That was a pretty damn heavy cross to bear. One I’d never even confessed to my best friend. I kept that tidbit of information inside, too embarrassed to admit it to anyone, not even my mother. It felt like some sort of betrayal to my father to repeat it out loud, especially when he felt so strongly about the subject. Instead, I’d allowed his words to become a part of me, a weight so unbearably heavy at first but, with time, had become manageable. James was the devil who could make me lose the winery and everything I’d worked for my whole life. No one was worth that. End of story.

“Now that we’re older, you’ve never wondered why you’re supposed to hate him? I mean, wondered enough to push it and get real answers? At what point do you both deserve the truth?” Jeanine pushed. She was always pushing.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to know; it was more that I’d simply accepted the fact that I might never know, and I’d convinced myself that I was okay with that. Even though our entire small town knew about the rivalry, no one ever dared to elaborate on it. I wasn’t sure who they were scared of more—my father or James’s father. Whenever I’d made the mistake of asking someone who I thought would know details, they always said they couldn’t remember or that I should ask my parents. Even old man Johnson at the liquor store had said our families’ story was like folklore now, passed down from generation to generation, but all screwed up the way the game of telephone got and that I couldn’t trust what anyone around here said about it. I couldn’t argue with that logic, so I’d eventually stopped trying.

I groaned before directing my attention once again toward James. “He’s a stubborn ass. He’s cocky and egotistical, and he thinks the world revolves around him. That’s reason enough for me. What about that rumor he started about me in high school? I can’t even look at him without wanting to gouge his eyeballs out for that.”

“That was a hundred years ago. And I still think he did it on purpose,” she countered softly as if scared of my reaction.

“Of course he did it on purpose! He wanted to ruin my life,” I practically shouted as my mind took an instant trip down memory lane.

It had been in high school, junior year, and James had told everyone that I had sex with him. Not just sex, but that I had also lost my virginity to him.