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Right. Harvest. Why I’m here. To take part in the grape harvest and winemaking. Plus, the Steels have an apple and peach orchard as well as a beef ranch and winery.
“You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted a western slope peach,” she continues.
I smile. What color will the flavor of a western slope peach be? Most non-synesthetes would guess peach-colored, but that’s not how it works. Everyone’s synesthesia is different.
Diana pulls into a spot on the driveway and stops the car. “Ready?”
I draw in a breath. This is where I’ll spend the next three months. Guess it’s time.
“Ready.”
Chapter Two
Dale
I turn off the shower water and towel myself off.
Tonight I’m supposed to have dinner with my mother and father at the main house. Diana’s bringing her friend home—Ashley White, who met Uncle Ryan at a lecture over the summer session at UCLA and ended up with an internship at the Steel winery.
We’ve never had an intern before, and frankly we don’t need one. We have an excellent staff already. She’ll only be in the way.
I’m supposed to train her. I’ve never trained anyone. Usually someone below me takes care of that, but Uncle Ry says since I’m taking over, this is my last chance to train anyone.
Why I need to train her is beyond me. Why not have one of the assistant winemakers do it, like we always do?
I’m not great with people. Especially female people.
My brother, Donny, doesn’t have that problem. With him, the problem is staying with one female person for longer than a week.
Funny.
We deal with our past in completely different ways.
Or maybe we don’t deal with it at all.
I try not to think about it.
Twenty-five years have passed since we were abducted. Stolen from our home and from our mother.
Our mother who we never saw again.
Jade is my mother in all ways that matter. I love her dearly, and I know with all my heart that she loves us just as much as she loves our sisters, who came from her body. But she and Donny are closer than she and I will ever be.
It’s just my way.
I’m not really close to anyone. Except for my father. He seems to get me. And Donny and Diana, sort of.
I’m a loner. I’ve learned to be satisfied with my own company. That, and the company of the vines. That’s where I’m most at home.
Most at peace.
Even though true peace will never be an option for me, I do find solace in other living things. Just not other living humans.
Even so, I miss my brother. He lives in Denver now, though he visits for all holidays and sometimes comes home for no reason at all. He moved out of the main house for good about five years ago when he took a job as an attorney with a major Denver firm. Donny wasn’t interested in the ranch. He’s close to our adoptive mother, who’s also an attorney. She’s been the city attorney for Snow Creek for decades, only taking time off when Diana, and then Brianna, came within four years of each other.
Dee and Bree. Mom and Dad didn’t choose the names to rhyme. It just happened that way. Diana is named after Mom’s grandmother, and Brianna is named after our grandfather, Brian Roberts. They’d already chosen the name Brian for a boy, but Bree didn’t cooperate.
Anyway, Donny chose to follow in Mom’s footsteps with college and law school.
I only made it through a semester of college. My grades were good, but it wasn’t for me. I need to be outside. Being in a classroom made me feel boxed in, reminded me of a time in my life better left in the past. I made it through high school—I didn’t have that choice—but college was just too much.
I need to be in large spaces. Around living things other than people.
That’s where I’m as close as I’ll ever get to peace.
I dress quickly in jeans, a green button-down, and one of my better pairs of cowboy boots. My hair has a natural wave and falls below my shoulders. It’s thick and blond and perpetually a mess. I like it that way, but tonight I promised Mom I’d get it under control.
I use the blow dryer until it’s only slightly damp and then pull it back into a low ponytail, securing it with a leather band.
I chuckle at my reflection. This is so not me.
Still, I look good.
Looks were never an issue for Donny and me. We were pretty little boys, which is probably the biggest reason we were…
I sigh.
I really don’t want to go there tonight.
I don’t want to go there ever.
I’m fairly good at keeping things at bay, and on the occasion where I need some help, I go see Aunt Mel. She’s been my therapist for twenty-five years now. She’s retired now, at sixty-five, but she always has time for me.
