1
Noah
I looked over the plans one more time. I had put hours into fixing them, redrawing the blueprints, crunching numbers, consulting other construction engineers I knew, architects, code enforcement, everyone. What I had in those plans wasn’t just how to renovate the vineyard’s restaurant; it was essentially a work of art.
Cam and Kane were likely out at the vines and wouldn’t care much anyway. They trusted me. Of all of the brothers, I was the one who worked construction my whole adult life, since two days after I graduated high school in fact. Derek though, he was the one I was going to have to convince. Derek was the one who was going to put up an argument, the one with all the particular issues that only a chef would have when it came to a kitchen. Lots of dreams and ideas and no idea how difficult or impossible they were to implement.
Renovating the family vineyard was something I thought would bring us all together. And if we were able to bring it back to its former glory, it could make us all wealthy beyond our wildest imaginations. There was so much fertile land and the bones of great structures there that with care and time, it could be the envy of the California wine industry. Even more than it had before our grandparents passed away.
My construction office, a trailer parked a few hundred yards from the restaurant building and overlooking the main area of the vineyard, was getting hot, and I flipped on the window unit air conditioner. By the time I got back from meeting with Derek, it should be cool and comfortable, and if Derek didn’t throw a fit, I could get to work on purchasing the materials I needed online and calling the people I wanted to hire for the bigger jobs and locking in dates.
Gathering everything together, I headed out of the trailer and toward the restaurant. Derek was the only one I needed to convince of my work. Cam and Kane would go along with it if Derek agreed, I knew that much, and if he didn’t, I wasn’t sure how this would all go. Still, I was excited to show him the results of my work and even more excited to get going on it.
When I walked into the kitchen, I found Derek on the far side speaking with a beautiful woman I didn’t recognize. Instantly, my eyes were drawn to the blonde-haired, curvy figure. Bright blue eyes shone behind thick, dark eyelashes, and her body looked tight underneath the generic black uniform of restaurant workers everywhere. She was intoxicating to look at, and I had to will my attention away from her. Instead, I focused my attention on my brother, who stood with his back to me.
They were apparently deep in a conversation, and Derek was motioning toward the restaurant and doing that thing with his hands where he was visualizing where things were and seemingly drawing them in the air. I made my way behind him and cleared my throat. When that didn’t work, I shifted on my feet, hoping he would catch a glimpse of me. Finally, I was done waiting and decided to interrupt them anyway.
The woman noticed me first, just before my hand fell on Derek’s shoulder. The look of surprise as she stared up at me seemed to make the world around her fade out. All I could focus on for a second were how wide her ocean-blue eyes were, how her hair framed her slightly pale complected face, how full and red her lips were under a layer of deep red lipstick.
“Noah,” Derek said, breaking my spell. “I’m in the middle of a conversation.”
He was annoyed. Unfortunately for him, I had a commanding voice too, and I was used to ordering around dozens and dozens of construction workers. Not young waitresses and terrified sous chefs.
“I need to talk to you,” I said simply.
“Yes, I can see that,” Derek replied. “But I need a few minutes to discuss some things before then. Perhaps this can wait until this evening.”
“This evening?” I huffed. “No. My time is just as valuable as yours, Derek. I need to get started on this before too much time gets wasted dicking around.”
“Dicking around?” Derek said. “Excuse me, Noah, but what I’m doing here is important.”
“No, it isn’t,” I said flatly. “What you are doing is planning three steps ahead of where we actually are. None of what you are doing matters until these plans are finalized. So, let’s go over them and I can show you what will work. Then you can get back to whatever it was you were doing.”
The woman huffed from where she stood and walked away, muttering something about table space. Derek sighed and then glared at me. I didn’t care. His attitude was always that whatever he wanted was most important, and he often got a reality check when it came to me.