That would suck.”
“Thus Milli.” He held my door open for me and then took the driver’s seat. “You seem keyed up.”
“I have one more shoot, and I’ve been waiting all day to hear from you.”
He smirked and kissed my fingers. “Didn’t realize you were waiting for me.”
“I was.”
“What’s the shoot?”
“You’ll see.”
He arched an eyebrow as he pulled out of the driveway. “Mysterious.”
“So…your dad?” I prompted.
He sighed, as if he’d been hoping to avoid the question. “He says that it’s not his kid. That he’d been contacted by Weston before and handled it.”
My eyes rounded. “Wow. He already knew about this? Why didn’t he let you know?”
“It happened after we left. He said the guy isn’t even Weston Wright. He’s Weston Smith. And is convinced that my dad is his dad.”
“That’s…wow.”
“Tell me about it.”
“And you think he’s telling the truth?”
He shrugged his shoulders, looking defeated. “I want to believe him.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“I know. I know that it’s stupid to put it off. My dad has lied before, but would he lie to us about something this important? I just don’t know.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Well, I’m doing nothing. Jordan and I agreed not to email Weston.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’s…well, we didn’t tell Dad, but we’re hiring a PI and going to investigate the guy. Jor couldn’t find any information on him online, and he’d rather have some concrete proof before we put it behind us.”
“That sounds smart. Also very much like Jordan.”
A hint of Julian came back at that. He laughed. “Yeah, tell me about it. I don’t know why I didn’t even think about doing something like that, but it makes perfect sense.”
“Yeah,” I said, thinking it through. “You don’t have to talk to the guy if it’s not true. And if your dad has nothing to hide, then there’s no reason not to look into this.”
“Except that it makes me feel shitty.”
I startled at that. “Why?”
“Like I’m spying on people instead of trusting people. Even though I don’t trust my dad. I felt like we were at least working on trusting him again. And now, we have this huge thing between us.”
“You don’t have to hire the PI,” I said.
“But we do. I need to know the truth or else it’ll always burn me up.”
I nodded at that. At least he was finally talking about it. This last week, he’d been completely mentally absent.
“What do you want to do if you find out that he is your brother? Do you want to get to know him?”
Julian’s eyes widened. “I really haven’t given that much thought. I so desperately want it all not to be true.” He sighed. “But also, I don’t even know what I want.”
I covered his hand with mine. “You might want to think about it.”
“What would I even want? I really don’t know. I didn’t really know my cousins, and now, I love having them all around. It wouldn’t be the same. But…I don’t know. If it’s true, it’d be really fucking weird.”
I laughed unexpectedly. “It would be. I’m sure he’d be just as weirded out by all of this as you are. It would take some time for you all to adjust.”
“You’re good at this.”
Years and years of therapy. That’s what I wanted to say, but instead, I just smiled. “Thanks. Worst-case scenario-ing is kind of my forte.”
“I’m more of a best-case scenario kind of guy,” he said with a wink.
He pulled into the parking for Mackenzie Park. We were early enough that there was still enough parking for us to find a spot. As soon as the sun began to set, everything would be jam-packed for miles.
I grabbed my bag and helped him carry blankets across the grounds. The Wrights had already set up a large space at the center of the park. A slew of blankets and a dozen foldable chairs dotted the area. Other people were quickly filling in around them.
“Hey, y’all!” Nora said as we approached. She was lying across her boyfriend, August. His floppy surfer hair was half in his face as he waved at us. Her best friend, Tamara, was seated next to them, her red hair framing her face, her nose buried in a magazine.
It was nice to see the Wright section expanding as everyone drew in more and more people. For so long, the Wrights had been so insular. And now, the Abbeys were here, Emery’s family was present, Chester and my parents had already set up a position nearby, and Piper, Blaire, and Peter were located not too far from them. All of the people that I loved were in one place.
Even Sutton.
Our eyes met across the distance. I dropped the blankets and went to where she sat with Annie. The kids had run off to play with Heidi’s son, Holden
, along with Emery’s sister, Kimber’s, kids, Lilyanne and Bethany.
“Hey, how are you doing?” I asked, pulling her into a hug.
She smiled up at me, only barely hiding the grief in her eyes. “It’s been a long day.”
“But you’re here. That’s progress.”
She nodded. “Mav would have wanted me to still enjoy this time with my family. Jason deserves it.”
I took her hand and squeezed. “He really loved you.”
“He did.”
Annie added her hand. “We really love you, too.”
Sutton laughed, fighting back tears. “Y’all are going to make me cry again.”
“No tears,” I said. “Just good times with good people.”
“Thank you, both of you, for caring so much. David has been a help, but having my girls here for me really makes a difference.”
“Always,” Annie said.
“And forever.”
We hugged it out as a trio. Sutton shed a few of those tears, but it was worth it because our friend had survived. She was pieced back together in her own way with a new family and a new love of her life. She was going to be okay, but it was also okay not to be okay all the time. Today was one of those days.
I left them behind, pulling the camera up to my face as I snapped shot after shot of everyone together. Jensen and Emery were at the center of the group, holding their three-month-old baby, Robin. Snap. Heidi dug through a cooler and grabbed drinks for her and Emery, and then she turned and yelled at Holden to behave. Snap. Landon laughed next to her, shaking his head at his son and turning to his brother Austin. Snap. Austin had an arm slung lazily around his girlfriend, Julia. No drink in sight for him. Snap. Julia seemed to be half-listening to whatever Patrick was saying next to her. Austin punched him in the arm, and they all burst into laughter. Snap. Morgan appeared then, collapsing into Patrick’s lap. Snap. Jordan arrived last. His mother on his arm as he helped her across the grounds to our little slice of heaven. She looked gaunt. Snap. Julian jumped from where he’d been putting together our area near Annie and Sutton. He dashed to his mom, and they spoke. I had all three of them in the shot. Snap. Their mom smiled a real thing. I could see how lovely she must have been. Snap. Then they had her in a seat near her siblings. Snap.
So much life. So much vibrancy. Lubbock was its own little microcosm, and I wanted to document it all. Be here for it all. Live through it all.
For so long, I’d thought that I didn’t belong. Now, with Julian finding my gaze, my family standing nearby, and my best friends at my back, I felt like I did belong here with them. With him.
I shivered at the realization and the fear that it immediately elicited. Because if I had it all, that meant I had so much more to lose. And I hadn’t been joking when I said worst-case scenarios were what I was best at. Anxiety had taught me that hard lesson.
“Hey, come sit by us,” Julian said, pressing a kiss to my cheek.
“Definitely.”
“Do you still have that shoot?”
I grinned. “I do.”
He arched an eyebrow. “It’s getting late. The sun is about to set.”
“It is, isn’t it?”
He shrugged. “Keeping secrets.”
And then the sun dipped a little bit lower. An in-between time. A time of renewal. A perfect time for photography, and I was ready.
“Now,” I whispered to Julian.
“What?”
Then Patrick was on his feet, holding his hand out to Morgan, who had taken a seat on the ground before him. She laughed and let him stand her up.
“What’s this about?” she asked.
But as if the tension in the area had been pulled taut, everyone gravitated toward them as I started photographing.
Patrick dropped to one knee. Morgan’s jaw fell open. Her hands didn’t fly to her face, and she didn’t start crying. She wasn’t like most of my other brides. But her eyes were wide, and she was staring down at him in disbelief.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
Patrick retrieved a small blue box from his pocket and popped it open to reveal the glittering diamond inside. “Morgan Wright, will you marry me?”
She stood frozen in time, looking down at her boyfriend, the man she loved. I could practically feel her shaken world at the words out of his mouth. Everyone held a breath, waited. Morgan wasn’t the lovey-dovey type. But Patrick was her person. She’d always liked him, and now, they were inseparably in love.
“Yes!”
The word broke the tension and the dam on her tears. She cried happy tears as he stood and slid the ring onto her finger, pulling her lips to his. The crowd around them all cheered, applause coming from the entire Fourth of July event.
Julian wrapped an arm around my waist. “Your final shoot, huh?”
I laughed and swiped at my own tears. “It was beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.”
Then he kissed me. Right then and there in front of everyone. I came alive in Julian’s arms. In this place where I finally fit. With these people, where my skill was valued. I was finally right where I belonged.
Part V
Belonging
32
Julian
After Fourth of July, time passed both more slowly and also at hyper-speed. Waiting to hear from Jordan’s PI felt like it was taking a lifetime. And the delay with the distributor as they got the paperwork together only made me want to rage at the snail’s pace. I’d followed up twice already and kept getting the run around about when we’d finalize everything. But otherwise, day-to-day business at the winery flew by.
Without knowing how, we were halfway through July and coming up on the Wright party. Nora had been working nonstop to make it everything it could be. She’d even called Campbell to see if he could come in for it. That was still up in the air as well since the record label was apparently on his ass about a new album. It wasn’t enough to be a successful rockstar. He had to repeat the ability time and time again. I didn’t envy him.
I finished off the memo I’d been working on and pushed away from my desk. I hadn’t moved in hours. I needed a break.
Running a hand down my face, I shucked off my blazer and rolled my sleeves up as I exited into the cellars. The idea to purchase West Texas Winery and make it our own Wright Vineyard had truly been Hollin’s idea. And as I watched him lean over a barrel, explaining the process to a tour that had stopped in front of him, I could see why he’d wanted it so badly. He loved this place. He’d loved it for a decade. And I was coming to realize that it was entirely my sanctuary as well.
A flash of red hair, and then Tamara was standing in front of him. “Oh, this is a treat, ladies and gentlemen, both owners in one day.”
I laughed and put on my most charming smile to cover my exhaustion. Tamara was our latest tour guide hire. She was Nora’s best friend, and Nora had vouched for her. It didn’t hurt that she was a knockout. Hollin had wanted to hire her before interviewing her. Bastard.
“Hey, Tamara.” I nodded at the rest of the tour. “How’s it going?”
“We love it here,” a middle-aged white woman said.
“It’s lovely,” another responded.
“We’re just getting out to the vineyards. Beautiful day for it,” Tamara said. “Now, everyone, wave good-bye to Julian.”
I laughed and waved as they headed out of the cellar doors and into the vineyard beyond.
Hollin whistled low behind me. “She might take the prize from you, Julian.”
I raised an eyebrow. “For what?”
“Flirting.”
“Oh Jesus, I’m not that bad.”
“Not now that you’re with Jennifer maybe. But, yeah, Tamara is, like, the flirt. She’s touched me every time she’s seen me.”
“And you hate it?”
“She’s a bit young,” he said with a wince. “She grew up with Nora.”
“Yeah, a little creepy. Do I need to say something?”
“No, no
,” he said quickly. “I can put her down gently.”
I snorted. “Sure you can.”
“Anyway,” Hollin said, clapping me on the back, “any word on the distribution? We’re ready to get going.”
“No,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t understand. They were all for it when I met them at the gala. They made it seem like I’d hear back from them immediately, and now, it’s so slow.”
Hollin shrugged. “Business.”
“I guess.”
“Well, are you excited for the Wright party here? That’s our first corporate event!”
“I am. It’ll look good to have the company here. The name carries.”
“That’s why we named it Wright Vineyard.”
“True.”
“But why we’re going to add Abbey vintages.”
I laughed at my friend and cousin. “Absolutely. And are you bringing someone with you to the party?”
Hollin crossed his bulky arms, the tattoo sleeve visible below his rolled-up shirt. “I like to keep my options open.”
“So, that’s a no.”
He snorted. “Whatever, dude. I like lots of hot pussy. Can’t keep me down.”
I shook my head. “How are we friends?”
Hollin cracked a smile. “Because I keep your life interesting.”
“Fact,” I said as we headed out of the cellars and into the open air.
The tour was already far enough away that they wouldn’t overhear us. Alejandra appeared then.
“New tour guide is on fire. I like her. If things keep up like this, then we might even need to hire another one.”
“That’s good news,” Hollin boasted.
“The Wright event should secure it. Any news on the distribution?” she prodded me.
“No,” I said, repeating to her what I’d told Hollin. “Hopefully soon.”
She cursed eloquently in Spanish. “I hate that they have all this control. But if we have to wait, then we have to wait.”
“I reached out to them again today. We’ll see what they say about the delay.”
