Chapter 22 Daphne #2
I sat beside him but kept my arms folded. “You’re right and I’m sorry.”
“Come here.” Cru shifted us both so we lay on the bed, looking into each other’s eyes.
He put his hand on my leg and lifted it so it rested over his thigh, causing the robe to gape open.
He covered one exposed breast with his palm and leaned forward to kiss me.
“I’ve missed you so much. The last thing I want to do is argue. ”
“I feel the same, and again, I’m sorry.”
“I want us to be together, Daphne. Like we were before. Living together, working in the vineyards, spending all night making love—it was a dream come true.”
“But—”
“Please let me finish.”
“Apologies, again. Go on.”
“For now, you need to stay here and I need to return to Los Caballeros. We both have obligations to fulfill. I just hope that when things are sorted out with Cullen House, you can come home.”
I knew what he meant, and a few weeks ago, I would’ve agreed that Los Caballeros was my home. However, I didn’t see his commitment to his family’s business as being temporary. Why did he automatically assume mine would be any different?
“I have to see this through,” I said, looking everywhere but in his eyes.
“I know you do.”
“You do?”
His head cocked, and his eyes scrunched. “Why are you asking?”
“What if seeing it through means I have to remain in Perth? What if this is home for me?”
He looked crestfallen, but we had to accept that may be my reality.
“Cru?”
“Is that what you want?”
“The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t know. I won’t until we can move beyond the impasse we’re at now.”
“We?”
“Sorry. Cullen House.”
He rolled to his back, and I removed my leg from over his body.
“What do you want, Daphne? To be a winemaker or the CEO of a corporation? To be in an office every day or out in the vineyard?”
“You’re being unfair.”
“Am I? Before you respond, I have one more question for you, and I want you to think about it before you answer.”
I nodded.
“Do you want to be my wife, Daph?”
I rolled to my back like he had, looked up at the ceiling, and closed my eyes. Of course I wanted to marry him. I also wanted to work in the vines, spend my days in the sun, and make wine. But like him, I had a familial responsibility I couldn’t just turn my back on.
“You’re choosing Los Caballeros over me.”
He propped himself up on his elbow. “Is that the way you see it?”
“What if I asked you to leave it behind, move here, and help me run Cullen House?”
He sighed. “Answer my question, Daphne. It’s really the only thing that truly matters right now.”
“I do want to be your wife, Cru…”
“But?”
I was about to say the hardest thing I’d ever had to in my life. Once I spoke the words, there’d be no taking them back, no way for us to continue on together. I knew that. Yet, I had to be honest. “I don’t see how it will be possible. Our lives are on opposite sides of the world.”
He sat up abruptly and turned his back to me.
“Cru?”
He took a deep breath and let it out in a shudder.
“Talk to me,” I said.
He shook his head. “I can’t.”
“This doesn’t have to be the end. We can work something out, can’t we?”
When he looked over his shoulder at me, the tears streaming down his cheeks were my undoing. “Can’t we?” I repeated. My sobs clogged my throat, and I couldn’t say anything more, even after he left the room, then returned fully dressed.
“You said you didn’t see how it could be possible, Daphne. So how are we supposed to work something out? Which is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.” He took another deep breath, looked up at the ceiling, then at me. “Goodbye, Daphne.”
I gasped. “You’re leaving?”
“I don’t see any reason to stay.”
I hugged myself, wishing so desperately that Cru and I were in each other’s arms instead. “Your ring. It’s in my bedroom. I’ll just get it—”
“Don’t. It’s not mine, it’s yours.”
“I can’t keep it, Cru.”
“I don’t want it, Daphne.”
I sat on the bed, crying for several minutes, expecting he’d return and we’d at least talk about when he planned to leave.
When he didn’t, I went looking for him. The front door of the guesthouse was slightly ajar, so I went outside.
One of the housekeepers walked past. “Have you seen a man, quite tall, dark brown hair?”
“Yes, miss.”
“Where is he?”
“He left a few minutes ago.”
My eyes scrunched. “What do you mean?”
“A car picked him up, and he left.”
I nodded once and retreated inside before I broke into shattering sobs. As many times as Beau and I had ended things between us, I’d never felt like I did now. I doubled over in pain, crying harder as I realized my heart had just broken.
When I showed up at the rehab center a couple of hours later, both my parents appeared puzzled.
“Is Cru resting?” my mum asked.
I shook my head, keeping my eyes focused on hers, knowing that if I looked at my dad instead, I’d break down. “He had to leave.”
The sound that came from my father was one of the worst I’d ever heard. He wailed, repeating the word “no” again and again.
“It’s okay, Dad,” I said, rushing over to him. “The harvest. He couldn’t stay long.”
He shook his head. “No,” he repeated, grabbing my wrist when I turned to leave, not wanting to upset him.
“Dad, please…”
“No…Daphne…No. Can’t stay.” He closed his eyes and dropped his head, shaking it vehemently. “Go home.”
“This is home, Dad.”
My mum, who was crying as hard as me, got up and left the room.
I knelt beside my father and grasped his hands with mine. “You need me here. I can’t leave.”
Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Don’t want.”
I rested my head on his lap, and both of us cried.