Serves Me Wright

We sure as hell were.

“Enjoy the rest of your day,” Jordan said.

We said our good-byes and then hung up. Have a good day. Yeah, right. All thoughts of crawling back into bed with my girlfriend had vanished. I might have another brother. Weston Wright in Seattle. Had Dad knocked his mom up and not known it? Had his mom given him our last name to capitalize on it one day? I didn’t understand any of it. And like Jordan, I wanted to know.

“What was that all about?” Jennifer asked, padding out of the bedroom in my T-shirt.

“Jordan called.” I shook my head and showed her the screen, displaying the email.

She read the screen and then gasped. “Oh my God, Julian!”

“I know.”

“Is this true?”

I shrugged, running a hand back through my hair. “Fuck if I know. We’re going to ask our parents when I get home.”

Her eyes were round with worry. “Are you okay?”

I reached out and pulled her into my lap. She curled up easily, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to think.”

“Is it possible?”

“With my dad…anything is possible.”

“Okay. Probable?”

“I don’t know. I can’t imagine that even Owen Wright would hide a family from all of us for our entire lives.”

“Did he do work in Seattle?”

“No,” I said. “He ran the company out of Vancouver. Sometimes, he was gone for conferences or board meetings. That sort of thing but rarely Seattle.”

“Huh. Maybe it’s not true?” she asked optimistically.

“I don’t know, love,” I said, burying my head into her shoulder.

“Do we need to go home early?”

I looked up at her in surprise. “Of course not. We’re not leaving until late.”

“Yeah, but—”

I silenced her response with a kiss. She laughed against my lips.

“We get at least one beach day.”

She nodded. “Okay. If you’re sure.”

“I am.”

I could put this behind me for a day. For her, I could do it.

* * *

We arrived back in Lubbock late that night. I had Jennifer stay at my place, but when I went into work, she headed home to check on the cats—Avocado was still avoiding her—and to begin work on the wedding edits.

Hollin, Alejandra, and Nora were already on-site when I arrived at the winery. Jordan’s truck was also in the parking lot, which meant we were going to deal with this bright and early. If he wasn’t at Wright Construction working on the soccer complex, then this was serious.

My stomach tightened. I’d been doing a good job at avoiding the topic. I’d reread Weston’s email a couple times. I had become more and more skeptical, the more times I read it. What were the fucking chances that this was even true? And did I want to get to know this guy if it was? It was a lot of unanswerable questions. I just wanted to run my vineyard, be with my girlfriend, and not have to deal with more shit because of my dad.

“Julian!” Nora said as I stepped inside. “I’m so glad you’re here. You look tan!”

“Thanks. I was in Cabo this weekend.”

“Jealous! Sounds amazing. So, I sent you the final information for the Wright Construction party. Morgan had pinged me, and I’d worked on it all weekend. It’s coming up quick. I need you to sign off on it, and then I can work with her directly about the party.”

“Sure. Not a problem. Has Hollin looked at this?”

“He said to talk to you,” she said with an eye roll.

I snorted. “Of course he did.”

“He and Alejandra are working on the tour schedule this week. He said something about hiring some new people.”

“Great,” I muttered. I only had half a brain to deal with this, but I gave her a reassuring smile. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Will do. Are you going to be back this weekend for the game? Because I have to admit that your replacement was not the best.”

“Sorry about that. Who did you get?”

She laughed. “Annie brought in Chase Sinclair.”

I nearly choked. “What? Seriously? And Jordan didn’t blow a fuse?”

“I did not,” Jordan said, appearing by us. “They’re friends. Just friends.”

Chase and Annie had been a heck of a lot more than friends for a long time. But if Jordan trusted them, then who was I to judge?

“But he sucked?”

Jordan grinned. “He did. That part was satisfying.”

“We lost,” Nora grumbled. “Even Blaire and August didn’t make up for it.”

She beamed when she mentioned her boyfriend. They’d been dating seriously for three years now. He was a pretty good forward, if he didn’t ball hog like Hollin did as a defender.

“I’ll be back this weekend.”

“Thank God,” she said. Then she smiled and traipsed away. Little pixie actually skipped, her long ponytail swaying as she went back to work.

“So,” Jordan said, “should we go see Mom?”

“I’m really behind on work.”

“You think this should wait?”