Wright Rival (Wright)

“That sounds damn good out of your mouth, Medina.” He brushed his nose against mine. “Maybe I can have a taste of what is mine later.”

“You’re filthy.”

“No, I’ll be filthy later. Maybe we should take a shower.” He winked at me.

“Get out here, Abbey!” Isaac called from the field.

“Yeah, Hollin,” Julian shouted. “Get your head in the game.”

“My head is somewhere else entirely,” he said, planting one more kiss on my lips.

The guys called out to him as he kissed me. He winked at me and ran out onto the field.

“Yeah, yeah, fuckers. I’m coming.”

I watched him go with a shake of my head. He was mine. Mine.

26

Hollin

“You’re whipped,” Julian said when I stopped by his office to tell him I was going to lunch with Piper…again.

“Pot, meet kettle.”

“Yeah, but Jennifer is my girlfriend. What is Piper?”

“She’s…well, we’re dating.”

“Exclusively?”

I scratched the back of my head. “Yeah.”

Julian leaned back in his chair and tapped a pen against his seat. “You’ve shot to hell the three-date rule.”

I snorted. “True.”

“So, girlfriend?”

“She’s mine. We haven’t defined it beyond that,” I said with a shrug. “Right now, I’m enjoying the fucking ride.”

“Are you bringing her to the gala?”

“I’m asking her today. She was shaky the first couple dates. Maybe the first dozen dates.”

“Can’t blame her. Considering your history.”

“No. It’s fair.” And it really was. She had every reason to be skeptical because of my history. Especially considering what she’d told me about her friends. I’d been such a dick back then. I’d thought I’d gotten better, but until Piper, no one else had mattered. “I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. Make sure she understood what I wanted before I dropped a black-tie event on her.”

“And what do you want from her?”

“Dude, I feel stupid for even saying it, but…everything.”

“Who are you, and what have you done with my cousin?” Julian laughed. “Are there wedding bells in your future after all?”

“Shut up. I just mean, I want to see where this goes. I’m not pumping the brakes.”

Julian stood and held his hand out with a wide grin. I shook his hand.

“Good. That’s what I wanted to hear.” When he released my hand, he slapped a letter into my palm.

“What’s this?” I asked, turning the letter over to read the header—IWAA Texas Wine Award Competition.

“See for yourself.”

I tore into the envelope and pulled out the letter. I read it in a daze. My eyes shot to Julian’s. “We’re in?”

He nodded. “We’re in.”

“Holy shit. We’re finalists for the wine award.” My eyes bulged as I scanned the letter a second time. “This is the official invite to Austin for the finals.”

“Yep.”

“Fuck, man. I wasn’t sure it’d happen. I hoped, but…”

“I get it,” Julian said automatically. “But if anything was going to work, it was the Abbey vintage.”

I hugged my cousin tight for a second. “Guess I’d better go find out if Piper made it in, too.”

Julian laughed. “Good luck with that.”

“No kidding.”

I pocketed the letter and headed to my truck. I drove to Sinclair Cellars to pick up Piper for lunch. I was thinking something more celebratory than our usual. Or maybe we could celebrate tonight with a fancy dinner. Something I wouldn’t normally go for, but it wasn’t every day this sort of thing happened.

I barged through the back door and knocked on her closed office door.

“Come in,” Piper called.

She looked up from her desk when I entered.

“Hey, babe.”

“Hey,” she said with a smile. “Just finishing some paperwork. Where are we going for lunch?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

I withdrew the letter. “Did you get one of these?”

Her eyes widened. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Wright Vineyard is in the finals,” I declared.

“I haven’t looked through the mail.” She reached for the stack that someone had apparently deposited on her desk. She rifled through it all until, miraculously, her own golden ticket dropped into her lap.

Her eyes were wary yet excited as she sliced the top open with a letter opener. She reverently took out the letter and read the contents.

“Oh my God,” she gasped. “We made it!” She jumped up. “We made it!”

“Congratulations!”

“We’re real enemies now, Abbey.”

I laughed as I scooped her up into my arms. I twirled her around in a circle before dropping her back down on her feet. She drew my lips down to meet hers.

“Maybe we should…drive down together,” I offered.

“Really?”

I nodded. “No point in both of us driving to Austin.”

She considered it. “Might be fun. Like a getaway.”

“I’m into it, if you are.”

“I am,” she said with a small smile.

“Good. And…about the gala this weekend,” I said, brushing my hand across the back of my neck. Might as well get this over with. “Do you want to go with me?”

Her eyes lit up. “As your date? To a black-tie event?”

“Well, yeah. I know you were already planning to go to see Peyton perform and…”