Forbidden: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance

“Seriously?” he asked.

“We have a problem,” I said, ignoring him and his glaring. “Some of the stuff you want is impossible.”

“Impossible?” he asked, his eyes growing wide in exaggerated disbelief. “I haven’t asked for anything that isn’t in any modern kitchen for a restaurant this size.”

“I highly doubt that,” I said, “especially since this is far from the first restaurant I have built. And I’m not building a restaurant, I am remodeling one. That means we are keeping the majority of this frame. If I am going to do that, there is only so much I can just add without risking the structural integrity of the entire building, much less how much it would cost.”

“Did you include the walk-in freezer?”

“Yes. I did.” I sighed. We were going right back into the same argument we’d had a hundred times already. “And as I said last time and the time before it and the time before that, the only way to do that is to add a considerable portion to the building. That means completely knocking out that wall over there and taking away no less than four tables on the floor. Which, considering our current count, isn’t really feasible.”

“What are you talking about?” Derek asked. “The walk-in is going over here, next to the steps to the dungeon.”

I sighed. We had been over this several times already.

“No, Derek. It can’t go there.”

“Yes, Noah. It can,” he responded curtly. “It won’t take that much rearranging, we just have to move the range over this way, and…”

“No, Derek, it can’t. That’s not how the building is designed. It would require completely tearing everything down and starting from scratch. You’re talking weeks, maybe months of work, and not just remodeling but demolition and building from the ground up. Everything would have to be redone. And it would be expensive. We can’t do that.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Derek said, shaking his head.

That was all I was going to get from him, not only because he didn’t really have anything else he could say but also because I wasn’t going to stick around to listen to it. I loved Derek, as I loved all my brothers. But he especially could be a pain in my ass.

“I have everything here. It’s all laid out in simple-to-understand language for the layman. I included pricing at the absolute cheapest I could get it without compromising integrity. Look it over. Leave it here and I’ll pick it up tomorrow,” I said.

Turning on my heel, I walked out of the kitchen and headed out.

I was beginning to wonder if bringing this place back to its former glory, or as we had discussed, making it even bigger and better, was worth it. The last few years had been especially rough for the vineyard. The restaurant had closed when the former chef left with the idea that Derek would take it over. But he was always so busy that it never materialized. Everyone seemed to understand he was learning his craft and becoming who he always wanted to be.

Then, our grandparents passed away. They were inseparable and had owned the vineyard for years, well into old age. When they died, it was a gut punch the likes none of us had ever felt, and we vowed to come together with all our skills and save their vineyard, which we all inherited. Without them on a day-to-day basis as they got sicker, everything had gone to pot. Years of entropy had turned what was once a successful and semi-famous stop for wine lovers around the world into a decrepit shell of its former self.

Alex was a computer whiz and offered to help with advertising. Kane had moved on to working in the wine industry himself, focusing primarily on strains of grapes and the early process of creating the world’s best blends. Cameron was a businessman and was extremely good at the entire process of running a business as he had done for several others. Derek had gone into the world of kitchens and was destined to run the vineyard’s own.

That left me.

I had gone into construction and was damn good at it. I knew how buildings worked. I knew how to create functional and workable spaces that were not only pleasing to use but pleasing to look at. I could guide a team of contractors to work as a team seamlessly and get the jobs done early and under budget. The first bit of fixing the vineyard was going to have to be my job.

Buildings were nearly falling down. There was a lot to do. We all missed our grandparents, but we were all also adults now, used to living our lives without being told what to do. Suddenly, everyone had to listen to each other, trust each other when we said things would or would not work. That meant Derek telling me what he needed and me telling him how it would have to be.