14. Bas
BAS
Iwas useless for the entire day. I’d gone into my office, forgot what I was there for, went out, and returned enough times that Gemma finally put her hands on my shoulders.
“Go outside and play, Bas. I have work to do.”
I snaked my arm around her waist, pulled her body flush with mine, and nibbled the soft skin on her neck.
She giggled, but she also pushed me away.
“I didn’t say play with me. Go find Zeke or one of the other guys.
Tell them I said there’s something you need to look at in the very farthest vineyard on the property. ”
I stuck my lower lip out. “Can I go play in the cellar instead?”
“Yes. As long as you find something to do that will take hours.”
I was about to walk away when she grabbed my arm. “Wait. Maybe you should tell me what’s got you so antsy.”
“It’s silly.”
She put her arms around my waist like I had hers. “It can’t be silly if it’s got you this wound up.”
“My brothers and sisters get here today.”
“Okay. And?”
I rested my forehead against hers. “If I tell you, you’ll no longer think I’m the He-Man, sex god you believe me to be now.”
“Not a chance. You’ll be even more of a superhero to me. My superhero.”
“And your sex god?”
“Bas, you’re deflecting. Answer the question.”
“I’m worried I won’t be their superhero anymore.” I said the words so quietly. I wondered if she heard me.
When she pulled me over to my chair, pushed me into it, and sat on my lap, I knew she had.
“Where’s this coming from?” she asked.
“It’s only that…”
“Rip the bandage off and say whatever it is. You’ll feel better.”
I kissed her instead, and she let me get away with it. For a minute.
“Since my dad died, I don’t feel like…myself, I guess. Things that used to come easier are so much harder now. When he told me he was retiring and stepping away from the business, I felt ready, ya know? Totally ready. Like, no problem. Then he died, and everything changed.”
“Retiring didn’t mean leaving. You knew you could knock on his door, pick up the phone, or ask any question you needed to.”
“I’m less than I was, if that makes sense.”
She rested her forehead on mine, again like I had done a minute ago. Did she have any idea how much that soothed me?
“You have a lot more on your plate now. A lot more responsibilities. You aren’t less, but there’s less of you to go around.”
“What if they think I’m an imposter?”
“I get that. Imposter syndrome,” she said.
“Still. Every wedding. Will the bride and groom realize I don’t really know how to make everything perfect and fire me the night before?
I think everyone goes through that. Writers, actors, moms and dads, everyone.
Your brothers and sisters will see you exactly as you are.
You’re a man who lost his dad in a way you never expected to.
Yet you get up every day and do the work that needs to be done.
Whether it’s checking the wine to see what’s ready to be bottled or going on sales calls to make sure Whitmore stays front and center on every list that matters or standing in a row of vines, making sure you’ve done everything you can to not lose a single bud to frost. That’s who you are, Bas. ”
“I’m a good boyfriend too, right?” Every muscle in my body went rigid. Had I gone too far? Would Gemma freak out at me for saying I was her boyfriend?
“Best boyfriend, lover, coffee- and dinner-maker, hair washer, orgasm-giver—I guess I covered that with lover.”
“No, orgasm-giver is better. Keep going.”
Instead, she kissed me. Not a peck, a full-on, make-my-cock-hard-as-a-rock, deep, sexy-as-fuck kiss.
“Keep that up, and we’ll end up in the supply room closet again.”
She shook her head and got off my lap. “You have work to do, and so do I.”
“Okay, but I’d much rather play in the supply closet with you than work.”
“Me too, but for now, we must adult.”
I went down to the cellar and drew a sample off my first barrel.
Arlow was arriving today, and one of the things she’d want to do this weekend would be to walk the cellar.
She’d pass most of the barrels without a second look, but these two would make her stop and wonder why the heads were blank.
I picked up a piece of chalk. I could add a fake lot number and a date, and she’d never question it.
Except every other barrel in this room was identified using my father’s system. These two weren’t, because they were mine.
I put the chalk down and went up to wait for them.
Arlow and Hux arrived first, in a car I’d been telling them to get rid of for a year. Hux got out and stretched like they’d driven across the country rather than a ninety-minute ride from Davis.
He patted my waistline. “The house looks smaller, and you look bigger.”
“You got uglier.”
“Not a chance.” He hugged me hard enough to knock the air out of me, then went to get his bag.
“My turn.” Arlow pushed him out of her way.
I hugged her. “How are you?” I whispered.
“Better than you,” she whispered too. “Although, according to Ev, you’re not answering his calls because you’re busy.”
I leaned away and brushed the hair from her face. “I’m hanging in there, Mom.” She looked so much like her. She sounded like her too, especially when she was checking on one of us.
“Has the chardonnay pushed?”
“Right after you left at Christmas.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not. Ask Zeke about the first frost.”
“That’s insane. That’s not even—” She stopped and stared at me. “Did you lose anything?”
“Not a bud.”
“That’s my big brother.” She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Not only a winemaking genius. A vine whisperer too.”
“Go inside, Arlow.”
“I’m telling everybody at Davis.”
She went up the steps, and I stood in the drive, with my ears burning.
Ev pulled in an hour later, with Bry in the passenger seat. His drive wasn’t much longer than Arlow and Hux’s, but he’d swung by the airport to get our baby sister on the way.
Bry was out of the car while it was still rolling and filming before her feet hit the gravel.
“Say something.”
“No.”
“Come on, say something. Anything.”
“Turn that off and hug me.”
She did both, in that order.
Ev came around the hood and gave me a once-over.
“You look better,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“I mean it. You look like a person.” He got his bag out of the car. “Who’s cooking dinner?”
“You are.”
“Thank God. You’re a terrible cook.”
“I know someone who would adamantly disagree with that assessment.”
“Is this person the reason you text rather than answer my late-night calls?”
“The very one.”
He squeezed my shoulder. “I’m happy for you. When do we get to meet her?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“Call her up. Tell her your handsome and brilliant brothers and warm and friendly sisters are in town and she should come meet us.”
“Arlow and Brylee are brilliant. You and Hux are smart enough, but I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say you’re handsome.”
Huxley came out the front door. “Aren’t you two done trash-talking yet?”
Brylee practically knocked him over when she ran up to hug him. Fortunately, Arlow was standing right behind him and caught the two of them before they tumbled.
“So?” Ev nudged me. “Are you gonna call her?”
“Her name is Gemma, and she’s living in one of the cottages.”
“Wait. Gemma?”
“Do you know her?”
“The wedding planner, right? From Kick and Izzy’s wedding?”
“She’s Whitmore’s event planner now, and wait until you hear all the amazing ideas she’s come up with.”
“Is she the one who suggested this weekend’s event?”
“Where have you been?” Arlow joked. “This is old news, dude.”
Ev looked from me to her. “He told you about her and not me?”
“Hell no,” said Hux, joining us. “We called Zeke.”
“So, is she coming to dinner?” Arlow asked.
I turned and realized Brylee was filming every word of our conversation.
“Turn the camera off, Bry,” I told her.
“I will if you invite her over.”
“Do you promise not to turn it on again for the entire time she’s here?”
“You’re no fun.” She lowered the camera.
“Promise?”
“Yes, Sebastian. I promise. Now, go ask her.”
I’d already asked Gemma to have dinner with us, but she’d said to wait until my siblings arrived and decide then if I still wanted her to. The truth was I was so used to being with her that I couldn’t imagine her not being with us.
“The gang’s arrived, and they can’t wait to meet you,” I said when I walked in.
Her expression when she looked up at me was one I couldn’t remember seeing before.
“What’s wrong?”
She’d been reading a piece of paper but flipped it over. “Nothing. I’m going through the RSVPs.”
“Someone you wanted to be here can’t make it?”
“Actually, the opposite.” She spoke so quietly that I barely heard her.
“Who?”
“It’s not important.” The smile she plastered on her face wasn’t the slightest bit convincing. “Really, Bas. Let’s go see your family. They’re who matters.”
“Okay, but we’re going to talk about this later.”
“By later, I’ll have forgotten all about it.”
My brothers and sisters were on the front porch, with glasses of wine in hand, when Gemma and I came up the drive. Zeke was on the steps, with his hat in his hands, getting his ear talked off by every one of them at once.
“There he is,” said Hux. “Zeke here has been telling us how soft you’ve gotten lately.”
When Zeke raised that brow, smacked the back of Hux’s head, and called him an idiot, we all laughed.
He got himself loose from Bry, who had her arms around his waist, and came down a step. “Miss Engel.”
“Zeke.”
“They can be a lot when they’re all together like this, but I trust you can hold your own with them.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Stay for dinner,” Ev said. “I’m making the chicken.”
“Please stay,” Brylee added.
“My wife’s already got supper waiting, or I would.” He put his hat on. “You all enjoy yourselves.” On his way past me, he put his hand on my shoulder, squeezed, and kept walking.
My brothers and sisters were lined up in age order, looking at me like it was Christmas morning and I was Santa.
“Gemma, meet Everest, Arlow, Huxley, and Brylee. Sibs, meet Gemma Engel.” I leaned in and added, “Warning, they’re huggers.”