Forbidden: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance

I honestly didn’t know if this would work. Not with them fighting me over everything. I knew construction—it was what I did—and if this was going to happen, I was going to get my way. I was roped into it in the first place. I had no desire to be part of the vineyard at first. It was our grandparents’ legacy, but it had nothing to do with me. I didn’t see where I fit once it was done.

Still, the guilt of all my other brothers working on it and needing a lot of construction help got me involved. Now they just had to listen to me and follow my lead. I knew what I was talking about, and if they didn’t like it, they could find someone else to do it for ten times what I was going to be charging. If they wanted me to be a part of the family thing they were doing, and get the discount for it too, they were going to have to do it my way.

2

Ally

I waited around, looking inconspicuous until Derek’s oldest brother, Noah, left. I tried to seem like I was deeply engrossed in something on my phone which probably meant I looked completely obvious. He didn’t say anything to me as he walked past, and I made it a point not to look up at him.

There was no way I was getting in the middle of whatever was going down between the two of them.

I couldn’t hear exactly what the two men were saying to each other, but I had a feeling I knew what they were arguing about. Derek wasn’t keeping it a secret from me that his brothers weren’t fully on the same page as him when it came to the plans he had for the vineyard. They’d been pushy about him coming back and joining them in their efforts to bring the vineyard back to its original glory, but now that he was there and starting to make plans, they were pushing back against nearly everything he said.

Not that Derek was being the most flexible and agreeable about the whole situation either. He was doing his fair share of arguing and pushing as well. Which was exactly why I extricated myself from the situation as soon as I saw it starting to bubble up. There was no way I was going to wade into the mire of an argument between the two frustrated, headstrong brothers.

When Noah was finally gone, I walked back into the kitchen and found Derek shaking his head as he pulled containers out of the one cooler currently in operation and set them on the counter. He started pulling vegetables out of one of them and chopping them almost mindlessly. It looked less like he was actually doing any prep work and more like he was just going through the movements to distract himself and work out his frustration.

“Everything okay?” I asked, cautiously approaching him.

He looked up at me and nodded. “Yeah. Just ignore my brother. He’s used to bossing around construction crews. I think he forgot how to communicate normally with people. Don’t get me wrong. He’s really good at what he does. He always gets good results. He’s just also used to getting his way.”

Derek was frustrated and being serious about the comment, but I couldn’t help but laugh at that. Noah wasn’t the only one of the King brothers who was used to people doing what he wanted them to do.

I hadn’t met any of the other Kings, but Derek and I had known each other for a while. We’d met years ago in culinary school, then went our separate ways. We kept up through email for a long time before ending up back in the same city. He did an event with the restaurant where I was working and then ended up coming in at least every couple of times a month. Our friendship built up, and he got familiar enough with my professional skills that he wanted to bring me in to work at the vineyard with him.

Because of all that, I knew for certain he was just as stubborn, headstrong, and driven as Noah seemed to be.

It might be funny watching the two stubborn men trying to one-up each other as they struggled to bring the vineyard back from the brink of destruction.

Well, funny if it didn’t send my career crashing into oblivion.

I knew taking Derek up on his offer was a risk. It was exciting to think about being a part of a new restaurant from the very beginning. The vineyard already had the basic skeleton of the restaurant and some of the equipment, but it hadn’t been viable for a long time. Working with Derek would mean having the opportunity to build the restaurant from the ground up.