Page 5 of A Little Bit Whiskey
He laughed. “Things are very different now that the truth of how we got the winery from Eliza Jane’s family is out in the open. That really affected my folks. It almost destroyed their relationship. Their business. Everything.”
“I still don’t get it. I mean, Merlot didn’t work for the family business. He was a parole officer for years before he came back.”
“That’s true, but when Malbec and Chablis quit, he felt abandoned. And my mom wouldn’t trust him without his older brother and sister. Nebbiolo and I might have been young at the time, but we saw it all, heard it all, and we wanted nothing to do with it, so we carved our own path and Merlot didn’t like it. He wanted us here to protect Zinny and help Mom. We walked away, and he felt like we took Zinny with us, leaving Mom high and dry. That’s not what happened, and we’ve since cleared the air, but sometimes Merlot has a hard time letting go of things. He likes to run the winery his way. We butt heads a lot. However, we’re working it out. This will put us back a little, and it pisses me off that my twin is leaving me holding the bag. He’s been a selfish prick lately.”
“I’m sure everyone will understand that you had nothing to do with your brother’s actions,” she said.
Noir let out a dry laugh. “You don’t know my family. They look at me and my twin as one person sometimes. Like we share the same brain. He and I have always done everything together. But these last few months, we couldn’t be further apart. My twin has been making me crazy. I don’t want to live with him anymore, especially since he got that dog.”
“The only reason he got Sasha was because he thought June was hot.” Tamsyn took a step back and opened her towel, exposing her naked body.
Noir’s eyes grew wide and a slow smile spread across his face.
“Come on. We’re going to be late if we don’t go shower,” she said.
“You don’t have to ask me twice.”
Tamsyn dropped the terrycloth and raced off down the hallway with her heart beating like a hammer in her chest. She could admit to herself that she cared deeply for Noir. Being with him—privately—had been easy. Natural. They laughed at all the same things. Their conversations weren’t clunky or awkward. The silent moments weren’t deafening. There wasn’t anything about him she didn’t like.
However, being with him in public would undoubtedly bring an earthquake that would shake this town like it had never been rocked before.
2
NOIR
Noir held Tamsyn’s hand as he approached the front porch of the River family home. It was nestled on the side of the winery near the river that snaked through the vineyards. The house was over a hundred years old and stood tall, overlooking the winery that his family had nourished for years.
This was his legacy and he’d learned to cherish it.
However, during his youth it had been his nightmare.
Growing up, he’d been called a bastard child since his parents had been divorced when he’d been born. That word had stung more than he cared to admit. It had helped define his personality. His older siblings had constantly told him to ignore it. To laugh it off because it didn’t matter.
His parents loved him, and so did his brothers and sisters.
They were a family and no one could take that away, a concept that he felt deep in his core.
But still, the stares, the whispers, the rumors, and the name-calling stuck to his heart and soul. Nothing could erase that.
And then there had been Tamsyn’s mother.
That one had pushed him over the edge. He’d only been twelve when Elizabeth Tuttle had disappeared. Even younger when the rumor mill had begun regarding Tamsyn’s possible connection to his family. His parents did what they always did when it came gossip—they ignored it. But that did nothing to stop the relentless teasing that Noir and his twin suffered at the hands of other kids at school. The rest of his siblings, including his baby sister, handled it by either pushing back or brushing it off, going about the business of being popular. However, the twins weren’t afforded that luxury. Tamsyn was too close in age.
It was made more complicated by Noir’s growing feelings for Tamsyn.
Something he’d been trying to deny most of his life.
“Hey. Are you okay?” Tamsyn asked.
He glanced in her direction, realizing he’d paused at the base of the porch. “Just collecting my thoughts,” he said. “I had been hoping Nebbiolo would have been here, but I don’t see his car.”
“If we stand out here much longer, it will be me getting cold feet.”
“Zinny and Toby are here. So are Dax and Chablis. You’ll be safe with them while I chat with my folks.”
“I don’t know about that,” Tamsyn said. “While your siblings are always respectful of my uniform and kind when they see me, I’m not sure they like me. Not even Zinny.”
“That’s not true,” he said. Although he had no idea how anyone felt about Tamsyn in his family. Over the years, she’d gone and made some wild accusations about his mother all based off one fight she’d witnessed as a child. Half the town had seen that fight and they’d all gotten it wrong.
