Cru’s Crush (Wicked Winemakers Central Coast: Second Label #2)

Chapter 1

CRU

Beau Barrett was my best friend and, where Daphne, the woman gazing at a framed photo, was concerned, my nemesis as well. I didn’t need to see it to know whose image she studied. Based on her sad expression, it was of the man I wished was here, with us, just so I could bash his fucking face in.

The two had been one of those on-again, off-again couples since they were teenagers.

Every time they broke up, I hoped it would be long enough for me to have a chance with her.

But, honestly, if Daphne had been the slightest bit interested in me, she wouldn’t have been turning to Beau again and again and again.

“You gotta give it up, man,” my oldest brother, Brix, whispered. “Beau will be back before you know it.”

“Not this time, bro.” I led him from the living room, down the hallway, and into a bedroom, then shut the door behind us.

Brix rested against the wall and smirked. “You keep tellin’ yourself that. How long have you been crushin’ on Daphne Cullen? Ten years? More?”

“Things are different now. Beau is with Samantha Marquez.” Frankly, I was surprised he didn’t know, given his wife, Addy, and Sam were best friends.

Brix chuckled. “Not a chance. There’s no way Sam would put up with his shit.” His expression changed. “Wait. Do you know where Beau is?”

Shortly after his mother’s funeral, Beau had disappeared, and until I saw him in New York, I’d had no idea where he was, either. Turned out he was with Sam.

“I’m telling you; it’s serious between them.”

Brix pushed himself away from the wall. “So where is he?”

“C’mon. Don’t ask me that. He’s with Sam. That’s all I can tell you right now.”

“What makes you think they’re serious?” Brix shook his head. “No offense at all to Sam, but I just don’t see her with Beau.”

I held up my phone so he could see the text I’d just received from our brother Salazar, who everyone called Snapper.

“No, shit! Beau proposed, and Sam said yes? Damn, Daphne is gonna be butthurt.” Brix was practically shouting when someone pushed the door open. When he moved out of the way, I came face-to-face with the woman whose name he’d just uttered.

She spun around and raced off in the opposite direction, but not before I saw tears fill her eyes.

“What the fuck, Brix? Butthurt?” The asshole was pushing forty but sounded more like a twelve-year-old.

He grabbed my arm when I walked past him. “Let her go.”

I shook my head and pulled away from his grasp. “I can’t.”

My brother stood in front of the door, blocking my exit, and put his hands on my shoulders. “This is going to sound corny as hell, but, Cru, you’re supposed to be the leading lady, not the best friend, and for some reason, you’re acting like, you know, the best friend.”

I took a step back from him. “What the fuck are you talking about, Brix? The leading lady?”

“It’s from a movie Addison and I watched last night. You get my point, though. You need to stop acting like the best friend, so Daphne can see you as the leading lady—err, man.”

I shook my head and looked out the window. As I could’ve predicted, Daphne was walking on the beach, alone. Even from here, I knew she was crying.

Brix approached and stood next to me. “If you go out there now, she’ll cry on your shoulder. You’ll console her, and it’ll be just another conversation about her and Beau. The next time you talk to her, it needs to change. No more her and Beau. Make it about her and you.”

“Like it’s that easy.”

“Take it from me; it is if you want it bad enough.” He turned to look at me. “You’ve loved her for as long as Beau has. And actually, I’m not sure he ever felt as strongly for her as you have.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s ever seen me as more than a friend, or ever will,” I murmured.

“Convince her otherwise.”

I faced my brother and stared into his eyes. “What are you suggesting I do, Brix?”

“Leave.”

“Leave? Right. You seem to forget I just rescued her from a possible kidnapping. Until they catch the people who abducted her, it’s my responsibility to keep her safe.”

Forty-eight hours ago, Beau had received a call from Daph, saying she was in New York City and in danger. I was with Beau at the time and volunteered to go and find her.

With the help of a private intelligence firm, we tracked her to an apartment where she was kept in a locked room.

At the time of her rescue, she was the only person in the place.

While I swept her out and to the nearest hospital, the owner of the firm and his team searched for clues to figure out who’d locked her in there.

There wasn’t a trace of evidence—no fingerprints, nothing to test DNA, even the building’s CCTV footage had been destroyed.

The name Daphne gave for the man she’d traveled to New York with was an unknown alias, and so far, the description she gave hadn’t yielded any clues, either. While the Manhattan police had listened to her statement, I doubted they took her seriously or intended to pursue it.

I knew Decker Ashford, the owner of the intelligence company, had a team still looking for leads. What I didn’t know was who was paying them. It wouldn’t sit right with me if Beau was. Nor would it with Daphne if she found out.

When I brought her to the sprawling oceanfront ranch belonging to Beau’s older brother, who everyone called Press, it was because it was the safest place I could think of. The security systems there were state of the art.

Los Caballeros, my family’s estate, had the same level of security. However, it would take longer for me to make arrangements for a private place for her to stay where I could also be close.

I’d been living in the guest cottage on our ranch, but it only had one bedroom.

Since Press and his wife, Luisa, were traveling and not presently here and given Daphne had stayed here many times in the past, I figured she’d feel comfortable as well as safe.

“Ready?” Brix asked.

My mouth gaped. “For what? You can’t truly be suggesting I leave her here alone, not after what she’s been through. Is that what you’d do with Addison?”

“You have a point.”

I stared at my oldest brother and shook my head. Brix was a smart guy. Practical. Protective. After our father died, he’d taken on the role of family patriarch. So him saying I’d made a “good point” when I said I couldn’t leave her here alone was completely out of character.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He looked out at the ocean.

“Brix?”

“Got a lot on my mind, brother.”

That, I knew. He and his wife had decided to live full time on a five-thousand-acre ranch they owed in Mexico. First, they needed to finish the house they were building. The other thing in the works was Brix would soon resign from our family business, where he was the primary winemaker.

“Second thoughts?” I asked.

He turned to face me. “If you mean about you taking over at Los Caballeros, not at all.” He squeezed my shoulder. “You’re ready for this, Cru. You know you are.”

A few months ago, when Addison’s life was in turmoil, Brix had taken a leave of absence. With him gone, I was responsible for making the first label as well as the second-label varietals—which were already mine. The plan was for me to hire someone to work under me once Brix officially resigned.

So far, none of my four other brothers or one sister were interested in the job, and that meant, for the first time in the two-hundred-year history of Los Caballeros Winery, someone outside the family would be making what we’d built our reputation on.

I expected Brix to balk at my siblings’ lack of interest, but he didn’t appear fazed.

When I glanced out the window and didn’t see Daphne right away, I nearly panicked but quickly realized she was sitting on the sand.

“I should head out,” I said, motioning to the bedroom door.

Brix followed me into the hallway. “I almost forgot Addison asked me to invite you to join us for dinner tonight. There are a few things we’d like to discuss.” When I hesitated, he quickly added that Daphne was welcome too.

“After the butthurt comment, I doubt she’ll want to.”

“Yeah, it was unfortunate she heard that,” he muttered.

“What was unfortunate was that you said it.”

“Tell her I’m sorry?” he asked.

I’d suggest he tell her himself, but I doubted Daph would want to talk to him right now.

“By the way, are you still interested in my house?”

The residence he spoke of was the one he’d built on the Los Caballeros ranch. My mom still lived in the main house—the one all seven of us kids grew up in.

Brix had built his place as far from that one as he could on the five-square-mile property. Both residences were within walking distance, but neither had a view of the other.

“I am,” I said when I realized he was waiting for an answer. “But you still haven’t told me how much you want for it.”

“I feel weird selling it to you.”

I’d had just about enough of Brix’s shit today and was anxious to get to Daphne, who I could see was still sitting on the sand. “Then don’t.”

I picked up my jacket and had my hand on the door when he grabbed my other arm. “I didn’t mean it the way you’re taking it. What I’m saying is Dad didn’t sell me the land; it’s just part of the ranch. Uncle Tryst helped me build it. I mean, how would I even figure out a price?”

“I don’t know. Call an agent.” I stormed out, not interested in talking about his house any longer.

I had a place of my own on the property.

It was small, barely nine hundred square feet, but I didn’t mind.

I didn’t have time to take care of something bigger.

Brix’s house was five times the size of mine.

Now that I thought about it, maybe I didn’t want it, after all.

The only issue was with Daphne, and I had no idea how long she’d even remain in the States.

Maybe she’d want to return to Australia, where her parents lived.

“What I meant is, why don’t you just move in?”

“Not interested.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have my own place. I don’t need you to let me stay in yours.”

“We’ll talk later,” he said, walking in the opposite direction.

We wouldn’t, but saying it was a good way to end the conversation.

The wind was fierce and the air cold today. Not unusual for January, this close to the ocean. Seeing Daphne huddled, with her arms wrapped around her knees, made me wish I’d brought a blanket out with me. Considering I was within a few feet of her, it would be stupid to turn around to get one.

“Hey,” I said, sitting beside her on the sand.

“Hey, Cru,” she said without looking at me.

“Brix says he’s sorry for his comment.”

She shrugged a shoulder. “It’s what everyone thinks, right? Daphne is butthurt.”

“You and Beau were together for a long time. It’s understandable you’d be upset after hearing he’s with someone else.”

“Do you seriously think that’s what upsets me?” She pushed herself off the sand, and I stood too.

My eyes scrunched. “Doesn’t it?”

“God, not you too.” She stormed off, but it was easy for me to stay on her heels, given I was almost a foot taller than her and my strides were twice as long.

“If it doesn’t, just say so.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” Daphne said, glancing over her shoulder.

“Hang on.” When she didn’t stop walking, I ran around her and blocked her way. Her head hung forward, but I put my finger on her chin and raised her face. I brushed her sandy-blonde hair from her forehead and looked into her blue-green eyes. “Why were you crying?”

Daph folded her arms and huffed. “Not for the reason you think.”

I folded my arms too, more because it was fucking cold out here. “Can we go inside?”

Her head cocked. “I thought you were a surfer.”

“Yeah. So?”

She shook her head and walked around me. Rather than block her again, I followed, hoping she was headed to the house.

“I never knew you were such a sook.”

“No need to call names, and I’m hardly a wimp.”

She rolled her eyes and opened the back door that led from the patio into the living room.

“Fucking Brix,” I muttered.

She walked over to the counter and raised a bottle. “Fancy a cab sav?”

“Sure.” I gazed out at the ocean.

“Why’d you curse Brix?” she asked, handing me a glass.

“I left before he did. He was supposed to lock up.”

“He did.”

Daphne sat on the sofa, grabbed the throw draped on the back, and crawled under it.

“You walked right in.”

She held up her hand. “I’m programmed. You’re not?”

I’d forgotten the doors would open by palm print. “I’m not here that often.”

“We can share.” She offered half the blanket when I sat down, rubbing my cold hands together. “Get closer,” she added when I was still a foot away.

“I’m good. It’s warm in here.”

Before I realized what she was doing, Daphne grabbed my hand. “You’re like ice.” She closed the distance between us, tucked the blanket around me, then held both my hands in hers.

My arms itched to pull away. My legs too. And my cock? Hard as steel.

Daphne had no idea the torture she was putting me through or how much easier on me it would’ve been if she’d just let me continue freezing my ass off.