Her eyes grew wide, and I watched her swallow hard. “Oh. I’ve always wanted to hear this.” She sat up straighter, her attention solely focused on me.

“We ready?” I asked, mostly waiting for the okay from Julia’s dad to start.

He took a large gulp of my second-place wine and nodded, giving me the go-ahead.

I wasn’t sure where to start, so I started from the beginning. “Okay. Well, as you might or might not know, our great-grandfathers really liked to gamble with each other and the other townsfolk. Aside from getting into trouble at the local bar, there wasn’t much else to do back then, so that’s what they tended to do. Our great-grandfathers had been best friends since childhood, you know?”

There was a mixture of grumbling at the table, and I realized that Mr. La Bella didn’t even know this part, so I continued, “They immigrated here together from Italy. Their dream was to buy land next to each other in America and start wineries like the ones they’d had in Italy. They were ecstatic when they found this area and were able to make their dreams come true. They never thought they’d stop being friends.” I looked around the table. “Did you know that part?”

“I didn’t,” Mr. La Bella answered in a seemingly shocked tone that surprised me.

“How could your family leave out all the important details?” my dad asked.

“I have no idea. And I never questioned it because I was perfectly fine with hating you for the reasons I had been given,” was all he said in response.

I continued the story, “Okay, so they were best friends, but like any good rivalry between men, there was a woman.” I raised my eyebrows, and Julia offered me a sad sort of smile. “I guess they both fell in love with the same girl. My great-grandmother.”

Julia interrupted, “So, your great-grandfather got the girl, and that’s why our families hate each other?”

I shook my head. “You’d have the answer if you let me finish telling the story.”

“My bad,” she said with a little extra snark and a little less apology.

She wasn’t sorry at all, but I’d punish her for that later. When no one else was around.

“So, yes, my great-grandfather got the girl, and, yes, your great-grandfather was bitter about it. He apparently stayed single for a long time, living next door to his best friend and the girl he thought should have been his. One night, during one of their poker games, my great-grandfather was complaining about the land on the south side.”

Everyone seemed to subconsciously lean in a little closer to me, and I knew I had their full attention. It was as if they sensed what had started the whole rivalry in the first place was about to be revealed.