Chapter 27
brENT
“Where are we going this morning?” I ask when we finally leave the bedroom.
“Stop in the kitchen for breakfast, and then we’re heading down to do some work.”
I’m a little surprised. We not only eat while standing at the kitchen island, while some aunts and uncles take orders for breakfast like line order cooks, but it’s kind of rushed.
I’m beyond curious at this point since there’s an air of excitement buzzing through the kitchen.
Whatever this ‘work’ is, his family is hyped for it.
“Ready?” Rafe asks.
My eyes meet his as I’m still chewing with another couple bites of my breakfast sandwich in my hands. “Do I look ready?”
He laughs, almost giddy. “Hurry up! This is one of my favorite parts of the holiday.”
My eyebrows screw up as I watch him practically bounce in front of me. I wave my plate off, and he takes it as I finish eating while we walk down the hall. He hands me a napkin to wipe the grease off my hands, and I stuff it in my pocket.
The hall ahead is lined with carts stacked with all kinds of things. Crates and boxes, baskets and bags. “Take that one,” Rafe says as he steers one from the opposite side of the wide hall. “Follow me.”
I can’t even guess what we’re doing.
The dining room is ahead, and it’s as striking as every other room I’ve been in.
Stone everywhere, with tall, vaulted ceilings.
Long chandeliers. There are tall fireplaces at either end of the room, and stretching between them is a long table.
There are a dozen round tables surrounding it, pushed closer to the walls and leaving a wide space between them and the long table.
It’s not set up for a meal. There are boxes lining the center table. Half a dozen people are moving along the table, taking things from their carts and sticking them in the boxes before moving down to the next. An assembly line.
“You first,” Rafe says and directs me to the end of the table.
He joins me at my cart and shows me where everything goes.
A bottle of wine in the indented slot. There’s already some fruit in various spaces.
Rafe shows me where to put other items I have—sausage, blocks of cheese, boxes of crackers, tins of nuts, and wrapped dried fruit.
He follows up with items from his basket—chocolates, syrups, jellies, honey—and an envelope in the slot on the cover that folds down. Using the basket before as a model, I continue down the row, adding my items to the boxes.
“What are we doing this for?” I ask. It’s a bit repetitive, and after you get the hang of it, it’s not hard.
“For all the employees who work for Holt Grove.”
I glance back at him, finding him smiling.
“Yeah?”
He nods. “When the boxes on the table are finished, we take them to the side, close them properly, and tie ribbons. I’ll show you. I’m the last cart. Then, they get loaded onto the truck. My parents, Rice, Annie, and their kids are probably already out delivering the first loads to families.”
“Hand delivered?” I ask.
Rafe grins. “Yeah. There are clip-on bows in the truck, so they get a bow on top too.” He holds up an envelope. “Cash gifts. They vary in amount.”
I watch as he sticks it into the slot.
For a minute, I stare at him, which slows down our assembly line. When he finishes and I haven’t moved, he meets my eyes. “What?”
I’ve been convinced since stepping through this door and made to believe more and more every day that Rafe comes from a really great family. How a family treats each other is very telling. I think that’s why I’ve felt so overwhelmed with the warmth I’ve received.
But, in my opinion, you can be a good family toward each other and not necessarily be truly good people. As we fill these gift boxes with fresh goods and cash for their employees—something that they’re excited to do—I’m both shocked and not at how good these people are. Truly good.
I shake my head and turn back to my task. “Nothing,” I murmur.
“Not a fan?”
“No, this is great, Rafe. I love everything about this.”
“Me too.”
When we finish this load of boxes, we park the carts at the side and take a box each to a round table where I follow his lead to close the box securely and wrap a ribbon around the corners. We stack them on a flatbed trolley.
The trolley has maybe fifty boxes when Rice comes in with an empty one. “These ready?” he asks.
Rafe nods. “Yep.”
“Thanks.”
I watch as he takes the cart out the door he arrived through. “Does he enjoy delivering them?”
“Yep. His girls love to bring the boxes to the door together. It’s a highlight for a lot of our staff.
They really love to see the girls involved.
Their smiles and excitement. I think it means a lot that my parents and brother with his family all go together.
Before the girls were born, we’d all go together—my parents, me, and my siblings.
But as the new generation gets old enough, they step up to take over responsibilities, and we move into other roles. ”
“That’s incredible.”
His smile is beautiful. The kind of smile that makes me feel warm all over. I’m tempted to simply stare at him, but he grabs my hand and pulls me along.
We go through packing two more loads of boxes on the table before he says we’re finished. There’s more to do, but others will be in throughout the day. “Many hands make light work,” he says when I look at the boxes left to fill.
I follow him outside, and we sit at the edge of the vineyard that comes right up to the castle. There’s a patio four feet from the ground with one of those basket swings that fits two people. He adjusts me so I’m sitting sideways and climbs into my lap.
The way his muscles clench and he catches his breath in certain positions before adjusting to relieve the discomfort makes me think of last night. A shiver of excitement races through me. I can’t believe I took him that way. I can’t believe how much I liked it.
Rafe sighs. The swing rocks gently as we look over the vineyard. It’s beautiful. Even though the grapevines are in hibernation, it’s still gorgeous.
“I don’t think I’d ever get anything done if I lived somewhere like this,” I say. “I’d just stare at the landscape.”
He smiles and presses a kiss to my biceps where he can reach. “I know. It was endless as a kid. Something that I didn’t truly appreciate, of course. But as I got older, and I gained an actual concept of how much land we have and what it takes to work… I’ve gotten lost in staring many times.”
“This might be one of my favorite views.”
“Mine too. We can see several of the fields from here.”
I lean my head forward so it’s resting on his and stare at the fields. It’s peaceful right here. I can’t hear anything other than the light breeze moving around, touching whatever its fingers can reach.
“You’ve talked to your aunt, right? Are you planning to visit her before the term starts?” Rafe asks.
“I’ve talked to her a few times, yeah. But no, I won’t visit her. One, there’s nowhere for me to stay. Overnight guests aren’t allowed in the facility she’s in. And second, it’s a lot of money to get there and back. She’s in northern Michigan.”
“Ah. You planning to head there after graduation?”
My chest tightens. “I don’t know.”
“No? I thought you had a plan. Didn’t you say that you and your aunt talked about strategies for reaching your goals once graduated, so you can follow your dream?”
“Yeah, but… now she’s in assisted living. The plan was I’d stay with her, help around the house, and get ready to sell it, while writing and trying to get a foothold in the industry.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
I nod, my arms flexing around him. “I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” I admit out loud for the first time. “I don’t know where I’ll go. I think I’ll probably have to get whatever job offers me enough money to afford a place to live.”
He sighs. “I’m sorry,” Rafe repeats. A beat passes before he shifts to look at me. “You can move here and keep that dream.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You’re moving back into the castle?”
Rafe laughs. “No. I feel like a spoiled rich boy saying this, but I have a house deeper in the vineyards. Not mine, but it’s the family’s real estate. My grandparents used to live there. They moved further south a few years ago.”
“I don’t know. I don’t want—”
“If you say anything along the lines of not wanting to be a burden, we’re going to fight.”
I press my lips together because that’s exactly what I was going to say.
“You’re not a burden, Brent. I love rooming with you. I love having you around. It would be cool to have you for a roommate after college, too.”
My stomach clenches. Roommate. I’m reminded that this arrangement is temporary. It’s not real, no matter how real it feels.
“Come on,” Rafe says and climbs out of the chair.
The swing rocks violently, nearly throwing me out. My arms fly as I grip the sides. Rafe laughs, catching me before I land on my face. Glaring at him, I make my way out of it, but catch my breath when he pulls me to his chest, kissing me breathlessly.
It’s not real, I remind myself. Knowing that makes it hurt a little. The countdown is ticking. Only a few days left to pretend.
Rafe pulls me along, keeping my hand firmly in his.
We climb into his car, and I watch the fields go by as he drives along the twisting roads.
We stop by the winery where all the different Holt Grove wines are made.
There’s a bed-and-breakfast further down the road.
Rafe points in the direction of the restaurant and gift shop.
We keep driving slowly through the fields until we pull up in front of a stone house. Nowhere near as grand as the castle, and it looks modern yet old-world. Someone wanted to match the style of the castle, and they did a pretty good job.
Rafe holds up his keys with a grin, leading me up the stairs to let us in the front door. It’s stunning, with beautiful designs and details. He takes my hand and leads me upstairs, into a library filled with books coming out of every nook and cranny.
My mouth is likely hanging open. I stand in the middle of the room and turn in a slow circle, unsure where to look. When I find Rafe again, he has a pair of double doors open, and I’m looking at more of the vineyard. Chills raise the hair on my arms as I step outside to join him.
“This is your office,” he says, smiling. “Think you can get inspired here?”
I nod, unsure what to say. The promise of staying in Rafe’s life for a little longer is… big. I can’t ignore the way my heart whispers, ‘Maybe more time alone together will have him falling in love with me.’
Rafe tugs on my hand, pulling me from the room toward another set of stairs.
“There’s always a lot of debate about single-floor living and bedrooms upstairs,” he notes as we climb.
The top of the stairs opens into a wide-open bedroom with different designated areas separated by furniture.
It’s airy, beautiful, with large doors looking outside at either end of the space.
He opens one and brings me outside. This might be the best view I’ve seen yet. I can see the castle in the distance, which makes the world around me feel like a fairy tale. Rafe wraps his arms around me, presses his lips to my jaw, and then rests his chin on my shoulder.
“You can wake up to this every day,” he says quietly. “Wake up inspired every day. The other side shows a brook winding through the vineyard, but you can only catch it on occasion, when the world tilts just right and the grapevines part in a very specific way.”
“This is…” I’m speechless.
“I have this entire space to myself,” Rafe says.
“I’ve anticipated for a while now that I’m going to get lonely.
Now that I say that out loud, I wonder if that’s why my mom has been pushing for me to find a partner.
” He chuckles quietly. “Above anyone else, I’d love to continue sharing a space with my best friend, Brent.
I have the space. I have the means. There’s no need to settle on something that you’re not excited about when I can support you in reaching for your dreams.”
“Rafe.”
“I’m going to sound very privileged, but do you honestly think it’ll be a hardship? You’ve been with me and my family for a week now. Do you think it’s going to make us destitute?”
I huff. “No.”
“I won’t push. I know I pushed for you to come home with me for Christmas, and I don’t regret that. You deserve a loving family, and mine has so much love to give. But I won’t force this. It needs to be your choice. But I need you to hear me. Are you listening?”
I nod.
“I want you to move in with me after graduation. You can help around the house and Holt Grove in exchange if that’ll make you feel better, but I want you to take this opportunity.
I want to keep you close. I’m selfish enough to want to keep you in my life as long as you’ll be content to do so.
Don’t convince yourself of anything contrary to what I just said while you’re thinking about this, okay? ”
“Yeah.” It’s hard not to read too much into the words he’s saying. Rafe doesn’t talk out of his ass. He doesn’t choose his words carefully. He speaks his truth. I believe everything he said. What I don’t know is how he means them. I take them at face value, right?
He wants his best friend close. I’m fortunate enough to be that best friend.
But keep me in his life? Keep me close? Is there something deeper there? A double meaning? Am I reading too much into this that I shouldn’t?
I nod, covering his hands with mine, sinking my fingers between his, and close my eyes. I will continue to get my fill of Rafe wrapped around me because I just don’t know what to think.