WRIGHT RIVAL (Wright Vineyard #3)

2. Hollin

2

HOLLIN

The last thing I’d expected to see today was Piper Medina, half-naked.

I wasn’t complaining. Not by a long stretch.

When I’d rounded that corner and seen her in nothing but a nude bra, her t**s spilling out of the top of it, my brain had short-circuited. Piper had always been f*****g gorgeous, but it was her anger that fired me up. The way she held her temper back for everyone but me. As if my very presence lit a fire under her. It was hot. It was why I kept doing it.

My brain came back online the moment I saw that ring though. Piper and I were oil and water. We poked and pressed and fought. We didn’t mix. But one look at that ring, and…I had no f*****g clue what came over me. All I knew was that there was no way she was marrying that brain-dead loser. Luckily, she had the same idea.

She wrapped that lush, curvy body in his stupid shirt. I could have let it go. I should have…probably. But when it came to Piper, I always pushed the envelope. Giving her my shirt could have backfire, but what was most surprising was that she let me.

She did up every little button in front of me and looked at me with those enormous brown eyes. I couldn’t help but push it a little further. That look on her face when I rolled up her sleeves…she might have threatened me right afterward, but I’d seen it nonetheless.

Piper Medina might hate me, but she wanted me, too.

And I could live with that.

I adjusted my c**k inside my jeans. I needed to stop thinking about her t**s in that bra and the way she’d looked, doing up the buttons on my shirt, and those huge eyes as I touched her skin. I had to follow her inside. I needed to talk to Jordan and Julian about my trip. I couldn’t do that with a semi in my f*****g pants.

“Get it together, Abbey,” I grumbled under my breath.

After another moment, I rolled my shoulders back and strode toward my winery. My winery. Sometimes, it was too much to consider.

I’d worked at West Texas Winery all through college and after graduation. It was a dump that just happened to have good wine. No one cared about it, and the owners chased the college crowd to cover their debts. When it went under, I swore that I’d get it back up and running again. I loved it too much to let go.

Somehow, I’d convinced my cousins, Jordan and Julian, to drop the money on renovating it. I ran day-to-day operations and had all the experience while they had the business acumen and finances to get it off the ground. Now, we were a year out from the first day we’d opened, and it had never been better.

I strode inside and was immediately greeted.

“Aye, Abbey,” the burly, tatted man at the entrance said.

“Good to see you, man,” I said, clapping hands with my buddy Zach, who sometimes worked security for the vineyard.

He nodded at me, and I continued through the barn, shaking hands and offering hellos to everyone. The Wrights might have their name on the place, but I was the heart of the operation.

Lubbock, Texas was a dusty, windy small town, five hours away from the rest of civilization, but it was home. I’d grown up here with my two siblings, Campbell and Nora. I’d gone to college at Texas Tech. I’d stuck around when most of my friends had ditched, including my brother.

Finally, I shoved through the last of the crowd to where my cousins were seated. Piper glanced up at me and then hastily away, returning her attention to her boyfriend. An irritated scowl crossed her face. I barely suppressed laughing at it.

“You made it!” Julian said. He hopped out of his seat. We slapped hands, and then he pulled me into a hug. “How’d it go?”

Jordan held his hand out, and we shook. “Give him some room, Julian.”

Julian laughed. “Just excited.”

I liked that about my cousin. Julian was enthusiastic. Jordan wasn’t quite solemn, but he was serious. He’d had to grow up fast to protect Julian from their father. That was a sentiment that I understood. Even if I hadn’t gone down the same route. I always found it hard to subdue my larger-than-life personality. When my cousins had first moved to Lubbock about five years ago, I’d thought that it would put them off, but they hadn’t missed a beat. It was as if they had always been in my life. I couldn’t imagine Lubbock without them now.

I sank into a spare seat next to Blaire.

“Hey, Hollin.”

I nodded my head at her.

She looked good tonight. Normally, she hid behind baseball caps and oversize T-shirts, but now, she was in some tight dress. She was some high-profile influencer on social media, but I so rarely saw her like this that I sometimes forgot. She was just Blaire, the striker on our soccer team, the girl who ate more pizza than me and who could drink more beer than should have been humanly possible for someone her size. She was practically one of the guys.

“Piper was just saying you were nice enough to let her borrow your shirt,” Blaire said with mirth on her lips.

My eyes flicked to Piper’s. “Is that what she said?”

“No,” Piper said flatly.

Blaire arched an eyebrow. “She might not have said it that way.”

“What can I say?” I said with a s**t-eating grin. “I’m a giver.”

Blaire practically choked on her drink. Piper bristled but said nothing. Bradley, the poor guy, looked flummoxed. His gaze shifted between us, as if he were trying to decipher the meaning of life.

“So,” Julian prompted, “how’d it go in Austin?”

Piper was still looking at me. She thought I’d gone to Austin for a date. Julian had told her that. It was our cover story, of sorts. We didn’t need one, but we weren’t sure that our plan would work. We didn’t want to tell anyone other than Jordan before we were ready. And they’d both agreed not to tell their girlfriends, which was the biggest bet that it would get out. But Piper had sounded jealous at the prospect of me going out of town for a date. I should disabuse her of the notion, but what fun would that be?

My grin doubled in size. “It went excellent. I’m definitely in.”

“Yeah?” Julian asked. “No complications?”

“None at all. It was even easier than I’d thought it would be.”

Piper rolled her eyes but said nothing. That wouldn’t do. I wanted a reaction from her.

“That’s good,” Jordan said. “You were worried for nothing.”

“I wouldn’t say I was worried. I always get what I want.”

Piper snorted this time. “Classy.”

Blaire scrunched up her face. Jennifer looked to Annie, and Annie shrugged. Well, at least the guys had held up to their word.

“You got something to say, Medina?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

“No,” she said.

Jordan picked up on what was happening first. He shot me a look. “We should tell them.”

“Ah, Jor, let me have my fun,” I said with a laugh.

Julian glanced around and then made a comical O with his lips. “Ohhh.” He cleared his throat. “I guess I should do the honors.”

All the girls looked even more confused. I winked at Piper, and she glared back at me. She could look at me that way all she wanted. But I remembered the one second when her guard had come down and she gazed under those thick lashes without any bullshit between us.

“I’ll do it,” I said, coming to my feet.

“No one cares about your date, Hollin,” Piper said. “Keep it in your pants.”

Blaire muffled a laugh. “She’s not wrong.”

“I’ll have you all know that I didn’t go to Austin to get some ass.”

Jennifer choked. “Good for you?”

Annie cackled and nudged her friend. “I love you.”

Jennifer reddened. Julian was wearing off on the shy girl. Julian drew her in closer and pressed a kiss to her temple.

“I can get ass just fine here,” I told them.

Jordan groaned. “Get on with it, Hollin.”

“Right,” I said, tipping my head at him. “I entered Wright Vineyard into the IWAA Texas Wine Award Competition in Austin.”

“What?” Annie gasped. She swatted at Jordan. “You didn’t tell me.”

Jennifer’s eyes lit up. “That’s amazing.”

Blaire pulled me into a hug. “Really? That’s incredible!”

But Piper…Piper did nothing. Bradley was up, shaking hands with Jordan and Julian. Piper remained seated in my f*****g shirt, looking hot as f*****g hell. I had no idea what was running through her head. Was she processing that I hadn’t been talking about a date at all? Was she mad about the competition? Why was she blank-faced?

“Hey,” I said, drawing her eyes up to me. “This means I wasn’t on a date.”

She scowled. “Like I give a fuck.”

“What’s with the face? Can’t even be happy for us?”

The others had grown quiet at my words. No one else had realized that Piper wasn’t jumping up and down with excitement. There was no guarantee that we’d win this award. It was a huge competition. But it was a possibility. The wine I’d entered was our newest vintage, and it was above and beyond what West Texas Winery had ever made. Everything had come together in the last year. The grapes had yielded better than any before that. It was as if we’d sacrificed the old winery to some ancient deity and Wright Vineyard had been reincarnated out of the ashes. Blessed in some way.

But that didn’t explain Piper’s reaction. Yeah, she managed a separate winery, but we were a small enough operation not to dip into Sinclair Cellars’ profits or anything. They’d been around for decades. They were a huge operation. A national name. It didn’t change the rivalry. How could it when we were both so antagonistic?

“I’m happy for you,” she said without a hint of emotion.

“What is it?” I asked, taking a step toward her. “Say what’s on your mind.”

She met my step by coming to her feet and lifting her chin. A slow smile curled on her lips. There she was. There was the fire heart.

“It’s nice that you entered, but you’ve no chance of winning.”

My eyebrows shot up at her gall. The rest of the room disappeared as I got into it with her. I didn’t know what the others were doing or saying. When we got like this, tunnel vision narrowed in, and I forgot everything but the fight.

“And why is that?”

“Because I entered last week.”