All The Way (The Sarah Kinsely Story - Book #1) by C.J. Berry Page A

and the cups and followed after him. I was glad to be wearing flats.
    As we walked down the path I noticed the pointy white roof of a little gazebo set on the side of the hill. We made our way to it and Aiden set out the the food on the table. He poured us each a glass of soda.
    “To the prettiest girl I have ever met.”
    The view was something to remember. The hill we were looking out from overlooked a broad and sweeping valley of vineyards. Hills were rolling to and fro and each were lined with stitchings of grapes. Every other hill or so was dotted with a large house - houses even larger and more impressive than the ones I had seen on Nob Hill as the girls and I drove up to Aiden’s house.
    “Do you like the view?” Aiden asked as he snuggled against me. His body was warm and even though the sun was shining I felt a sense of gratitude for his warmth.
    “I do. How do you know about this place?” I asked.
    “I own it.” He said pouring another glass of the dark stuff. It popped and sizzled in the glass and I thought how cute it was that we were drinking soda. Sure, a glass of wine would have been nice but I admired that he was comfortable enough with himself and with me to serve soda instead of alcohol.
    “Of course you do.” I said and tipped my glass to him.
    “Oh, it isn’t like that at all. I didn’t buy it persay, my mother did. It was her dream to own a vineyard one day. When she got sick my father poured every penny he had into trying to give her what she wanted.”
    “That explains the house.” I thought out loud.
    “Yes, that house is excessive and so is this vineyard but you should have seen my father during my mother’s last months. He ran himself into the ground. As a matter of fact, he ran his restaurants into the ground too. Sure, he bought a nice big house and this fancy vineyard but he lost it all right after she died.”
    “Wait, so you didn’t inherit this place?”
    “Nope. My father lost it all. I am talking repo-man-style lost it all. He tried to sell his restaurants to save it but he mismanaged them so badly in the end trying to take care of my mother that nobody wanted to buy them. He lost everything. I hired him to come work for me but that was before I owned my first place and he hadn’t worked the line in a really long time so-” He drifted off.
    “What happened to him?”
    “He died. It didn’t take him long after mom was gone. 3 months and his heart just exploded. Years of drinking and loving my mom too much finally caught up with him I guess.”
    “Oh God Aiden, I am so sorry.” I put my arm around him. I wanted him to know, to truly know that I cared for him. I may not have known him that long but my feelings didn’t care.
    “Sometimes it takes a lot of really bad times all lined up in a row before you get yourself together to start having some good ones. When my mom died I promised to quit drinking. I have been clean ever since. When my father died and everything he had built was gone I promised that I would get it all back. So far, I am right on track.”
    “I would say so.” I looked into his pale blue eyes and suddenly saw the man behind the secret back room dinner dates and opulent extravagance. His strange and forward moves towards me started to make sense. His whole life revolved around his work in a way that I had never understood any other man’s obsession with work before. It wasn’t just food, it wasn’t just dedication to craft, it was therapy, it was grieving, it was his connection with people. That first night that we met and he invited me and the girls to the back table suddenly became more special. It seemed the more I came to understand his complexity, the more I understood his desire to share his talents with me.
    “I had to battle for this piece of property. The house was easy. The owners were about to foreclose on it themselves, they were in tears when I called them with an offer but the property was a different story entirely. The owners