Unfortunately Yours (A Vine Mess, #2)

by Tessa Bailey

For as long as August Cates could remember, his dick had ruined everything. In seventh grade, he’d gotten a hard-on during a pep rally while standing in front of the entire school in football pants.

That’s definitely an interesting way to start a story.

What the hell was he supposed to say? That he’d seen her across the room at that stupid Wine Down Napa event and felt like he’d had an arrow shot into his chest by a flying baby? That his palms had sweat because of a woman for the first time ever that night? He’d already been in that Viennese countryside holding a picnic basket in one hand and an acoustic guitar in the other. God, she was so beautiful and interesting and fucking hilarious. Where had she been all his life?

I’m better elsewhere. I’m something. I’m someone when I’m not here. After the shock of hearing that breathy confession had worn off, he’d just gotten mad. Who the fuck made her feel like that? How long had she been feeling like crap without his knowing about it?

Natalie wasn’t a simple combination of colors, she was an ever-changing kaleidoscope he couldn’t seem to stop peering into.

“If you don’t directly ask me for sex, I’ll respect that. But if you want to be fucked, you’re going to get it. Period, the end.” Oh damn. That pulse was back and now a damp sensation had been thrown in.

“You’re a little nuts, aren’t you, Hallie?” “I wrote your brother secret admirer letters and got jealous when he wrote me back.”

“But love seems more important now.” Don’t ask why. “Why?” “Because I can tell you don’t believe in it. And I want you to.”

The increasing protectiveness he felt for his fiancé told August . . . This wasn’t temporary. They weren’t. Sorry, princess. Sucks to be you. This woman standing in front of him was his destiny.

That he could be so caring and protective, but still not realize how much it burned when he locked her out of his grief, out of his winemaking—it was frustrating.

“And when I look at you, I swear I have. Existed just for you all this time. It feels like I have.”