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It’s Tuesday morning when I take a walk from the mansion over to the production facility.
I knock tentatively on my dad’s office door.
“Hey, Gigi,” he says absently, glancing up from some paperwork on his desk as he pulls his glasses off. He sets them on his desk and rubs his eyes. “What’s up?”
“Can we talk?”
He nods. “Always.”
I close his office door and plop into the chair across from him. “What are Nana’s plans with this place once she decides to let it go?”
He shrugs and offers one of those secret smiles that tells me he at least has an idea about her plans.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I demand.
“She mentioned an idea, but I’ve never actually seen it in writing. And I was sworn to absolute secrecy.”
“If I guess the plan, can you confirm it?” I ask.
He thinks about that for a beat, and then he seems to come to a decision. “I suppose that wouldn’t be breaking my promise to Mom.”
“Is she handing the vineyard down to whichever of her grandchildren stays married for two years?”
He looks surprised that I know. He neither confirms nor denies my hunch, instead asking, “How’d you find out?”
“Is there a secondary clause that if a great-grandchild is produced in that marriage, there’s a bonus vineyard in Temecula?”
His brows knit together. “You know about Newman Vineyard?”
“I didn’t until you just confirmed it.” I fold my arms across my chest. “Do you really think Amelia should be getting it? You really weren’t going to tell me?”
“Gracie-bug, you know I couldn’t tell you. Nana just wanted it to be fair, and since neither Jimmy nor I was married when she decided she was ready to pass it down, she chose to give it to whichever one of you gets married first. But it’s not two years, it’s only one. She’ll sign over the deed to you on your one-year anniversary. Now can you tell me how you found out?”
“That camera you installed in my office. Drew and Amelia were in there talking, and somehow she knows,” I say flatly.
“She knows?” he asks.
“Drew said something about her only marrying Spencer for his money. She was going to divorce him after two years and keep his money. Win-win for her. She gets the vineyard and Spencer’s money.”
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “But that wedding is off, right? So there’s nothing to worry about. You know now, so maybe we just…I don’t know, be honest with Mom that you both know so she can come up with another way.”
“Is the great-grandchild thing true, too?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Sort of. I haven’t read her will. I can’t bring myself to do it, but there are a number of secondary conditions, one being if one of you produces a great-grandchild, I think. But she didn’t want either of you to know. She wanted the wedding and children to happen naturally.”
An idea forms in my head.
It’s crazy.
It’s a complete longshot.
It’s wild and impulsive.
It’s all the things I’m not.
And somehow…I immediately know I have to give it a try. I’ll spend the rest of my life regretting it if I don’t.
“I have to go,” I say. “Don’t tell Nana I know.” I dart out of the office and over to my bungalow to set this plan into action.
