They Gave Me a Monthly Allowance, So I Took Back My Building novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: First Pick

Ottavio's POV

We started picking the Aurelio block at five on Monday morning, in the dark, with headlamps.

Sixty acres of old vines is a lot of fruit.

The crew had come from three wineries, because the foreman had called in favors from everyone Caterina's father had ever helped, and all of them had said yes.

I took a row on the east end and a pair of shears, and I worked.

Nobody asked what a man with his own label was doing on someone else's rows.

I kept looking down the slope for her car all morning.

She had gone to headquarters before dawn, and I hadn't heard from her since Saturday.

I told myself that was fair.

My hands knew the work. The clusters came off the old canes heavy and cold, and the first light came up grey over the ridge.

The foreman worked the row beside mine.

He was a big white-haired man who had known Caterina since she was ten.

"You mortgaged your grandfather's ridge for this," he said, not looking at me.

"It's a loan. She's paying it back."

"Is that what you tell yourself?"

"It's what she told me."

He grunted.

"The old hands have a bet going," he said. "Whether she renames the house back."

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