The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away novel · Chapter 6 of 32
Chapter 6: Bulk
Dex didn't answer the question.
He laughed into the silence and lifted his own glass to the room.
"Our grower contracts are confidential, folks. Like any serious winery." He nodded at the jazz trio. "Let's have some music. Drink up. There's plenty."
The trio started a song nobody was listening to.
Coralee took the microphone back, quickly, and switched it off.
"You're done," she said under her breath. "You hear me? You're done in this valley."
"I was born in this valley, Cora."
I stepped down off the stage.
A wine club man in a pink sweater was already on his phone, saying, "Cancel it. Yes, the preorder."
A grower I'd known since I was a kid took my arm at the door.
"That wasn't Old Block," he said quietly.
"No."
"Wasn't anybody's Dry Creek fruit."
"No."
He nodded once and let me go.
I drove home with the windows down so I could breathe.
I didn't sleep much.
At five on Sunday morning, someone knocked on the farmhouse door.
The dog barked once and then wagged.
He knew who it was before I did.
The Arnott cellar master stood on my porch in his work jacket.
He had his cap in one hand and a cardboard box under his arm.
He was in his fifties, gray stubble, a man who said maybe ten words a day.
He'd worked beside me for seven harvests.
He'd never once been inside my house.
"Can't stay," he said. "My truck's down the road."
He held out the box.
Inside were seven green clothbound notebooks.
My notebooks.
2019 through 2025, the years printed on the spines in my own handwriting.
I took them out one by one and held each one for a second.
They smelled like the lab: sulfur, oak, the lemon soap by the sink.
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 5 · All chapters · Chapter 7 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend