Page 73 of One Wild Wish

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

JIMMY

What haven’t you told me?It should have been a simple question, one I’d pored over for weeks. But this was Rachel, the woman who valued family above all else, and I was about to prove I was an asshole. I’d tried to rethink my plan, reassess if walking away was better than spilling the truth. Better than destroying the winery I loved. Then anger would cloud my mind. My father’s nasty words would loop, his choice to cheat our customers unforgivable. This was the only way, and it was time Rachel knew.

“When I told you I joined the contest because I thought it would be fun, I lied.”

“Okay…” She waited, arms folded around her waist, wariness in her stiff stance.

I jammed my hand through my hair and focused on the floor between us. “Offshoot Winery’s head winemaker has been messing with our Cabernet Sauvignon, blending in more than the twenty-five percent of other varietals allowed.”

I looked up, and her eyes widened. “Shit.”

I forced an awkward laugh. “More like huge fucking disaster. I tried talking my brother and father into doing something about it, but they were happy to plod along. It had been happening awhile, without anyone clueing in. They figured if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

“But if people knew, they could be sued, couldn’t they? The wine world would be horrified.”

In Italy, a man had been charged for passing off cheap wine as a premium Brunello. In New York, Rudy Kurniawan had been sentenced to prison for falsely labeling wines and swindling people out of millions. My family’s transgressions weren’t so notorious, but the winery wouldn’t escape unscathed.

I confessed it all to Rachel, spilled the whole sordid story: seeing the contest flyer the night we’d met, needing to expose the lies by leaking them through the final round. My hope to finally let go of my past. As I went on, Rachel’s face transformed from flushed to ashen, one hand clutched over her chest. My heart nearly busted through my ribs.

I expected relief, my secret finally in the open. Instead my neck prickled, the air in the room suddenly suffocating. The sweat on my skin turned clammy.

“You’ll destroy them.” Her anguished whisper nearly cut me down.

I worked my jaw, everything feeling hazy. Wrong. Bad. “Breaking the rules isn’t cool, Ray. It’s gone on too long, and if it bites me in the ass later, my name will be ruined. If I do it now, I can claim I just found out. I’m aware of the fallout, that my family won’t forgive me. It also means they’ll finally leave me alone—us alone. I can move on. Don’t you want that?”

“Yes, I want that. But not like this.”

“It’s the only way.”

She made a frustrated grunt, arms tense, like she wanted to shake me. “In your stubborn head, maybe. But sabotaging your family winery, the winery that’s in your blood, will make it worse, not better.”

I fisted my hands, wishing I was at the gym, punching bag swinging, all my frustrations pummeled into leather. She didn’t understand. Even when she’d worried her mother wouldn’t support her choice of men, Lydia had proven her wrong. Rachel had only ever known love. “I’ve tried. For two years, I’ve tried to put this crap behind me. But my parents aren’t like yours. They are vindictive and selfish. I need to sever my ties with them.”

Panic flitted across her face. “Your parents don’t deserve this.”

“You don’t know them or what they deserve.” There was that tone of mine again, biting and nasty. The asshole lurking below the surface. When I’d sipped my first glass of Offshoot wine in two years, I’d been rude to Rachel and had cut her off. I’d barked at her when she answered my mother’s call. Now I was lashing out…and it gutted me. I could barely control the sting of my voice. I didn’t understand why the hell my family still affected me so much. Ashamed, I dipped my head and rubbed my neck.

No. I wasn’t over what my parents had done. Not by a long shot. And Rachel was getting dragged along for the bumpy ride.

I was about to apologize, when she said, “Actually, I do know them.”

My head shot up. “My parents?”

Slowly, she nodded. Slowly, apprehension fisted my gut. When she didn’t elaborate, I said, “I don’t follow.” I didn’t want to follow. There was a feral look about her, like she was cornered, no escape in sight.

I stood bare chested and queasy, her khaki shorts and white T-shirt a preppy contrast to my ink. I should have been all over her, teasing her inner thighs with my fingers, getting her ready for me. Instead tension hung between us. And doom. I could sense it. Whatever she was about to say would be the final blow.

It was a sucker punch.

“Your father has been exercising at my gym. For a while. I didn’t know who he was,” she added quickly, talking over herself. “I swear, I didn’t know. Then he was there today with your mother, and they admitted who they are. They are so torn up and sorry and want to make amends. Which means you can’t do this thing. You can’t destroy them and the winery. They want you to run it again, with your brother.”

The room swayed. Rachel knew my fucking parents and wanted me to work with them like nothing had happened? Like they hadn’t committed fraud and booted me from their lives? A sharp pang slammed into my ribs, worse than sparring at the gym. How could she be on their side after everything I’d told her? Unless she’d been lying this whole time, toying with me.

My mind stilled. Eerily, almost. Something shifted, a sinking feeling that had me reliving the shittiest day of my life. The day Sophia had turned down my proposal.

I stepped back from Rachel, bile building. “You’re telling me you’ve spent time with my parents and didn’t tell me? That you didn’t realize who they were?” Lies. Lies. Lies.