Page 111 of Taken Away

“There what is?”

“The real question.”

Luke remained silent.

Red tossed the pliers into the bed of the truck.

“So just because she’s Mabel’s niece, she’s gonna run this place?”

Luke said nothing.

Red shook his head.

“That girl doesn’t know the first thing about running a winery... much less a cattle operation.”

“You don’t think she can learn?”

“Maybe.”

Red looked across the pasture.

“But this place isn’t a training ground.”

He pointed toward the rolling fields.

“Mabel spent a lifetime building all this. Every fence. Every pasture. Every vine. Every decision mattered.”

He looked back at Luke.

“I loved Mabel, but I still don’t know what she was thinking.”

“You sound angry.”

“I am.”

“At Aubrey?”

“No.”

The answer came instantly.

That surprised Luke.

Red stared across the pasture.

“I’m angry because Mabel’s dead.”

Silence settled between them.

When Red spoke again, his voice was quieter.

“That woman bled for this place.”

Luke didn’t interrupt.

“Worked herself sick.”

“She built something worth leaving behind.”