Free Be Mine Forever (A St. Helena Vineyard Novel) by Marina Adair Page A

airplane than I did in a bed. I hit a hundred thousand miles before summer even ended. I thought that buying a place I could use as a home base was a good idea.”
    “I agree. Buy one here,” Gabe countered.
    “We’re two hours from an airport.” And right in the middle of a tsunami of memories and regrets . “Between managing Marc’s hospitality friends, Nate’s new high-end collectors, and you dominating the domestic wine industry with your one-grocery-store-at-a-time campaign, I don’t even have time to sleep, let alone focus on new markets.”
    Silent dialogue shot around the room from brother to brother as though he wasn’t sitting right there.
    When their dad died, Trey went from having one father to three, making it three times harder to live up to expectations. The constant feeling that he somehow managed to always come up short was becoming suffocating as hell.
    “I’m tired of dealing with corporate suits,” he explained. “There is no connection, no history there.”
    “All right,” Nate said, surprising Trey. “What do you want to focus on?”
    He thought about his day with Sara, how great it felt to talk over a glass of wine. How intimate the situation had been compared to the sale he’d just handled for Abby. It wasn’t that he wanted to quit his job, he realized. He just wanted to redefine it.
    “I want to focus on the individual customer again, the ones who buy and sell over a good meal and a better bottle of wine. And I’d like to do it in a place that values the things that Nonno Geno built this company on. With people who don’t do business over the phone.” He shot a look at Gabe.
    “Then moving to Italy has nothing to do with the fact that ever since Mom and Dad died, you can’t seem to keep your feet planted around home?” Gabe asked quietly and Trey felt that familiar knot, the one that took up residence in his chest a little over a decade ago, tighten to the point of pain. “Especially this time of year.”
    “No.” Moving to Italy would allow him to feel connected to his family, without having to be reminded that he didn’t deserve them.
    “Why didn’t you come to me before?” Gabe asked.
    How to answer that?
    “Between weddings and babies and everything else, there just wasn’t a good time.” And Trey had wanted to prove that he could handle it. As ridiculous as it was, he always felt like he was the tagalong. As though no matter how old he got, or how many deals he closed, he still had to prove that he was tough enough, man enough, worthy enough, to hang out at the big kids’ table.
    Gabe gave a weary nod. “Then let’s talk about hiring a sales team to handle the domestic end.”
    Trey blinked. “Are you serious?”
    “It’s smart,” Gabe said, but Trey couldn’t help noticing that he sounded disappointed. “We’ve grown too fast for one person to handle. I’m just sorry that I’ve been too busy to notice. So if this is what you need, then I’ve got your back. Which means that you have until the end of the month to put a domestic team together. I want them local.”
    “The end of the month? As in four more weeks?” Trey choked. “Here?”
    “Yup.” Gabe grinned. “It will take you that long to put a stellar team together. Plus a few weeks with your family before you move to another continent won’t kill you.”
    Maybe not, but the way his chest kept ratcheting tighter and tighter, it sure felt like it. But since Gabe was pretty much giving him everything he’d asked for, and more, including the belief that Trey would make the right decisions and, more important, the freedom to leave when it was over, Trey acquiesced. “Fair enough.”
    Then he stood to politely ask his brothers to get out, when the door burst open and there stood ChiChi, dressed in a fur-collared, fuchsia rain slicker, matching galoshes, and a strand of pearls. Her hair was stuck to her head, her hand clutching a rolled-up newspaper, and her temper was dialed to