“I’m sorry.” I stood up and started pacing. “You have to go.” Then, I began freaking out. “But make sure no one sees you. Can you do that?”

His head lowered, and my shining knight’s armor looked tarnished and defeated. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“It was one night, James. You never had me.” My words were harsh and bitter. I hated myself for telling the lie, but it was the only way to get him to leave, and I needed him to do that.

But, as my plan worked, I watched him go, wondering what the hell I’d just done as my heart berated me with every beat inside my chest.

HEARTBREAKER

James

If I’d thought that Julia La Bella couldn’t break my heart again, I was dead wrong. I thought I’d heard the damn thing crack in half with her words. I sure as hell felt it as I made my way out her door and snuck into the far part of the vineyard where I hopefully wouldn’t be seen by anyone. But, to be honest, part of me wanted to get caught.

I ran into my mom the second I opened our front door.

“Oh, James, are you just getting in?” She looked me up and down.

“I was just in the barn,” I said as I made my way past her.

My parents had added onto the house and now lived in a giant, detached master suite downstairs, which left the entire second floor at my disposal. They gave me my privacy, and I gave them theirs.

“Sure, honey,” she said, clearly seeing through my lie.

Thankfully, she didn’t question me further.

I walked up three stairs before stopping short. “Hey, Mom?”

“Yes?”

“Do the La Bellas even know about the bet?” I didn’t need to elaborate or fill in the blanks. My mom knew exactly what I was asking.

“I have always assumed so.” She looked at me with slight confusion in her eyes.

“You’ve never talked to Mrs. La Bella before, have you?”

My mom glanced around the room to make sure my dad couldn’t hear. “Not really, but I’ve always wanted to. We aren’t allowed to be friends either, you know.” It was easy to forget that Julia and I weren’t the only ones suffering the consequences of our dads’ feud. “Why do you ask about the bet?”

“It was just something Julia mentioned the other day in passing. I don’t think she knows any of it, except the parts where Great-grandfather tried to take it back from her family.”

She offered me a nonchalant shrug. “That seems a little far-fetched, but I guess I wouldn’t know.”