Finally, he turned the temperature down, tossed the towel over his shoulder, and faced her. “My father wants to retire. He wants me to take over now, so he can ease his way out.”
She nodded. “That’s to be expected. He’s getting older, and Kira probably wants to spend some time with him. But why you?”
His face twisted in a grimace. “I’m the eldest, his son and heir. My sister works there, probably is better than I ever was, but my dad is old-fashioned.”
“I remember your sister. Scary smart and ruthless. Nothing got in her way when she wanted something, even at Monopoly. Why can’t she take over?”
“Samantha is a woman. My dad expects she’ll get married, get pregnant, and be focused on kids, diapers, schools, all the family things, and eventually forget about the firm. Not to mention she won’t carry on the family line. There’s always been a Van Owen at the helm.” He said the last words in a deep intonation, probably like his father, then sighed. “She loves the business. More than I do, truth be told.”
“It must really hurt her for him to want you and not her.” Delaney studied him over the rim of her glass.
Ethan braced himself on his hands on the island and stared at the wall. His jaw clenched, then relaxed. The timer dinged, and he shook himself.
“I guess.” He turned back to the stove and flipped the steak. “I haven’t really talked to her. He’s always expected me to return. I still have an office there and a staff to dust it. This was only supposed to be a temporary respite, an exile.”
“An exile?”
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “You had to have known that. My father thought this would be a good distraction for me.”
“And get you out of the office until everything blew over,” she finished. “Hermitage Vines. Is that where you got the name?”
He put the food on two plates. “I thought we’d eat in the living room in front of the fire.”
He handed her a plate, and she followed him to the living room and the small table set up in front of the stone fireplace. They sat on cushions and ate quietly. The crackle of the fire accompanied by the staccato of the rain against the house and the howl of the wind, combined with the early darkness outside, added to the feeling of being isolated, alone. Like on the island, the real world was far away, and they were wrapped in their little cocoon, private, intimate, personal. Once they had finished eating, Ethan cleaned up, returning with a second bottle of wine. The power took that chance to flicker. Once, twice, then out completely. A rumble started, then the generator kicked in. Ethan stood and walked to the windows.
Delaney stood and followed him. “Do you need to check the barns?”
“No. See the lights on the outside? We rigged them to let us know the generator had kicked in. If the lights weren’t on, we could know that immediately and head out. It helped us out last year in the hurricanes. I never had to leave the house to know the wine was okay. It was worse then because we were actually making the wine and needed the power to keep it going. Now we just need the temperature control for the winery.”
He walked back to the fireplace and sat. He pushed the table out of the way and leaned against the couch.
She settled next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. “You never answered me about the name of your vineyard.”
He sighed and swirled the wine in his glass. “Yes, I changed the name to Hermitage Vines. For the first year or so, I rarely left. Matthew actually coined the phrase, saying I had become a hermit out here and needed the appropriate name.”
“Your father suggested you leave Houston?”
He nodded. “The rumors led to questions, and a lot of our clients were concerned. Dad thought a break might be needed. Besides, my head wasn’t in the investment game. I was going to work, but not really there, if you know what I mean.”
Her heart ached, and tears gathered in her eyes. “I’m really sorry, Ethan. But I had to focus on my family. I was overwhelmed, dealing with so many things I had never understood, much less knew how to handle. And you were busy fielding questions at work. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do both.”
“So, you chose your family over me?”
“You chose your family over me when you went to work every day when I needed you.”
He pulled away and looked at her. “You never let me help you. You never asked for help. You never let me in.”
She looked down and bit her lower lip. “I was embarrassed. Do you know what it’s like being the daughter of a criminal? I know he wasn’t convicted, but that’s only because he died before the trial. We all know it was a foregone conclusion. Do you know how that felt, to have your friends insult you, yell at you, attack you? It was vicious, Ethan.” She paused. “Around that time, I was barely sleeping. My mom had a breakdown and became housebound, and I became her only contact. One night I was up flipping through channels and I saw a nature show. Lions stalking a wildebeest. They cut a baby wildebeest from the herd and chased it down, finally all swarming and attacking, feeding while it was still alive. You could see the pain in its eyes, the knowledge of its death. The mother stood by, helpless to save her baby. Finally, she rejoined the herd.”
She turned his face to her with two fingers. “That’s how I felt. That was my life. I couldn’t drag you down with me. I had to let you go. Do you understand?”
Anger was replaced by sadness in his eyes. “I didn’t know. I would have stood by you. I could have protected you.”
She arched her eyebrow. “Really? When you, just by associating with me, were banished?”
“We were more than associates. We were engaged. I thought you loved me.”
She smiled a sad smile. “I thought I did too. But maybe it wasn’t love, if we could separate so easily. We’re not the same people we were back then.”