Feels Like Home

As usual, Aidan had arrived at the break of day for a run around the vineyard before returning to shower and dress in the bathroom adjoining his office upstairs. All before she’d even had her cup of coffee.

Her eldest loved nothing more than his routine, his schedules and his family.

It was up to her to help him see there was more to life than the first two. That he didn’t have to sacrifice so much for the third.

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that, as I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Although she could guess.

Diane sighed. This conversation was not going to be easy.

She tightened the sash of the new knee-length, velour robe she wore over her pajamas. Then again, no one ever said doing the right thing was easy.

“Coffee?” she asked.

Not waiting for an answer, she poured him a cup.

He accepted it without taking his eyes off her. “I’m talking about you hiring my ex-wife to work at the Diamond Dust.”

He watched her steadily, his eyes a cross between her own blue ones and the green of his father’s. But under his careful detachment, she sensed his agitation. His anger.

Her sons. Though they tried, they couldn’t hide anything from their mother.

“I was going to tell you,” she said, adding cream to her coffee before crossing to the large, granite-topped island to sit on one of the high-backed stools, “when I deemed the time right.”

His jaw worked—throwing away all the money she’d invested in his orthodontic care as a teen by grinding his teeth to dust. “I’d say the right time is now. Seeing as how I discovered Yvonne picking through Dad’s stuff at the carriage house while I was on my run.”

“Oh?” Diane sipped her coffee to hide her surprise. “I wasn’t expecting her until this afternoon.”

She’d last spoken to her the night before, when Yvonne had called to let Diane know she’d received the signed contract and the keys to both the cottage and the carriage house. Diane had half thought Yvonne wouldn’t show up at all. Returning to Jewell couldn’t be easy for the younger woman. Not after how things ended between her and Aidan. How she’d ended things between them.

And though Diane had nothing against her ex-daughter-in-law, Yvonne had never struck her as being brave enough, strong enough or self-sufficient enough to tackle the difficult things in life head-on.

Lord knew, Aidan could be all sorts of difficult.

But she’d hoped the promise of a new contract would bring her back. Good to know she’d been right. Again.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Aidan asked.

She narrowed her eyes. But since his reaction—and his insolent tone—were quite understandable, she took another drink instead of calling him on it. “I was thinking that she’d be the best person to plan my wedding.”

“Your wedding. Right,” he said. “Would this be the wedding you’ve moved up by three months without telling your family?”

“I—”

He held up a hand. “Wait. Let me guess. You were going to tell us. When you deemed the time right.”

“I was going to tell you,” she said frostily, “at lunch tomorrow. After a few more details had been nailed down.”

“Why move it up at all?”

“Yvonne’s already booked for the summer and this was the only time her company was willing to spare her for a few months.” What she didn’t mention was the exorbitant fee she’d agreed to in order to get World Class Weddings to let their most popular planner leave for six weeks. “Al and I moved the date up so she could take the job.” She smiled brightly, as if Aidan wasn’t trying to skewer her with his glare. “From all accounts, she’s one of the best wedding planners in the South.”

Her stubborn son seemed less than impressed. “And since you hired her to plan your wedding, you decided to throw in a job at the winery as a bonus?”

“I decided that we could use someone with her skills and connections to help get our events business off the ground.”

“Get off the ground? We decided only three days ago to start hosting events. I thought we’d do a little research. See if this idea is even feasible before committing to it.”

“We’re already committed. You and your brothers agreed—”

“They agreed. I just went along with the majority vote.”

As if she didn’t realize how much that had bothered him—no longer having sole authority over all decisions made at the winery. Oh, she was still the owner, but for the past eight years, Aidan had run the company with little input from her. Once he and his brothers became full partners in July, when she retired, that would all change.

“It’s a done deal,” she said. “Which was why I wanted to get the ball rolling. I see no sense in putting this off.”

He stared at her as if he could look inside her head and sort through her lies. “You haven’t had more than a passing interest in the company since Dad died. Why get involved now?”

Guilt squeezed the air from her lungs and she stared blindly at the rings on her right hand. The rings her first husband had given her. The rings that, despite being engaged to another man, despite being in love with Al, she hadn’t been able to take off.

What Aidan said was true. So true. When she’d lost Tom, she’d stopped caring about the Diamond Dust. They’d started the winery from the ground up—literally. They’d planted the vines. Nurtured them and helped them grown. They’d renovated the original farmhouse into the gift shop-tasting room with their own hammers and nails, had come up with a business plan, taught themselves how to run a successful winery.

But without her husband by her side, she hadn’t wanted anything to do with the business they’d built together. So she’d turned to Aidan, who’d given up his own ambitions to keep his father’s dreams alive.

And she’d let him.

“Though I may have taken a…backseat at the winery these past few years,” she said, wrapping her fingers around the base of her mug. “I’m always interested in what’s going on with my company.”

“Funny how your interest just happens to involve my ex-wife.”

“We need her. Connie doesn’t know how to get the winery ready, so I hired Yvonne as a consultant.”

Their vineyard manager, Connie Henkel, had been a valuable employee ever since she’d started working there sixteen years ago. But now that Diane’s youngest son Matt—a noted vintner who’d worked at some of the best wineries in the world—had agreed to join the winery a few weeks ago, Connie had been forced to share her duties with him.

“There’s no way Connie can tackle this job on her own,” Diane continued. “Besides, with her helping Matt manage the vineyards, her time is limited.”

“There’s no need for her to help Matt,” Aidan said as he refreshed his coffee. “He’s more than capable of running things on his own.”

“Keeping Connie from those vineyards is like trying to stop the rain from falling. She loves them.”

“Then I guess you should’ve thought of that before you blackmailed Matt into joining the company.”

“I did,” she said, regret making her voice sharp.

Of course she’d thought of Connie. She’d worried that her decision would push the woman she loved like a daughter out of her life, but in the end, she couldn’t come up with any other way to guarantee all three of her sons returned to the Diamond Dust.

And then two days ago Aidan had offered Connie the job of events coordinator. Eventually, she would learn how to be the best events coordinator ever, Diane was certain of that, and it would ensure she’d always have a place at the winery. To everyone’s shock, she’d not only declined the offer, but had quit her job at the Diamond Dust.

Fortunately, Matt had been able to convince her to stay. And to give him a chance to be in her and her two young daughters’ lives.