Wright Rival (Wright)

“Good luck,” I said without a touch of goodwill in my voice.

He laughed. The sunshine to my grumpy brooding. “I don’t need it. But you might.”

Then, Julian and Jordan pulled him away to get champagne for a toast. My friends bombarded me a second later. Thankfully, Bradley was shoved out of the way as the girls each drew me into an excited hug.

“When did you decide to do this?” Annie asked. “And why weren’t we informed?”

Annie was the bossiest one of the bunch. She was in residency as an ER doctor and radiated confident energy. She somehow exuded enough of that for all the rest of us.

“Yeah,” Blaire said. “I’m your bestie.”

I shrugged. “We enter competitions every year. Usually smaller regional competitions. Our wines do all right, but I wanted to go bigger this year.”

Jennifer tucked a strand of her light-brown hair behind her hair and smiled. “We want to celebrate every achievement. You know that.”

I should have known that. But sometimes, I didn’t think that applied to me. Jennifer was a wedding photographer for Wright Vineyard, but she had also recently started working with Hollin’s rockstar brother, Campbell. After her photo of him had gone viral last year, their record label had hired her to do the photography for the cover of their latest album. They were now on an international tour for said album, and her photography was everywhere.

That felt like something to celebrate. Entering an award competition felt like nothing.

“A toast,” Jordan interrupted the conversation.

The guys passed out champagne, and we all held our glasses aloft. Bradley returned to my side, sliding a hand across my hips. I was self-conscious about it, knowing what I now knew awaited me in his gym bag. He wasn’t happy about me wearing Hollin’s shirt after I came back—what guy would?—but he’d shrugged it off quickly. As if me wearing another guy’s shirt didn’t even matter. Was he that secure in us?

“To one year at Wright Vineyard,” Jordan said.

“One phenomenal year,” Julian added.

“And friendly competition to follow,” Hollin said.

He tipped his head at me, and I just stared back blankly. What part of this made him think it would be friendly?

Still, I held my glass aloft and clinked it with my friends’ glasses. I took a sip of my champagne. The Wrights had splurged on a vintage Veuve Clicquot, and I could appreciate every single delicious note of the champagne. Wright Vineyard didn’t make a sparkling yet, but few could compare to the historical French wineries anyway.

We settled back into our seats. Bradley scooted his chair even closer to mine, draping his arm across the back of it. I was ready to leave. I needed to get this over with. But Jordan was still standing and speaking, and I should focus. I couldn’t leave yet. Even if I wanted to.

“While I have your attention,” Jordan said with a wide grin, “I’d thank everyone for joining us on this adventure. It’s had its highs and lows. I never believed I’d move out of Vancouver, but now, I’m here, and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.”

A few, “Hear, hear!” were chorused as others listened in on his speech.

Other Wrights were in attendance. Jordan and Julian’s cousins—Jensen, Austin, Landon, Morgan, and Sutton Wright—ran Wright Construction in town and were the reason that the Wright name was associated with Texas royalty. Jensen’s wife, Emery, was hugely pregnant while their one-year-old tottered around their feet. Landon had his three-year-old, Holden, with him, who was happily playing with Sutton’s seven-year-old, Jason, and two-year-old, Madison. Landon’s wife, Heidi, wasn’t in attendance since she had recently had twin boys—Hudson and Harrison. The number of Wrights in this town was growing exponentially.

Morgan and Patrick had set a date for their wedding for this fall. Everyone kept looking to Austin and Julia, wondering when they were going to tie the knot. But they had always done their own thing, and I appreciated that.

My twin brother, Peter, was in attendance with his boyfriend, Chester. He looked up, as if sensing my eyes on him across the room. Twin thing. He flipped me off, and my hardened veneer dropped. I laughed and covered it by taking another sip of my wine. Bradley glanced at me in confusion.

Jordan had been talking all this time. Giving the fancy Wright speech the family was known for. It was a good one. I was sure it was. I hadn’t been paying attention, but still…

The crowd gasped all at once.

My eyes snapped back to Jordan Wright, who had gotten down onto one knee. My jaw dropped as he removed a red ring box from his pocket.

Time slowed as he faced Annie Donoghue with a stunning Cartier ring. Her hands flew to her mouth. Tears came to her eyes. Shock rippled through the crowd. They’d only been together for a year. But when you knew, you knew.