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Tessa shook her head. “He left the brewery to all of us, Eric. He wanted you here.”
“No, he needed me here for you. When I told him I was thinking of going out to one of the old breweries in the East, he didn’t raise one objection.”
“Did you need him to?” Jamie sneered. “He was a great dad to you, but you needed him to ask you to stay? Maybe he felt like you didn’t give a shit about him because you wanted to work anywhere but here.”
Eric swallowed hard against the frustrated rage wanting to escape from his throat. “That wasn’t how it was,” he growled.
“If you don’t want to be here, if you don’t think you belong, then you sure as hell don’t need to stay here and give up your life for us, brother.”
“Jamie, stop it,” Tessa yelled.
“Are you not hearing him?” Jamie said. “He gave up everything for us. He never wanted this job or this family.”
“Fuck you,” Eric snarled, stalking toward the door. “Do whatever the hell you want with this place. It’s all yours.”
“Eric!” Tessa screeched.
“Leave it alone,” he muttered as he walked out.
“No. No, I won’t leave it alone!” She chased after him. For a moment he thought she was going to leap right onto his back, but she just stomped her foot. “You stop right now, Eric Donovan.”
Eric sighed and stopped halfway through the kitchen, but he didn’t turn around.
“You promised me you wouldn’t leave. You told me just a few months ago that we were a burden—”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Okay, I said we were a burden, and you said you didn’t want to be free of us. So you’re stuck.”
Jesus, she could make him smile even when he felt like his heart was being pulled out of his chest. “Tessa…” He turned to face her, his hands up in surrender. “I don’t want to be free of you. I don’t know what I’d do without you. But I’m tired.”
“Tired of what?”
He shook his head. He didn’t know what it was. He just needed a break. From being the responsible one. The good one. The guy everyone could count on. It felt like his whole identity. It was all he knew about himself and it felt like a suit that didn’t fit.
“You’re wrong about Dad,” she said, her chin edging out to a stubborn line. “He didn’t think of you as any different from me and Jamie.”
“Then maybe Jamie’s right. Maybe he saw that I felt different. Maybe I broke his heart. All I know is that I’m not him, and I can’t keep pretending I am. I’m no good at the stuff he was good at, Tessa.”
“That’s not true, Eric. But if you really feel that way, then do something different. But don’t walk away. I won’t let you. I swear to God, I won’t.”
Eric tipped his head back and stared up at the industrial lights above him. He’d meant to walk out, just to get some space and time to breathe. To think. But he’d meant what he said. He didn’t want to be free of them. He didn’t have anywhere else to go.
“The mechanic will be here this afternoon, and Wallace will be back tomorrow. I’ll man the tank room today and the bottling tomorrow. And then maybe I need a few days off.”
She threw herself into his arms and hugged him hard. “Yes! Take a vacation. I told you to take a vacation this spring, but you wouldn’t. That’s all you need.”
“Sure,” he said, but Eric didn’t think a vacation could fix him. He wasn’t sure anything could, but he’d give it an honest shot for Tessa, because he didn’t want to be that man she couldn’t trust. Not again.
EVEN THE TANK ROOM COULDN’T offer comfort today. Eric wanted to rage at someone and that someone was Jamie. After everything they’d been through together, they should’ve been close. Eric couldn’t understand why Jamie seemed to hate him sometimes. Had Eric really screwed things up so badly? Even if he had, why couldn’t Jamie give him a break?
He was still fuming an hour later, and when the tank room door opened, Eric looked up with a scowl.
Luke gave a perfunctory wave.
“Oh, it’s you.” He’d forgotten all about the hear
ing. Jamie and Tessa would probably be pissed he hadn’t said anything. “How’d it go?”
