Tangled Vines: An Australian Rural Romance (12 page)

“We are about three months from harvesting the current crop of grapes. The vines you currently have on your property are extremely mature. The chance the harvest will be of a low quality is slim. Prior to harvesting I will contact the interested wineries and they will inspect the grapes. It’s not likely the grapes will make their premium wine labels. The best-case scenario is the grapes will be blended with others to make their second tier labels. Either way, it will be a nice injection of cash.”

Jordan reached out her hand. “May I?” she asked, wanting Kyle to hand over her presentation. When he did, she turned the pages until she found what she wanted. She then placed it on the coffee table in front of him.

“If you look here, my proposal for the first two years is to harvest and sell the grapes. We reinvest the cash we receive into purchasing new vines and planting them. While these vines are growing I will work with the portion set aside and make some wine. This wine won’t be ready to be bottled for a couple of years. It may seem that we’d be treading water for a while, but in the long run the projected income could be significant.”

Kyle gave them a cursory look before looking back at her. “Jordan, I can see you’ve done a great deal of work on this presentation. It’s well put together and concise. However, this isn’t what I want for this property. I’m sorry, I still plan on pulling the vines out once you’ve got your grapes.”

Jordan sucked in a breath. If he’d hit her, it wouldn’t have hurt as much. “You’re still going to pull out the vines? Even after all the work I’ve done with them over the last few weeks? You’ve walked those vines with me, Kyle. After everything we’ve shared together, why would you do this to me?”

“Did you think by sleeping with me you could soften me up? Make me change my mind about the vines? You knew that first day in the kitchen those vines didn’t interest me. Nothing has changed. I’m sorry, Jordan, but my answer is no.”

“No, I didn’t think sleeping with you would
soften you up
. What I thought would happen is that you’d put personal feelings aside and look at this like the businessman you’re acclaimed to being.”

“I am being a businessman, and it’s not practical for me to break out into winemaking. I never wanted to. Sure, my father loved to tend to helpless, almost dead plants and nurture them back to life. But not me. I’m too selfish for that. Those grapes you love so much would die if I showed an ounce of interest in them.”

What was going on here? Why would Kyle think the vines would die? What did his father’s ability to look after dying plants have to do with her business plan?

“I’m not following here, Kyle. This sounds like your decision is an emotional one and not a business one.” She studied him for a moment, trying to delve into his psyche to find an answer. “Those vines represent something to you. What is it?”

Silence descended on them, and Jordan wondered if Kyle would get up and walk out. Leaving her question unanswered.

“When I bought this place they looked dead, a mass of twigs sticking up out of the ground. So like the trees in Thailand after the tsunami. The next time I came, I walked down a row and saw a bit of green on one of them. New life springing up. I knew then they had to go.”

“Why?” Confusion replaced her indignation. How could a bud of hope in new growth signal death to Kyle?

“Because when I look out there I see my father in our back shed, talking to the almost dead plant a neighbor brought to him to resurrect to life. My father would’ve loved those vines, too. He would’ve done all the research necessary to keep them healthy. But because of me and my selfishness he never got the opportunity. So while I know you probably deserve a chance to prove to me that you could bring your plan to life, for me it would be a constant reminder of what I don’t have anymore.”

Desolation landed down hard on her. To know he sort of believed in her but couldn’t let her show him what she could do because he still lived in the past hurt beyond anything she’d ever experienced. This was just like when she’d tried to prove she’d made the wine Don took the credit for. Her words were ignored. Did she look incompetent? Was it because she was a woman?

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kyle reach for her plan. Jordan snatched the papers away before he could touch them. “Not on your life. You’re not taking my hard work. You’ll probably look at it in a few days and think it’s a great idea, but you won’t let me follow through on the plan. You’ll get another person to do it, because Jordan Hastings is a woman and doesn’t have a lick of business sense in her brain. I should’ve known better than to trust you. You men are all the same. Well, not this time. No one is going to take credit for my ideas or wines.”

“What do you mean by that comment?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me, Jordan.”

“Fine. My fiancé told everyone he made the wine that won an award. But he didn’t. He wouldn’t know how to make a decent wine if it hit him over the head.”

Seeing the pity in Kyle’s eyes only increased her anger. She couldn’t stay here any long. She stormed passed him, pausing at the door. “Thanks for nothing.”

Kyle slouched back on the couch as the house echoed with the sound of the back door slamming.

Shit. He could’ve handled the situation so differently. He couldn’t fault the research and the numbers Jordan had written in her presentation. He wanted to give her the break she deserved to make her mark in the wine industry, especially after what her loser ex did. He really did. He knew she would make it, too. Her determination fired her soul. But it wouldn’t be with the grapes on his property. He would continue with his plan to remove everything that needed more than just a little fertilizer and water. Seeing the cycle of almost death and life again in the vines would screw his already fucked up mind.

God, it hurt to know he was responsible for crushing Jordan’s dream. She’d walk away from him and take a piece of him with her. He’d shared more with her than he’d ever shared with a woman. She made him laugh and even gave him hope that one day he could love again. It would hurt to see her leave.

He would survive though. He could erase all traces of her when he leveled the garden. He wasn’t sure he could erase her presence inside the house.

Kyle cocked his head to the side when he heard a car start up. His heart sped up. Jordan driving while upset wasn’t safe. She could get hurt. He jumped off the couch and raced toward the back door. He had to stop her from leaving. He had to try and explain his motivations and feelings better than he had.

He opened the door and saw the back of Jordan’s car flying down the driveway.

“Damn.” He couldn’t stop her. Should he go after her or wait it out?

Grabbing his keys off the counter, he stepped out the door toward his car and stopped.

What if Jordan came home while he was out looking for her? He didn’t want her to think he’d deserted her. Especially not after he’d shot down her dreams.

He sat down on a kitchen chair. How could he fix this? How could he help Jordan achieve her dream?

Kyle mentally went through his client list. Did any of his clients have an interest in a winery? Could he somehow help her get a job as a winemaker? What had happened with the award she mentioned? Why didn’t she get the credit?

His head started to hurt with all the questions. He glanced at the clock and saw that only fifteen minutes had passed since Jordan had walked out. If he didn’t do something, he would go insane. A surf would clear his head. He’d be able to think while he battled the waves. Some of his best ideas had come while he’d been riding a wave.

He walked back to his study and grabbed a piece of paper. He’d leave Jordan a note, asking her to wait for him to return.

Kyle left the note in the middle of the kitchen table. He thought about taping it to the door so Jordan wouldn’t miss it, but that might be a bit of an overkill.

He scooped up his keys again and headed toward his car.

The beach was busy. The waves looked a reasonable size. And then he spied Jordan’s car. His heart sped up. Fate appeared to be on his side. Maybe he could catch up with her. They could take a walk along the beach and talk. It would be the perfect location. Neutral ground.

Kyle grabbed his board off the roof of his car and tucked it under his arms. As he made his way toward the beach he heard screaming. He looked up and saw someone carrying a limp body through the shallows.

He broke out into a jog. When he reached the sand he dumped his board and picked up his pace. There was something familiar about the person being carried up the beach.

He heart leapt to his throat. It looked like Jordan.

No
.

The word screamed loudly in his mind. He couldn’t lose another person he loved to the ocean. Surely the fates, the same ones who let him see her car, wouldn’t be that cruel to him.

A crowd had started to build. He wanted to muscle everyone out of the way to see if it was Jordan. But the people closed him out. He had to get closer.

He peered through a gap in the mass of arms at the person on the ground. Two people were leaning over the prone body, one doing chest compressions, the other breathing life-saving air into the person.

Kyle wanted to cry out in frustration. He couldn’t see who the person was. His head was telling him that in all likelihood it wasn’t Jordan, but his heart was telling him she was dead too.

If only he could see properly.

• • •

Her walk had calmed her down to a certain degree. But her heart still ached that Kyle could stomp on her dream with the force that he did. Shey’s words about not giving up on Kyle came back to her. She’d walked away from Don and not fought for the recognition she deserved. Was she going to spend her life walking away when things became too difficult?

No!

Dammit, she was going to fight for her dream. Kyle saying no was completely different to what Don had done. If she’d learned nothing about Kyle over the last few days it was that while he might think he was selfish, he was anything but that. Don’s motivation in taking credit for her wine had been because he knew he’d never make it as a winemaker. Her wine was his one chance.

Kyle, though, was coming from a place of pain. A place of where he couldn’t forgive himself for what he’d done. A place where it was better to be alone than to care and risk getting hurt himself.

Yes, she was going to fight not only for her vines but also for Kyle.

A crowd was gathering on the beach. On the outer edge, a tall man who looked like Kyle was trying to get closer to whatever was happening. There was a desperation about his movements that made her quicken her step. Hopefully, no one was seriously hurt.

It was Kyle trying to muscle in. She walked up behind him.

“Hey, what’s happening?” she asked as she touched his back, feeling his tense muscles.

He whirled around at the sound of her voice.

“Thank God.” The words rushed out of him and his arms closed around her, pulling her close. His lips found hers, plundering her mouth with the finesse of a teenager.

He broke the kiss as her mind tried to process the intensity of his kiss. What was happening here? This wasn’t the reaction of man who’d just crushed her dreams. This was the reaction of a man who, dare she hope, wanted her and not just in a sexual way. Did she mean more to him than a person who looked after his property while her father was recovering?

“I thought I’d lost you, Jordan. I thought another person I loved was going to be taken from me by the ocean. If I lost you, I don’t think I would survive.”

She didn’t have time to fully understand what he told her, as Kyle tugged her hand and pulled her away from the crowd. Jordan dug her heels into the sand, but it didn’t do anything to stem Kyle’s determination. She supposed he had a point after the kiss he’d given her.

“Kyle, stop.” They had moved far enough away to gain some privacy from the other beachgoers.

He stopped and once again pulled her close, his hands rubbing up and down her back. “I’m sorry, honey. I’m sorry for hurting you. I never wanted to hurt you.”

She couldn’t deny the sincerity of his apology. It didn’t mean she planned to forgive him so easily. “You did hurt me, Kyle. You know I’m a winemaker. I told you the first day that I want to experiment and make wine. I thought you were coming to appreciate that about me when we walked through the vines and I explained what I was doing. I worked hard on that plan.”

“I didn’t mean to lead you on. And your business plan was one of the best I’ve seen. I want to help you achieve your goal, just not on my property.”

She turned away so he wouldn’t see the tears welling up inside of her. He’d given her a compliment then taken it away.

Kyle’s hand cupped her chin and turned her face back to him. She had no choice but to look at him. “Jordan, so much has happened in the few days we’ve known each other. I’m finally learning I have to let go of the most devastating part of my life and it’s all due to you. You’re an amazing person. I see your dedication to the vines. I don’t know if I’m ready to make another significant change in what was supposed to be my haven. Can you help me do that? Can you help me heal?”

She couldn’t deny the points he made. Perhaps it had been too soon for her to pitch her idea to him. She probably should stick with her original plan, which was to create a good wine … another winery. It would mean she’d be parted from Kyle, although she was assuming they were in some sort of long-term relationship. They’d never discussed the future so she probably couldn’t make assumptions about where they were headed.

But hadn’t he’d told her he loved her? Or had she dreamt him saying that to her in the middle of the crowd?

He’d just asked her for her help? Her big, arrogant man had asked for help. And probably for the first in his life.

“Yes, Kyle, I can help. I’ll go with you if you want to go to counseling to talk about what happened in Thailand. I’ll do anything, but you have to understand I’m not going to give up on my dreams either. You said I could finish out this harvest. Please don’t make any rash decisions about the vines until after. Let me show you what I can do. Give me a chance, please.”