Page 81 of Cru's Crush
“We?”
“Sorry. Cullen House.”
He rolled to his back, and I removed my leg from over his body.
“What do you want, Daphne? To be a winemaker or the CEO of a corporation? To be in an office every day or out in the vineyard?”
“You’re being unfair.”
“Am I? Before you respond, I have one more question for you, and I want you to think about it before you answer.”
I nodded.
“Do you want to be my wife, Daph?”
I rolled to my back like he had, looked up at the ceiling, and closed my eyes. Of course I wanted to marry him. I also wanted to work in the vines, spend my days in the sun, and make wine. But like him, I had a familial responsibility I couldn’t just turn my back on.
“You’re choosing Los Caballeros over me.”
He propped himself up on his elbow. “Is that the way you see it?”
“What if I asked you to leave it behind, move here, and help me run Cullen House?”
He sighed. “Answer my question, Daphne. It’s really the only thing that truly matters right now.”
“I do want to be your wife, Cru…”
“But?”
I was about to say the hardest thing I’d ever had to in my life. Once I spoke the words, there’d be no taking them back, no way for us to continue on together. I knew that. Yet, I had to be honest. “I don’t see how it will be possible. Our lives are on opposite sides of the world.”
He sat up abruptly and turned his back to me.
“Cru?”
He took a deep breath and let it out in a shudder.
“Talk to me,” I said.
He shook his head. “I can’t.”
“This doesn’t have to be the end. We can work something out, can’t we?”
When he looked over his shoulder at me, the tears streaming down his cheeks were my undoing. “Can’t we?” I repeated. My sobs clogged my throat, and I couldn’t say anything more, even after he left the room, then returned fully dressed.
“You said you didn’t see how it could be possible, Daphne. So how are we supposed to work something out? Which is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.” He took another deep breath, looked up at the ceiling, then at me. “Goodbye, Daphne.”
I gasped. “You’releaving?”
“I don’t see any reason to stay.”
I hugged myself, wishing so desperately that Cru and I were in each other’s arms instead. “Your ring. It’s in my bedroom. I’ll just get it?—”
“Don’t. It’s not mine, it’s yours.”
