Kissing Under the Mistletoe (6 page)

“For all we know she showed up here to extort money out of us somehow,” Nate said, kicking the legs of the stool, which almost sent Marc to the floor and won back Nate’s role of favorite sibling. “She knows Abigail is our soft spot. She might try to use that.”

Abigail was more than their soft spot. She was their only sister. Which meant that from the time she could walk, Gabe and his brothers had threatened, bullied, or intimidated anyone who even considered looking cross-eyed at her. When she grew boobs and guys started sniffing around, the DeLuca brothers rallied, beating the crap out of every douchebag who tried to get in her pants. Not much had changed over the years. Until Richard.

“And if she shows Frankie her portfolio, Frankie’ll hire her in a second,” Gabe said, knowing it was true. The woman had skills. And they weren’t limited to seduction.

“Frankie would hire her just to screw with us,” Nate said, staring at the table.

Francesca Baudouin was the granddaughter of Charles Baudouin, a man who knew his grapes and who, in a desperate attempt to win over the woman of his dreams, had declared his love for ChiChi on the day she married Gabe’s grandfather. Fists were thrown, secrets exposed, and the two men walked out of the chapel sworn enemies. Although this generation had avoided the feud, old habits were hard to break. If hiring Regan would screw with the DeLuca clan, Frankie wasn’t above it.

Except that people in St. Helena protected what was theirs, and feud or not, the DeLuca name was as old as the vines in the valley. And Gabe knew that Frankie was secretly looking into buying a plot of land to start her own boutique winery. The only other company interested was his...because the plot sat directly between the DeLuca and Baudouin vineyards. Both families had been after that land for over sixty years.

“What if we make Frankie an offer she can’t refuse?” Gabe ventured.

“No way.” Trey had lined up the five ball for the right side pocket, but when he placed the stick on the table, all that easygoing charm he’d mastered from years of selling the family wine vanished. “I see what you’re thinking, and there’s no way we’re giving up that land. The only thing Nonno asked for when he passed was that the Baudouins never own that land.”

“What part of Abigail and Regan meeting don’t you get? Hell, the only reason they haven’t run into each other is because I’ve spent the entire week following Regan.” Which
was messing with his head. Every time she got refused for a job, her stubborn chin would shoot up, her determination would increase, and it was the biggest turn-on in the world.

“Gabe’s right,” Marc said, flagging down the waitress and ordering a round of scotch before continuing. “If Regan gets that job, then she’s here for good.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” said Nate, the resident expert on risk to exposure. Game over, the brothers set their pool sticks down and gathered around the table.

Only two years younger than Gabe, Nate was the self-appointed arbitrator of the family. Over the years, he’d perfected the art of balancing Trey’s tendency toward wanderlust, Marc’s need for high-stakes living, and Gabe’s desire for order. His talent for analyzing calculated risks made him one of the most acclaimed viticulturists in the country. And a big reason DeLuca wines were in such high demand.

“We’ve been searching for Richard for five years, with no luck,” Nate began.

Hunting him down was more like it. As soon as Abby went from victim to suspect in the investigation, Gabe and his brothers hired a guy who specialized in tracking down missing things—thieving SOBs included. Richard hadn’t just broken their sister’s heart; he’d cleaned out their company’s account. Not only was his sister still married to that bastard, since one couldn’t serve divorce papers to someone who couldn’t be found, she had been left to pick up the pieces of a failed winery and explain to the investors, many of whom were family friends, that they had all been played.

Gabe knew exactly what that felt like. Richard had played him too.

The summer before grad school, Gabe’s father had set up an internship for him on a vineyard outside Tuscany, working for a family friend. Richard was apprenticing under one of the winemakers and offered to show Gabe around. He defied rules, took huge risks, and was making his own way in the world of wine—something that Gabe admired, but because of his family name and responsibilities, he could never do.

When the summer ended, Richard convinced Gabe to get him a job at a DeLuca vineyard in Santa Barbara. After Gabe’s parents died, Richard stepped in to help run things down in Southern California. The year Abby graduated from college, she was fresh off of a breakup and Richard swooped in. And when his best friend said he wanted to build a winery with Abby, Gabe had lined up the investors—no questions asked.

“Think about it. Why would we chase off the last person to see him? At least before we get some answers. For all we know, Regan is the key to nailing Richard.”

“You want me to back off?” No way would Gabe let Regan stay here in St. Helena. He’d just gotten Abby home.

“I’m saying we do whatever it takes to find Richard. And if that means capitalizing on whatever is going on between you two, then—” Nate shrugged.

Gabe blinked. “Nothing is going on.”

“Really. Then why are you two straddling the line between eye-fucking and strangling each other?”

Gabe was about to tell Nate to shut up when all three brothers looked over at Frankie’s table. Regan had just taken a sip of her wine and her tongue poked out to lick her lips. Gabe heard someone moan. Unfortunately, it was him.

As if hearing him, Regan’s head snapped up and they locked eyes. There was a charged beat during which neither
one broke contact. The longer they stared, the harder it was to remember that this woman had slept with Richard. Then Regan’s gaze dropped to his mouth, jerking back up when Gabe grinned. Making sure to let her know she’d been caught checking him out, he sent her a wink.

Her face folded into a frown and her big blue eyes narrowed. His lowered to take in the silky number she wore, whose top button had come undone, and he saw her swallow—hard.

He couldn’t help but smile. Vixen wanted him. Almost as much as he wanted her.

“Let’s say I give her a reason to stay,” he said, shocked that he was even considering this. “What makes you think Richard still talks to her?”

“A guy doesn’t forget a woman like that,” Nate said.

And that was quickly becoming Gabe’s problem.

“I was sure you’d get it,” Jordan said, taking a long swig of wine. “Juliette said they had an opening, and your work is phenomenal. I don’t understand what happened.”

“Gabe DeLuca happened,” Regan mumbled, then finished her wine in one gulp and seriously considered, not for the first time this week, doing something immature, like sticking Randolph right up Gabe’s ass...

“Regan.” Jordan sat back in her chair, her brows raised, lips pursed in disbelief, reminding Regan of the time she’d been called into the principal’s office for shoving Sarah Carter’s face in the toilet. Sarah had told everyone that the only reason Regan got into St. Joseph’s Academy for Girls was because
her mom cleaned the toilets. So Regan wanted to let Sarah see just how clean those toilets were, and that her mom and her career as a cleaning lady were not up for discussion. “I’ve known the DeLucas since I was a kid. They can be stubborn and annoying, but they don’t have a cruel bone in them.”

Jordan had also never slept with their sister’s husband.

“He showed up at every interview, Jordan. Every single one.” Regan worked hard to soften her voice. “I know he’s your boss, which makes it that much more amazing that you still want to be seen with me let alone help me find a job, but the man has it out for me and he won’t be happy until I am homeless and broke.”

“Over a failed marketing campaign?” Jordan scoffed. “I don’t think so.”

“Is that what he told you?” Regan had to swallow. She also needed another glass of wine. Maybe the whole bottle.

Why would Gabe have lied?

“Don’t tell me you were former lovers?” Jordan leaned in, eyes wide with interest. “Because if so, I want details. All of them.”

There was no point in lying. Regan had never hidden what she’d done, and her mom had raised her to own up to her mistakes, to learn from them. These women had every right to hear the truth about who they were aligning themselves with.

“We were never lovers.” Although, Gabe had been appearing in some pretty steamy dreams lately. “But what I did wasn’t very far off.”

“Oh my God, you slept with Trey.” Frankie looked horrified. “I mean, he is way closer to your age. But he is such an asshat.”

“No, I dated Richard for a little over a year.”

Jordan was the first to react, her eyes going hard. “You’re the one?”

And here it goes
, Regan thought.

“Shut your face,” Frankie exclaimed, her hand over her chest, the first feminine gesture Regan had witnessed from the winemaker. The chipped nails and thorn-scratched hands ruined the effect. “You slept with Abby’s husband?”

“Yes, but before you crucify me and tell me what a slut I am, or that I’m a home-wrecker—” She’d heard it all before. “I had no idea he was married.” Something the rat bastard conveniently left out when expressing his undying love and sliding that diamond on her finger.

“How could you not know?” Jordan countered. “Their wedding was all over the society pages.”

“I lived in Oregon. I was trusting and stupid and nineteen. I had no idea who Richard was, other than this handsome, sophisticated man from Italy who made me feel special.”
And wanted to take care of me.
Something Regan would never let happen again.

“You were nineteen?” Frankie slammed her palms on the table, silencing the entire bar. “He must have been, what?”

“Thirty,” Regan whispered, hoping Frankie would take the hint and lower her voice. She didn’t.

“Talk about daddy issues.”

They had no idea. “Sophomore year of college I interned with the National Vintner’s Historical Society for the summer. Richard was my mentor. It was a rough summer, my mom was sick and, well, I found out about Abby the night Gabe found out about me.”

Regan had been five months pregnant. They’d been at the restaurant celebrating that they were having a girl.

“Oh. My. God! Is Holly
Richard’s
?” Jordan whispered.

Regan nodded. Trusting Richard had been the biggest mistake of her life. Too bad she hadn’t been the only one affected. Their relationship had not only broken up a marriage, it put Holly in a place no child should ever be in—unwanted by a parent.

It also got Regan wrapped up in a business venture she should never have been a part of. But she got Holly out of the deal. And that was what was important.

“Richard isn’t involved in Holly’s life.” At all. “He pretty much took off after...”

She looked over her shoulder at Gabe. A slow churning started low in her belly, and when he winked in that I’m-watching-you way, it dropped south. She hated that he hated her, but she understood why. Even more, she hated that she wanted him. How sick was that?

“And pretty much, that’s why Gabe is out to ruin my life,” she said, turning back to the table.

“Ruin your life?” Frankie snorted. “Girl, you screwed with
the
DeLuca Darling and you still have all your appendages. Impressive. I mean, in the third grade I accidently nailed Abby in the face with a pile of grape pulp.”

“How do you
accidently
nail someone in the face?” Jordan asked.

“I was aiming for Trey, who retaliated by holding my head in a vat until it turned my skin blue. Nate pulled us apart, eventually, but we all looked like Smurfs for our school pictures.” Frankie glared at the DeLuca table before going on. “And that was before the accident.”

“Accident?”

Jordan remained silent, as if speaking of the DeLucas to “the enemy” was a betrayal. Maybe it was. But when she crossed her arms and sat back, purposefully distancing herself from Regan and taking with her any warm fuzzies they had shared, Regan’s heart sank to her toes.

Is this what living here would feel like every day? No matter how much she had changed or how many times she tried to right her wrong, was she going to be a constant disappointment?

“I was in college, so Abby must have been sixteen or so. Her parents were driving her back from a music recital when a car veered over the divide on Silverado Trail, killing them.”

“Oh, my God. That is horrible.” She wondered how old Gabe had been and how losing his parents without warning had affected him. She’d lost her mom to cancer, and it was the most painful experience of her life, but at least she’d had time to say good-bye.

“It gets worse,” Jordan finally spoke. Any sign of judgment was replaced with sorrow—for the DeLucas. “No one found them for hours. So Abigail was stuck in the car with her parents as they...” She trailed off, her eyes misty. “They were such a great family. The whole town felt their loss.”

Which explained why people were so willing to denounce Regan at one man’s request.

“Gabe was back East in grad school,” Jordan went on. “The funeral hadn’t even ended and already he was thrown into his father’s shoes, figuring out how to run a pretty massive wine business and making sure that what his family had spent a century building didn’t fall apart.”