A Vine Mess (Love on the Vine #4)

26. Liam

After dinner, West hopped in his truck, and we followed him in the van to his side of the ranch and the cabin where we’d be sleeping for the next few nights. Essentially, it was a miniature version of the main house, constructed of logs with lots of windows to let in as much natural light as possible. A small porch jutted off the front, and it was shaded on one side by a massive, towering oak tree.

“This is so cute!” Ella said as we got out of the car.

“Thanks,” West replied wryly. “I was going for rustic, but cute works too.”

Ella gave him a middle finger, and we both snorted, shaking our heads.

West came around the back of the van to help me unload our things while Ella walked up the steps and disappeared inside.

“Speaking of cute,” West said conversationally, “you two look great together.”

I gave him a half smile. “Thanks. It’s still really new, but…I’m crazy about her.”

“That much is obvious. And she seems great.”

“She’s the best,” I confirmed. “All the Delatou women are.”

“Yeah…” West trailed off. “My big brother got a good one.”

“What about the rest of you?”

West shook his head with a deep chuckle. “Fuck no. At least not for me. The other ones might fall in line after O, but…nah. Not in the cards for this cowboy.”

I laughed softly. “You know, I thought the same thing after my ex fucked me up. Then I met Ella and everything changed.”

While West stared at me, I had a feeling he was looking more through me, his eyes slightly unfocused as though he was a million miles away. I wondered if there was someone on his mind, someone in his life that he was imagining a future with.

But it wasn’t my place to pry, so when he said, “Yeah, maybe,” I let the subject drop in favor of hauling our luggage inside.

The rustic vibe West had been going for was carried indoors with exposed beams and stained shiplap walls, dark wood floors, oversized leather furniture in the living space, and plenty of dark green, burnt orange, and umber accents. Ella appeared from down the hallway, where two bedrooms and the bathroom branched off.

“This place is amazing, West,” she said, leaning against the wall and watching us. “Thank you for accommodating us.”

West waved her off. “It’s no problem, really.”

“Still,” I said, reaching out my hand for a shake. Surprising me, he pulled me into a back-slapping bro hug, and when we parted, I continued. “I’ll get you back one day.”

West only winked, said, “We’ll talk,” and disappeared .

Ella was in front of me in a flash, running her hands up my torso and pushing my flannel from my shoulders.

“God, I thought he’d never leave.” Rising onto her tiptoes, she pressed open mouthed kisses from the collar of my shirt and along my neck to my jaw.

“Fuck, Wildflower. Greedy, aren’t we?”

“For you? Always,” she said a moment before capturing my mouth. She was ravenous, her lips meeting mine eagerly, tongue sweeping along my bottom lip, seeking entrance, and I gave it to her. Everything in me settled when our tongues tangled, like she was breathing life into me.

But before things got too far, we needed to have a conversation.

“As badly as I’d like to fuck you into next week,” I said when I pulled away, resting my forehead against hers and gripping her upper arms, our heavy breaths mingling between us, “there’s something we need to talk about first.”

Ella backed up further to meet my eyes, hers swimming with worry and confusion.

“Okay…”

“I know it’s really soon and everything, but…well, I’ve already met your family so maybe it’s not that soon, but I was hoping maybe you’d want to extend your trip and come to Sammy’s wedding with me?”

I said the words in such a rush that I was breathing even harder by the time I’d gotten them all out.

“Your rambling is cute,” Ella said with a giggle.

“That’s not an answer.”

“I thought it was obvious.” She shrugged out of my hold and reached down to lace our fingers together. “Of course I’ll go with you.”

“Think it’d be alright if I introduced you to my family as my girlfriend?”

Ella grinned. “As long as I can introduce you to mine as my boyfriend when we get home.”

Home . Hell, I couldn’t wait to return to Apple Blossom Bay with her, to start our normal lives together. To plant roots deep in the land her family settled and watch them grow.

“You can call me whatever you want, as long as one of those things is ‘ mine ’.”

“Deal,” she said, humming happily and leaning into me. But she straightened abruptly. “Can I ask you something though?”

“Anything.”

“When I told you about A—” I made a noise of protest, and she cut herself off before uttering the devil’s name, then started again. “When I told you about douchebag cheating, you said you understood. And ages ago, you promised to tell me the story of why you left Portland. Are they related?”

Internally, I swore. This wasn’t ever a conversation I wanted to have with her, mostly because Mellie meant nothing to me now, but she deserved to know anyway.

So as succinctly as I could, mostly because it was ancient history, I told her the story of Mellie. How we’d met during my first summer working at her family’s winery. How we fucked around for years after that, breaking up and getting back together more times than I could count, but none of the breakups ever stuck. I guessed we enjoyed hurting each other too much—and making up .

Our on-again, off-again relationship continued through college, when I graduated and officially took over as head vintner at the winery. Things seemed to get more serious then. We had more frequent conversations about the future, what we wanted from our lives, settling down in Portland and having a family. Even so, for years, something held me back from proposing, from taking that next step to making things permanent.

“I should’ve known it was all too good to be true. I think, deep down, I did , even if I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself,” I told Ella wryly.

“What happened?”

“I caught her fucking my brother in her office one night. She’d been working late, so I showed up with dinner from her favorite Thai takeout place to surprise her, and I walked in on them together.”

“Fuck,” Ella hissed. “I hate her.”

I smiled, dragging her into my arms. “The worst part about it is, after I left, they got together—but then Sammy started cheating on her with her sister. And now…he’s marrying Mellie’s sister, Char.”

“That’s seriously fucked up,” Ella said. “And I thought Delia hooking up with Owen after Amara had been bad enough.”

“At least Amara and Owen had been done for years at that point,” I reminded her.

“And it didn’t affect our family dynamic one bit.”

“My problems with my brother started long before that day, but…yeah, that was kind of the final nail in the coffin of us ever having a relationship.”

Ella didn’t respond to that, only pulled me down the hall to the bedroom. As soon as we crossed the threshold, she shut the door behind us and unceremoniously stripped her cardigan and sundress off. That left her standing before me in nothing but a set of lacy underthings, the fabric covered in florals and sheer enough that I could see both her pussy lips and nipples beneath.

As she reached behind her to unhook her bra, she nodded at me, silently urging me to get naked as well. My shirt floated to the floor as she released the clasp, but her hands cupped her breasts, keeping it on for the moment as the straps slipped down her arms.

“So tell me, Wills…” she began, fingertips drawing distracting circles around her nipples, “you got a boss’s daughter kink?”

I grinned wickedly as I stalked toward her, kicking out of my pants and boxers as I went until I was completely naked in front of her. Ella backpedaled until the backs of her knees hit the edge of the mattress and she collapsed backward.

She looked like a fucking angel, hair fanned out around her on the soft beige comforter, all that golden, tatted skin on display.

She was, without a doubt, my exact version of heaven given human form, wrapped in this perfectly fierce and feminine package.

I crawled between her legs and hovered over her, my mouth inches from hers.

“Nah, Wildflower. Just a you kink.”