Chapter 9 Cru
CRU
Ikept my mouth shut for most of dinner, mainly because I feared if I didn’t, I’d say something I’d regret when jealousy spread through me like a poison. Roan Norman was a douchebag, but Daphne was smart enough to figure that out herself.
As I had before, I took the front entrance into the estate. The main house was dark, which wasn’t unusual. My ma got up at four every day to get to the diner, so she went to bed early.
The lights were on in the cottage, though, and since I could see Trevino sitting on the porch, I stopped.
“Where’s Daphne?” he asked when I walked up the steps.
“With her parents.”
“I thought she was staying with you.”
I shook my head. “Her parents haven’t seen her since everything went down in New York City, so I get why they’d want to now.”
Trevino studied me. “What went down?”
“Yeah, I forgot you didn’t know.”
After we went inside and he got us both a beer, I filled him in on the call she made to Beau and how we were able to locate her a few hours later.
“Think they were hoping for a ransom?” Trev asked.
“Since Daphne said she overheard them talking about her parents’ wealth, yeah.”
“Fucking sucks, man.”
“You got that right, Bit.”
“So where did you say she is now?” he asked.
“Her parents are staying in the guesthouse on the Norman vineyards. Roan joined us for dinner,” I added.
“I don’t like him.”
I laughed. “Me neither.”
I left shortly after that, unloaded the SUV, and took the bags to the bedroom. I planned to put it all away in the morning, but since I wasn’t tired, I started unloading them. I picked the biggest one up and saw a Fanny Wrappers bag inside it.
“Shit,” I muttered, setting it on the other side of the room, hoping I could forget it was there. I lasted less than fifteen minutes before walking over and pulling out the contents.
I unwrapped the tissue and saw a few of the bra and thong sets she’d purchased. It seemed like she’d gotten more than what I was looking at, so I hoped she had some others with her. Just in case she didn’t, I sent a text.
Missing something?
I was about to ask if you had anything extra.
Do you need any of it tonight? I asked.
Why?
I shrugged. Not that she could see me. I could bring it over.
I’d say yes, but that hardly seems fair, she responded.
If you need it, you need it. I don’t mind.
I watched the marching dots, waiting for her response. When it came over, I was surprised to see how short it was, considering the length of time it took her to write it.
I don’t.
What were you going to say instead, Daph?
I kept my eye on the screen but didn’t see anything indicating she was sending another message. I was about to set the phone down when it rang.
“Hey, Daphne. Everything okay?”
“I promised myself I wouldn’t do this.”
I sat down on the bed. “Do what?”
“I don’t know how to be anything but myself, especially with you.”
“Why do you feel like you can’t be yourself?”
“I tease you.”
“Yeah?”
“And I flirt.”
“There’s nothing wrong with either of those things, sweetheart.”
“Earlier, you said…Never mind. You know what you said.”
“If I hadn’t, what would you do right now?”
“Tell you I miss you already,” she whispered, but I could still hear her.
“I miss you too.”
“Good night, Cru.”
“Hey, Daph? Before you hang up…”
“What?”
“Can you please come home tomorrow?”
I couldn’t see her, but I knew she was smiling.
“I can do that.”
“Good.”
I was in the vineyard, checking to see if anything else needed to be pruned, when I saw the car Daph’s parents were driving the night before pull in through the gate. I walked toward the house when they parked in front of it.
Noah had almost unloaded everything by the time I reached them.
“I didn’t expect you so early,” I said, taking some of the bags from his hands.
“Daph didn’t feel right about missing a full day of work.”
I cocked my head. “She didn’t have to worry about it. Now, I feel bad.”
“Don’t. Her mum and I raised her to have a strong work ethic. We shouldn’t have asked her to stay with us last night. I don’t think she got much sleep.”
I looked up at her when Daphne came out the front door. When our eyes met, I saw what led to her dad’s assumption. She didn’t look like she’d slept at all.
“Let me get those,” I said to Noah. He handed me the bags he’d been carrying, and I met her on the porch.
“Hey,” I said when we were face-to-face.
“Hi, Cru.”
I motioned for her to go back inside. “What’s going on?”
Her eyes filled with tears, and I set the bags on the floor. “Daph?” I asked, pulling her into an embrace. “Talk to me.”
She buried her face in my shoulder. “I couldn’t sleep.”
I stroked her hair like I had when we were waiting for her to be seen in the emergency room. “Why not?”
She shook her head.
I tightened my arms around her. “Just tell me.”
“It was the first time since, you know, that you weren’t with me.”
I leaned back so I could see her face. “I should’ve thought of that.”
“The nightmares…”
“I’ve got you, Daph,” I said, continuing to stroke her hair.
“I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “You aren’t allowed to say that anymore.”
She half smiled. “No? What about you?”
“Neither of us.”
She took a step back, and I dropped my arms. “I don’t know why it was different last night than it was at the cottage. I thought you went to sleep at your mum’s, which meant I thought I was alone.”
“You knew I wouldn’t leave you. You sensed I was still there.”
She shrugged. “I guess.”
“So, what do you say we spend some time getting settled in the house?”
“What about pruning?”
“Nothing is ready yet. I checked.”
“I could unpack my clothes.”
I nodded. “Wait here.” I came back a few seconds later with the errant bag.
She peeked inside. “You opened it.”
I held up both my hands after she took the bag. “I confess. I couldn’t resist.”
She tried to hide it, but I saw her smile.
We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon reorganizing the kitchen. While we rearranged cupboards, we made a list of things that were missing or that we wanted our own of.
The other thing we decided was who would sleep in which room. It didn’t take long for me to convince her to take the one with the sleeping porch once I reminded her about it.
Daphne wasn’t as animated as she had been, but she also didn’t seem as down as when we were at Seahorse.
“More shopping and a late lunch or maybe an early dinner?” I asked. “We could also cook here.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“I told Roan I’d meet him.”
“We can do our stuff another day,” I offered.
Daphne shook her head. “I don’t want to.”
I stepped closer, and as much as I wanted to touch her, I didn’t. “If you want to meet him, I’ll understand.”
She folded her arms. “If the situations were reversed, I wouldn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind.”
Did I really need to make her say it? I’d noticed jealousy rear its head at the diner when Shelley flirted with me. It wasn’t nearly as much as I felt when Roan couldn’t take his eyes off Daphne at the Sea Chest. But it was all I could do not to get up and throw him through the front window.
“There. It’s settled,” she said, setting her phone down.
“What is?”
“I’ll meet him another day.”
“In that case, I have an idea,” I said.
“Go on.”
“We’d have enough time to shop for the household stuff on our list, swing by the market, then invite your parents for dinner.”
Daphne’s eyes opened wide, and her smile was broader than I’d seen since I found her in New York City. “I love that idea, Cru. What about Lucia and Trevino? Could we invite them too?”
“If you’re up for it.”
The timing was perfect if I could sneak Trevino away for a few minutes to talk to him about my ideas for the upstairs porch. I’d been thinking about it since she and I were out there and saw how taken she’d been with it.
“I’ll ask my parents; you ask your mum and brother.”
I watched as she sent a message. She laughed at either her mom’s or dad’s response, then quickly replied.
All the while, I wondered if this was how our life would be if we took our relationship beyond friends.
It was too soon, though. First, we had to see if we could work together.
That was primary. It was Daphne’s dream to have her own label, to make her own wine, and it thrilled me to make it happen for her.
I wasn’t selfless in wanting her to work for Los Cab, though. By hiring her, I had someone to take over the second label, allowing me to focus on our main varietals, plus my dad’s blend that I was still perfecting.
When she’d tasted it at Stave, I told her that maybe sometime I’d tell her what I’d named it.
My dad never had because he hadn’t gotten it “exactly right,” as he’d say.
If he had, I knew he’d have named it for my mother, just like I’d named it for Daphne—the woman I loved with all my heart—enough to do everything in my power to make sure she remained in my life, even if she could never be in my bed.