A Taste of You (Bourbon Brothers)

by Teri Anne Stanley

  Lesa smiled supportively.

  “But what else would you do? Are you…are you leaving Blue Mountain?” Lorena asked, as though she couldn’t imagine any other possible career for Eve.

  “I don’t know. I guess it depends on whether or not I’ve got anywhere else to go.” She was going to find out, though.

  She marched to the gift shop, grabbed her bag, and put her hand on the doorknob. If Nick hadn’t gone to his father’s house after he left Blue Mountain that morning, she’d go look for him at Mason’s house. If he wasn’t there, she’d drive to Tennessee.

  Fortunately, she didn’t have to go anywhere, because when she opened the door of the tasting center, Nick was on the other side.

  Nick didn’t know what had just transpired inside the tasting center, but by the determined set to Eve’s mouth and the shell-shocked looks on the faces of her family and friends, it must have been something profound.

  “Oh. Good. There you are.” Eve marched out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him along with her. “I was just coming to find you.”

  “You were?” He felt a grin try to steal across his face, but held it in, just in case she wasn’t coming to find him for the same reason he had come to find her.

  She didn’t speak until they got to his truck, released his arm, and climbed into the passenger seat. So he got in on his side. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the tasting center, eyebrows furrowed. He wasn’t sure she even knew he was there.

  He put his keys in the ignition but didn’t start the engine. Instead, he breathed in her summer sunshine scent and appreciated how perfectly she fit there, next to him.

  “So what’s new?” he asked.

  She turned to face him and opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again and said, “I think I just broke up with my family.” And burst into tears.

  It wasn’t exactly the romantic reunion he’d hoped for, but when she dove across the console and curled up in his lap—it was a snug fit between his body and the steering wheel—he managed to free one arm enough to slide the seat back and cuddle her against him comfortably while she sobbed.

  Ah hell. Surely this could have gone any other way. She could have thrown some dishes and broken a window he could replace. Or he could dig a hole to bury a body for her. But this holding a girl while she cried— Sitting helplessly, stroking her back, and murmuring nonsense was for the birds. Apparently, that was all that was required of him, though, because after about three minutes, his shirt was soaked and she began to settle, sniffing and shifting around. He found a pile of unused fast food napkins in the side pocket of the door and handed them to her.

  “I should probably…” She gestured toward the other side of the truck.

  “No, you can stay here as long as you don’t want me to drive in this position.” Actually, she felt pretty damned good right there on his lap, her soft backside pressing down against him, and he tucked her head back under his chin and said, “What happened?”

  “I-I’m not sure. I think I snapped. Everything…everything was so terrible after you left. I thought Raleigh was fine, but then all of a sudden, he wasn’t, and then my mom freaked out. She—”

  “I saw the video.”

  “Is your dad okay?”

  “He’s hung over.”

  “I mean from my mom—”

  “Yeah. I saw what it looked like, but I don’t think she really made contact with him. I, uh, took him to the doctor and he doesn’t even have any bruises.”

  “You took him to the doctor? Oh no. Is he sick again?”

  “No sicker than usual. This was actually a good trip. He agreed to go into a treatment program.”

  “What?” She pulled back and looked at him. “That’s wonderful!”

  Nick shrugged. “We’ll see. It’s something, but not relevant right now. Back to your story.”

  “My mom has been a basket case—and I don’t mean from your dad throwing up on her in front of the whole internet. She’s been a mess for—at least since before my dad died. But she managed to hold it together. And then he died, and I held it together for her.”

  “I noticed.”

  “Meeting you…something made me look at that.”

  “My refusal to hold it together for anyone?” He laughed.

  She shrugged. “You are a good guy, in spite of what you seem to think about yourself. You do a lot of things for other people. But…I guess what I saw was you taking care of yourself.”

  Now he really laughed. “What are you talking about?”

  “That whole ‘I don’t make promises’ thing. I thought you were just scared, but now I know you’re being careful not to take on more than you can handle at any one time.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “You were right the first time. It’s fear. Plain and simple. Afraid of turning into my father. Afraid of hurting people. Afraid of getting hurt.”

  “Hmm.” She toyed with the sleeve of his shirt. “I guess there are two sides to every coin.”

  “Whatever you want to believe, darlin’.”

  “So anyway, you came and saved the day for my family. Thank you. The party was—well, it wasn’t fun, but it was successful, I think. Mother is in there counting a lot of money.”

  “Good.” He’d done something right.

  “But she was going on about all the stuff that she wants me to do next, and I was just so damned upset you didn’t want to see me when you were here, and—”

  “It’s not because I didn’t want to see you.”

  “I know. Or at least, I decided to hope that was why. I know you can’t be here—at Blue Mountain—it’s not good for you. And I realized I’m not even sure I want to be here, either. I don’t know what else I want to do. I’ve never looked past the front door, but I think— I think I want to find out.” She bit her lip. “And I want to know if you want to find out with me.”

  His heart, already thumping like a bass drum, added a little snare. Here he was, totally at a loss about how this was going to work, but willing to try anything, and his Eve, ever the problem solver, had it worked out. But…

  “I don’t want you to leave your family for me. You’re good at this job. If you want it, we’ll find a way to make it work. Maybe…maybe if things work out…”

  He didn’t know how to say it, but she did.

  “Maybe if I’m a failure at working in the outside world, and yet we decide to live happily ever after, it can be anywhere but here?”

  “Pretty much.”

  She tilted her face up to him, and their lips met in a long, hot kiss. She slid her arms around his neck and turned toward him, her breasts pressed up against his chest, and the half erection he’d been sporting since she’d crawled onto his lap hit full-mast.

  A long few minutes later, they came up for air, and he leaned his forehead against hers.

  “You wanna get out of here? I’ve got to go back to my dad’s and take care of Franklin, but then”—he took a deep breath—“you wanna go meet my mom?”

  “Oh yes,” she said, all smiles, like he was offering her an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii.

  She scrambled back to her side of the truck and pulled the seat belt around her waist.

  “Do you need anything before we go?” he asked.

  “Nope. I’ve got a credit card and Walmart has everything I might need.”

  “Okay.” He turned on the ignition, but she was looking around the inside of the truck.

  “Wait. I left my bag inside. I’ll be right back.” She jumped out of the truck and was at the tasting center before he could get his door open to follow her.

  He waited in the doorway for her and nodded to Brandon and Justin, who were cleaning up trash from the party.

  Eve stood in front of her mother and said, “So, Mom, I need a few days off, then maybe we can talk.”

  Lorena didn’t look up, but said, “Fine.”

  She glanced at Nick and went into the gift shop where Allie and Lesa stood next to the counter. She whis
pered something to them, and they grinned at him, Allie giving him a thumb’s up.

  Eve picked her bag up from the counter and walked back toward Nick, toward their new life together.

  “Just a minute.” She ran back into the gift shop. She pulled a notebook—her notebook—out of the trash and shoved it into the bag, then hurried back to his truck.

  “You ready?”

  “You betcha.”

  Epilogue

  Eve watched Nick shove the last box into the bed of his truck and slam the tailgate shut. He dusted off his hands and said, “I guess that’s it.” Hands on hips, he smiled at Eve. “You ready?”

  She took a deep breath and looked at the place she’d always called home and nodded slowly. “I think so. Yes. I just wish…”

  “I know.” He put an arm around her and tugged her close to his side, where she always liked to be, whenever possible. “She still won’t talk to you?”

  “Not exactly. Nothing more than she has to. She did come downstairs and hand me this.” She held out the object that Lorena had pressed into her hand. It was a One Month chip from Al-Anon.

  “No kidding. She really went?”

  “Apparently.” Allie had kept Eve posted on their mother’s state of mind since she’d driven off with Nick three months ago. At first, Lorena had decided to pretend nothing was wrong, that Eve would be back after her “little vacation from reality.” But when Eve returned and told her mother that she really was quitting her job at Blue Mountain, there had been all kinds of drama. After she explained she wasn’t actually planning on moving out—yet—Lorena told her it was all or nothing. She had the locks changed on Eve’s apartment door, so she couldn’t get in, and stopped speaking to her.

  Eve stayed at the Baker place, while Allie and Justin got her clothes. She and Nick laughed about it—they’d decided they’d take their time between big relationship steps—but Lorena, ironically, had forced the issue. So she lived with Nick—part-time, because he hadn’t technically moved out of his place near his mom. At least, not until his mother told him to get out of town. She’d call him if she needed him, and his dad needed him more.

  After a month in a recovery center, Raleigh had been released into an intensive outpatient program, which he attended religiously. He confided to Eve it wasn’t because he needed it, but because if he was busy doing recovery crap, Nick would have to stick around and help finish the work Raleigh’d let pile up over the past several months. And there were some pretty women in his group, so he might as well hang around.

  Meanwhile, Allie mounted a full-on assault on Lorena until she finally wore her down and convinced her to go to Al-Anon, where she was reluctantly learning to loosen her hold on all of the things she couldn’t control.

  Eve took the coin back from Nick and slipped it into her pocket. She took it as a sign things would get better. Not right away, but maybe someday she and Lorena could have a healthy relationship.

  And today, Eve and Nick had come to get the rest of her things, because they were no longer crashing at Raleigh’s old farm house. They’d found a little house between Lexington and Blue Mountain where they were going to set up housekeeping.

  This made Nick nervous. Heck, it made her nervous. Because this was the real deal. A commitment. Maybe not a ring, but still, a promise that this was more than a “you can crash with me until you get a job and get on your feet” deal.

  Eve had a job. She was working in the development office at Tucker University. And for the Jamie and David McGrath Foundation. Lorena had agreed to make her position a part-time paid one. It wasn’t too much, just a few hours a week, and it kept her busy while Nick worked his tight hiney off.

  Eve took her seat in Nick’s truck—her favorite place in the world, if she was honest. Being in the passenger seat while Nick drove them to wherever they were going was part of her newfound laid-back attitude. She buckled her seat belt and checked her bag for her planner. Okay, maybe she wasn’t completely free and easy. That would be ridiculous.

  A horn honked, and she saw the Blue Mountain delivery truck in the side-view mirror. Brandon waved furiously out of the open window, and Lesa seemed to be bouncing in her seat.

  “What the heck?” Eve got back out of the truck and walked over to them. “What’s going on?”

  “We’ve got to take a detour,” Brandon said.

  “Where?”

  “The hospital.”

  Apparently deciding it was time to cut to the chase, Lesa somehow managed to crawl over Brandon and stick her head out. “Allie’s water broke.”

  “Already? She’s supposed to have four more weeks!” Fear clutched Eve’s throat and she staggered back a step. Nick was right there with a supportive arm.

  “Where are they?” he asked.

  “Here!” yelled Justin from the other end of the truck.

  Eve ran back, where the door of the van was rolled halfway up, and found her sister reclining like Cleopatra on Eve’s beloved Ikea couch. Along with the pile of Eve’s good towels beneath her, Allie appeared to be resting comfortably.

  “Are you okay? Are you having contractions? How far apart are they? Did you already call the doctor? Nick, will you please go get my—”

  He handed over her bag.

  Eve paused and shot him a grateful smile. “Have I told you how much I love you yet today?”

  He grinned. “You can tell me that as often as you like.”

  “Hey. Can this still be about me?” Allie nudged Eve with her foot.

  Justin stood, holding the strap just inside the door, white as a sheet.

  Brandon and Lesa had gotten out of the cab and come around to kibbitz, too. “You okay, bro?” he asked.

  Justin shook his head no.

  “That’s okay, Eve’s here,” Nick and Allie said simultaneously.

  Just then, Allie gripped her stomach and cried out. “Ow! That hurts.” She groaned.

  “Let’s get to the hospital, can we?” Eve looked at Brandon then Nick. “Would one of you please drive this truck? And someone go get my mom?”

  Nick and Brandon looked at each other. “Last one to the driver’s seat has to get Lorena,” Nick said, and they disappeared.

  “I’ll get Lorena.” Lesa sighed. “You guys okay back here? You sure you don’t want to go in a real car?”

  Allie was too busy gritting her teeth to speak, but Justin managed a terse nod while he pulled the door down.

  That was how Eve wound up riding to the hospital in the dark, in the back of a delivery van, instead of moving into a house with Nick.

  …

  Nick hit the brakes and squealed into the emergency room drop off area.

  “Nice,” Brandon said, nodding.

  “I always wanted to do that. It would be way cooler in a 1978 Trans Am, but a big-ass truck will work.” Then he remembered why he was driving like a Fast and Furious character and gulped. “I hope we didn’t knock anyone loose back there.”

  Nick and Brandon reached the back of the van just as a hospital employee and a Crockett County Sheriff’s deputy did.

  “What’s going on here, boys?” asked the cop.

  “We’ve got a maternity issue,” Brandon told him.

  “Nothing can be more important than driving safely, son.”

  “That’s a matter of opinion,” said Nick, yanking up the door.

  The sight that greeted the men stopped their bickering cold.

  “Oh shit,” the deputy said.

  “I’ll go get a gurney,” the nurse said.

  “Uh-oh,” Brandon said.

  Allie was lying on the couch with her head on Justin’s lap. He had his hands in her hair, stroking it away from her face while he murmured something to her.

  Eve sat at Allie’s feet, which were covered with Eve’s formerly pristine white bedspread, while she grinned and held a squalling, slimy, red, screaming baby. “That last sharp turn was the one we needed to get the job done!” she said. “Good job, honey!”

  She carefull
y handed the baby to her sister, who cradled the newborn to her chest while all three—the baby, his mother, and his father, cried.

  The nurse had returned and climbed in to take over while Nick held his hand out to help Eve down.

  She walked into his open arms, her face shining with her own tears. Hell, Nick felt a little bit of a lump forming in his own throat.

  “That was the coolest thing ever,” she said. “I’m an aunt!”

  “Uh-oh,” Brandon said.

  Nick and Eve turned to see Lorena stalking toward them, Lesa trotting along behind her.

  Everyone moved back a step while the new grandmother approached the gurney, where Allie held her baby and Justin held them both.

  “I see you couldn’t wait until a more appropriate time,” Lorena said, lips tight.

  Allie cleared her throat. “Mom, I’d like you to meet David James Morgan.”

  “Oh.” Lorena didn’t speak any more after that. Instead, she held out her arms and welcomed her new grandson into the family.

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  Acknowledgments

  There are always a boatload of people to thank when a book is done, and this one is no different…

  Thanks to Nic, for your brilliant brainstorming, your patience, and your heart, and all that other awesome agent stuff. Thanks to Liz, Heather, and Robin and about four hundred other people at Entangled for more brilliant brainstorming, attention to detail, and support, and all that other awesome publisher stuff.

  Thanks to all the people in recovery who are willing to share their experience, strength, and hope with anyone who asks. Addiction sucks, but there is hope, and there is help. If you or someone you love has a problem with addiction, you can get information and help at http://www.aa.org/ (Alcoholics Anonymous), https://www.na.org/ (Narcotics Anonymous), https://oa.org/ (Overeaters Anonymous) or http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/ (Al-Anon and Alateen for the family members of the addict), among other twelve step groups (I don’t think there’s one for office supplies. Yet.).

  Thanks to Frank Lottman for coming up with the awesome reclaimed wood mantel for our new fireplace—you had no idea you were instrumental in the development of a major plot point, did you?