Buttons and Grace (Buttons 6)

“What do you think?”

She cut into the boneless rib and took a bite. “I don’t want to insult you, but…he makes your cooking seem terrible.”

I chuckled. “He makes your cooking look terrible too.”

She smiled. “No offense taken. The only thing I’d make in my dorm was macaroni and Top Ramen.”

“Top Ramen?”

“It’s a soup thing.”

Never heard of it.

“Gerald has a job guarantee for life,” she said before she took another bite. “But he might make you fat.”

If I didn’t get started in the wine business soon, that might actually happen. I was running out of things to do. I could hit the gym and fuck Adelina all day, but that still wouldn’t be enough. It’d only been a few weeks, but I missed the old business. I wondered how Constantine was handling it almost every single day.

She noticed the way my eyes shifted away. “What are you thinking about?”

“Work.”

“Wine?”

“No. The other business.” I sipped my glass of wine and tried to understand the boldness as well as the subtle sweetness. “I wonder how it’s going. I haven’t spoken to Bran about it.”

“So you just forgot about it and moved on?”

“Pretty much.”

“Why do you miss it so much?” she asked. “Was it the job, or was it because it was yours?”

I stared at my glass as I considered a response. “My dad started the business in his early twenties. He expected Crow and me to take over. Vanessa was expected to stay home and have kids. We worked with him all the time until we grew into men. Then he and my mother were killed, but we never changed anything. So, it made me feel connected to him…in a way.”

Her hand moved over mine. “I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago. I won’t pretend that my father was the best guy in the world, not the way other people always say. He wasn’t faithful to my mother. He had slaves sometimes and hurt them. He cared about money, and he used his power for evil as well as for good.”

She kept her hand on mine, her eyes trained on my face.

“I followed in his footsteps much more than Crow did. My dad and Crow fought a lot, which was why he opened the winery. Wanted to go his own way. I shared the same darkness my father did. I didn’t have morals or rules. I fucked whores and slaves. I never considered my actions wrong because that was how I was raised. But now…I don’t feel that way anymore.” I pulled my hand away and turned back to my meal, not wanting to make Adelina upset. My transition started with Pearl and solidified when I laid eyes on Adelina.

Adelina continued to stare at me until she pulled her hand back to her side of the table.

I finished my food and looked out the window, suddenly feeling awkward. There was always tension in the room due to the silent understanding we had with one another. It was difficult to ignore when we were both thinking about it—all the time.

“Did you have a good childhood?”

“Yeah,” she said immediately. “I was an only child, so all I ever had was my parents’ attention and affection. My mama was a stay-at-home mom, so she was always around. We’d make cookies on Sundays, she’d help me with my homework during the week because she’s much brighter than people realize, and she’d drive me and my friends around on Saturdays. My dad is more on the quiet side, but he’s very funny. I don’t have a single bad thing to say about either one of them.”

Our lives couldn’t be much more different. “That sounds nice.”

“My parents did a great job. I always imagined being like my mom when I have kids…” The tension filled the space again because we both knew she imagined having kids with someone other than me.

I brushed it off. “You want to help me out at the winery?”

“Tomorrow?” she asked.

“I mean in general. Crow said we should expand the business by buying more land and setting up a second winery. It’s something we can do together. You’ve been helping out over there, so I’m sure you know a thing or two.”

She flicked her food around with her fork. “When were you planning on doing this?”

“Probably over the next few months. I have to wait for Crow to be well again, and then we’ll purchase the property…and go from there.”

She stared at her food and set her fork down. Her plate wasn’t empty, and she usually ate everything before she was done. Her shoulders were hunched, and her head was downcast. Her fingers rubbed against her neck, and that smile she wore minutes ago was long gone.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah… I just…” She ran her fingers through her hair nervously, avoiding eye contact with me.

She wasn’t the kind of woman to drop her gaze, no matter what kind of foe she faced. “What?”