Chapter 19 Snapper
SNAPPER
The drive to Los Caballeros felt like it took hours even though it was only twenty minutes. My jaw was clenched so hard it ached. The headlights cut through the darkness, illuminating bare vines that blurred past my windows.
I’d lost her.
The thought kept circling through my head like a vulture waiting for something to die. Maybe it already had. Maybe what Saffron and I had built over the past two months was already gone, killed by secrets I’d kept, thinking I was protecting her.
The main house glowed with lights when I drove through the gates.
Cars lined the driveway. My brothers and their families had already arrived for Christmas Eve.
Through the windows, I could see movement, and when I got out of my truck, I could hear the faint sound of children’s laughter.
The kids were probably wound up on sugar and excitement, counting down the hours until morning when they could tear into presents.
I stood in the darkness for several minutes before going inside. My chest felt hollow. My throat burned. How could I join my family and act like everything was fine? How could I paste on a smile and be Uncle Snapper, who let the kids climb all over him, while everyone celebrated?
The front door opened, and Bit appeared on the porch. He was backlit by the warm glow spilling from inside, and after standing still for a few seconds, he started down the steps toward my truck.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “I thought you were with Saffron.”
I opened my mouth to explain, but nothing came out.
“Snap?” He moved closer, and his expression shifted from curious to alarmed. “What happened?”
“It’s over.”
“Wait. What? Why—” He stopped. “Come on. Let’s walk.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. The kids—”
“The kids are fine. Ma’s got them making cookies.” He gripped my shoulder. “You need to talk, and you can’t do it in there.”
The front door opened again, and Tryst stepped out.
He took one look at me, then descended the steps with the quiet authority he’d carried my entire life.
After my father died, Tryst had stepped in without hesitation.
He’d been the one who taught me how to rope, how to handle a stubborn horse, how to be a man when I was just a kid who’d lost his dad.
“Walk with us, Salazar.”
Our breath clouded in the cold air, and frost crunched under our boots. Above us, the cloudless sky was bright with stars. The three of us walked a few feet from the house, then Tryst stopped and turned to face me.
“Tell us what happened.”
Everything poured out. How I’d gone to the Hopes’ house earlier, how happy Saffron had been to see Felicity and the baby, how we’d all been celebrating the wine being bottled. Then, how I’d taken Felicity aside while Saffron was upstairs.
“We were talking in the dining room,” I continued.
“I was trying to decide whether to tell Saffron something. Felicity said I shouldn’t.
That it would only hurt her.” The memory made my chest tighten.
“Saffron came downstairs and overheard us. She heard me say I’d been lying by omission the whole time. ”
“What were you discussing?” Tryst asked.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” I took a breath and looked at Bit. “Right after Saffron came to me, asking for help with the wine, you told me you’d heard rumors about Hope Family Winery facing foreclosure.”
“I remember.”
“Saffron hadn’t told me yet. She wouldn’t admit anything was wrong. But I knew something was eating at her. I knew she was desperate even if she couldn’t bring herself to say why.” I shoved my hands in my pockets because they wouldn’t stop shaking. “So I went to the bank.”
Tryst’s expression didn’t change, but I saw understanding start to dawn in his eyes.
“I talked to Isaac Brennan. I told him I wanted to know the situation with the Hope account.” My confession came faster now, like lancing a wound.
“He couldn’t give me specifics because of privacy laws, but I told him that whatever shortfall existed, I’d cover it.
All of it. Whatever they needed. There was no way in hell I was going to let their family lose everything. ”
Silence stretched between us. Coyote howled somewhere in the hills.
“You guaranteed their debt,” Tryst phrased it as a statement, not a question.
“Exactly.”
“Wow,” Bit muttered under his breath.
“Did you try to explain?” Tryst asked.
My throat tightened. “She wouldn’t let me. She just told me to leave.”
“So she doesn’t know about the bank,” Bit said.
“No. And I don’t even know what she thinks I was lying about.”
“It isn’t what it’s about, Salazar. It’s the deceit that hurts her,” Tryst said quietly.
“I know.” I looked down at the ground because I couldn’t meet their eyes anymore. “I know it was wrong. I should have told her. But she was so scared, and I just wanted her to have a safety net.”
“Your heart was in the right place,” Tryst said.
“Was it?” The question came out sharp, angry. Not at him. At myself. “Because I’ve spent the last two weeks furious with Kick for keeping secrets from me. For lying by omission. For betraying my trust.” I looked up. “And I’ve been doing the exact same thing to Saffron this entire time.”
The parallel had been eating at me since the moment Saffron accused me of it.
Bit moved closer and rested his hand on my shoulder. “There is a difference, Snap. Kick betrayed a confidence he swore to keep. You made a financial arrangement to protect the woman you love.”
“Does the motivation matter if the result is the same?”
Tryst sighed and looked up at the sky. When he spoke, what he had to say carried the weight of experience, of decades of watching people make mistakes and helping them find their way through. “The motivation matters. But so does the dishonesty. You should have told her.”
“I know.”
“She would have fought you,” Bit added. “Refused to let you do it. Her pride—”
“Her pride is part of what I love about her.” I stared out at the dark vineyard. “She’s stubborn and independent, and she’d rather break than bend. But that’s also why she needed someone to have her back without her knowing. Lucas would never have accepted help either.”
“So you were protecting both of them,” Tryst said.
“Fat lot of good it did.” I sounded bitter because I was. “Now, I’ve lost her.”
“Give her time,” Bit said. “Let her cool down. Then see if she’ll let you explain.”
Tryst studied me. “What else is on your mind, nephew?”
“I need to talk to Kick. It’s Christmas, and I’ve been so angry with him that he’s probably sitting somewhere alone, thinking his family doesn’t want him around.”
Tryst and Bit exchanged glances.
“What?” Dread pooled in my stomach.
“His phone’s off,” said Bit.
“What do you mean? Since when?”
“Yesterday, then we tried to reach him when he missed the bottling, but we haven’t heard anything from him.”
The front door of the main house opened, and Ma appeared, silhouetted against the light. She stood there for a moment before stepping onto the porch, wrapping her cardigan tighter around herself.
“Tryst? Trevino?” Her said across the distance. “Is everything all right?”
We walked back toward the house, and Ma’s eyes found mine immediately. Even in the dim light from the porch, I could see the worry etched on her face.
“Salazar, you’re here. Have you heard from your brother?” she asked before I could say anything.
I didn’t need to ask which one. “I haven’t, Ma.”
“Where is he? Tomorrow is Christmas.” Her eyes filled with tears, and I felt like the world’s biggest asshole for being angry with my brother instead of making things right before now.
Tryst wrapped his arm around Ma’s shoulders. “I’m sure he’s fine, Lucia. You know how Rascon gets sometimes. Needs space to think.”
I sent a text. Maybe he wasn’t answering anyone else because it was me he needed to hear from. Where are you? Ma’s worried. We’re all worried. We need to talk, bro. Just let us know you’re okay. The message showed as delivered but not read.
“He won’t miss Christmas,” I assured her, even though I wasn’t as certain myself.
“I’m sure you’re right. He’s probably just busy with friends.”
I got what she was doing. Find excuses so she didn’t go mad with worry.
“Salazar is right,” Tryst said with more confidence than I felt. “Rascon will show up tomorrow morning with some explanation that makes perfect sense.”
My mother hugged herself. “Let’s go inside. It’s cold out here.”
“Be right in, Ma. I promise.”
She kissed my cheek before heading back into the house. The door closed behind her, and the three of us stood in the cold. None of us spoke.
I looked between my brother and uncle. “I don’t know what the hell to do.”
“About Saffron or Kick?” Bit asked.
“Both.”
“You wait.” Tryst suggestion surprised me.
“Wait? But tomorrow is—”
He held up a hand. “A day like any other if one is angry and hurt.”
“You’re right. I can’t believe I’ve managed to destroy two of the most important relationships in my life in the span of a few days.”
“You haven’t destroyed anything,” Bit said. “You’ve just hit a rough patch.”
A rough patch. Like that covered the enormity of what I’d lost tonight. Like a few encouraging words could fix the fact that the woman I loved had kicked me out of her house. The woman I’d planned to propose to.
The ring sat in my truck’s glove compartment, where I’d stashed it three weeks ago.
I’d imagined a dozen ways to ask her. Down on one knee in the vineyard.
Over dinner at the Stonehouse. Somewhere private where it would just be the two of us and I could tell her everything I felt.
All I knew for sure was that I had to wait until after the auction.
Until the wine sold and the winery was saved and she could breathe again.
Until all the weight she’d been carrying lifted and she could actually think about the future instead of just surviving the present.
“I was going to propose,” I heard myself say. “Once everything settled down.”
Bit’s eyes widened, and Tryst’s expression softened.
“I wanted everything to be perfect for her.” My throat tightened. “To give her the future she deserved. The one where she didn’t have to carry everything alone anymore.”
“You still can,” Bit said.
I shook my head. “She doesn’t trust me.”
“Then earn it back.” He moved closer and put his hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t give up on the woman you love, Snap.
Give her space tonight. Let her process.
But then you fight for her. You explain about the bank.
You tell her the truth about everything.
And you don’t stop fighting until she believes you thought what you did was the right thing, but now, you see it might not have been. ”
“What if she doesn’t want to hear it?”
“Then you wait. And you try again. And you keep trying until she does.” Bit squeezed my shoulder. “Love isn’t about the easy moments. It’s about the hard ones. When everything’s falling apart and you have to decide if the other person is worth fighting for. Saffron’s worth it. You know she is.”
He was right. Of course he was right. Saffron was worth every fight, every difficult conversation, every moment of discomfort. She was worth everything.
But knowing that and believing I could fix this weren’t the same.
“Come inside,” Tryst said. “It’s cold, and your mother needs to see you’re all right.”
“But I’m not.”
“She doesn’t need to know that tonight. Tomorrow is Christmas. The family is together. Whatever happened with Saffron, whatever’s going on with Rascon—those problems will still be there in the morning. Tonight, be present for the people who are here.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to get in my truck and drive to Saffron’s house and camp outside her door until she agreed to hear me out. I wanted to track down my brother and make him come home, where he belonged.
But Tryst was right. I couldn’t fix any of it tonight.
We walked back to the house together. Inside, warmth and noise enveloped me.
Coco ran past, chasing Neva. Both of them were shrieking with laughter.
Alex was helping Ma in the kitchen while Maddox and Brix argued about something near the fireplace.
Addy sat on the couch with Reagan, reading a book together.
Normal. Everything looked so normal. Like the world hadn’t just cracked open and swallowed me whole.