“To uncover the truth,” Drake said. “You need to stop beating yourself up over this. You did the right thing.”
“Have you tried to talk to Pepper?” Harriet asked.
“She won’t return my calls or texts and she’s already revoked my gate pass at GarnetBrooke. So that’s not happening. The only way I’ll see her is if I run into her around town or at the distillery, not exactly private places for an intimate chat. And it’s not likely I’ll be around the distillery since Bruce will fight me tooth-and-nail to keep Old Garnet as his client.”
“Maybe you could ask Hannah or Goose to tell you when Pepper’s at the distillery giving tours?” Harriet suggested.
“No, I’m not involving them in this. And it wouldn’t work. Pepper would walk away, get in her car, and head across the road to the farm.”
“So what are you going to do?” Harriet asked.
“Beats the hell out of me.” Jon took a long swig of his drink. “And on top of everything else, I need to find new digs to practice law.”
“You want to set up shop together?” Drake asked.
Jon’s jaw dropped. “But I thought you were happier solo. And, frankly, I’m shocked you’d trust me after—”
“After everything that’s happened, how could I not trust you, Buckler?” Drake asked. “Bruce Colyard’s a fucking idiot for breaking up your firm.”
Jon thought he might cry, and Harriet, sitting between the men, came to his rescue.
“Mercer and Buckler? Or Buckler and Mercer?” she suggested, smiling and looking between the men.
“Mercer should definitely be first.” Jon raised his glass to his new law partner.
“I don’t know,” Drake said, and scratched his chin in contemplation. “Which version would piss off Bruce more?”
* * *
Pepper had managed to erase almost every reminder of Jon from her life.
It hurt too much to see a few of his clothes he’d forgotten at her house, the kind of chips he liked, or even the pair of muck boots he used to borrow. Out they had gone. Well, except for the boots. Those were useful and were relegated to a faraway barn.
Two weeks after the hearing, she was still mad about what had happened. Mad at her father, mad at Jon, and even a little mad at Nina, despite how she’d originally felt at the bar offices.
But Pepper was especially mad at herself for getting into such a situation to be hurt again. She’d been stupid enough to trust her father twice, and she wasn’t going to give Jon another chance to break her heart.
So she was done with both of those men.
Except for one big reminder in a very small, electronic form.
Pepper saved Jon’s last text to her before the hearing. She couldn’t bring herself to delete it.
Pepper had ignored all his attempts at contact, and had holed up at GarnetBrooke since the time of the hearing. She’d gone into town only twice, to the grocery store, making sure each time was during work hours so she hopefully wouldn’t run into Jon. She’d heard through the grapevine (a phone call from Hannah) that Jon and Drake were planning on opening a practice together, and didn’t know what to make of the news. She was pleased that Jon was going to have a place to land, but something about the arrangement made her uncomfortable, even embarrassed.
If Drake could get along with Jon after everything that had happened, why couldn’t she?
It wasn’t a question she was prepared to answer, and didn’t know whether she could. And for now, she wasn’t focused on her personal life—that had never been a fruitful endeavor—but on the farm and the distillery instead. She’d even decided not to pursue a case against the hospital and care home.
Her Lexington attorneys had produced a preliminary investigative report which indicated that there could be fault by the care facility, but she wasn’t interested. She didn’t need the money and it wouldn’t bring her mother back. The chances of success, even if there was good evidence, seemed extremely low, and Pepper was interested in pouring her energies into the future, not reliving the past.
That uncomfortably warm May day, Pepper was scheduled to give a tour at Old Garnet. Hannah had to go to Lexington for some medical tests, and Bo had called for help. It would be her first visit to the distillery since breaking up with Jon, and she was strangely rattled by the prospect of returning. She didn’t expect to see him, but knew there was a good chance she’d run into Goose and perhaps Lucy, who had been working more hours in the gift shop during Goose’s recuperation.
Upon arriving at Old Garnet, she went directly to the gift shop, where tour guides checked in before tours, and was relieved to see that Lucy wasn’t around. Over the next few minutes, tourists began congregating in the lobby, and Pepper gathered them at the new starting point for all tours: the bourbon flavor wheel in the middle of the floor of the visitors’ center. As she urged people to gather in closer to her, Goose was walking out of the café and waved to her and the crowd.
Pepper introduced Goose as an owner and the brains behind the art upon which they were all standing.
“So take it easy,” Pepper said. “You’re standing on his baby.”
“Yeah, but it’s not just that,” Goose said, smiling and running a hand through his thick black hair. “I’m going to get married on that thing next month.”
The crowd clapped and Pepper expressed surprise.
“When? I hadn’t heard you and Harriet had set a date.”
“Yep, getting married on the very same spot I proposed,” he said smugly, then laughed as the crowd continued to clap. “Invitations in the mail soon. I hope you and Jon—I mean I hope you’re available early in the morning of June 7,” Goose said, trying to recover from his slip. He waved to the crowd and hustled away.
The crowd chattered, and Pepper tried to stay cheerful as she thought about the prospect of attending Goose and Harriet’s wedding without Jon at her side. And would she attend at all if she knew he was going to be there? How long could she avoid him?
Pepper sensed the tourists staring at her, and she roused herself from her little pity-party and flipped the switch inside her brain back to tour-guide mode.
She slapped on a goofy smile, the same kind she had often used to greet parents to hide the fact she was feeling less-than-personable.
“If you’ll follow me out this side door, we’ll get you started on your tour of this historic distillery. Now who knows the relationship between whiskey and bourbon? And no one from Kentucky can answer for the rest of the group. That would be cheating,” she admonished as the group laughed and trailed her to the door.
The tour was easy, although a few people did bend her ear when they discovered she was the new owner of GarnetBrooke.
“Yes, Old Garnet is the only place except for Woodford Reserve where you’re going to see Kentucky’s two premier products—bourbon and thoroughbreds—actually across the road from each other.”
The tour concluded on time shortly before noon. Ravenously hungry, Pepper headed for the café kitchen to grab a box lunch and drink, and escaped the visitors’ center. Pepper wasn’t feeling chatty, and in case Bo, Goose, or Lucy showed up looking for lunch, she didn’t want to be seen sitting alone in the café and thus inviting a dining companion or two.
Her destination was the distillery museum, a small building between the visitors’ center and the distillery itself. Although there was a lovely porch overlooking the creek, she recalled that Hannah had said the site was rarely utilized as a gathering place.
As she had hoped, no one was there and the ambiance was perfect. Birds chirped in the trees, water gently rushed in the creek below, and the trees exuded that vibrant shade of green which was ubiquitous during mid-spring in Kentucky. A few bugs were the only minor annoyances.
There were two black wrought-iron tables with matching chairs, and Pepper chose the table closer to the stream and away from the building. She wished she had a feature like this at GarnetBrooke; although there was the large, glittering farm pond which fronted
on Ashbrooke Pike, the only stream on her property of comparable size to Old Crow Creek was an unnamed water course far out on the property. It was the stream which lent its name to GarnetBrooke, but she’d only been out to see it a handful of times.
The last time she’d seen the creek, in fact, had been with Jon, the weekend before they had broken up. It had been sunny but cool, and they’d taken one of the farm trucks and driven around the property. They’d even taken a small picnic lunch with them and had ended up eating on the bank together.
And then they’d made love beside the creek. It wasn’t the crazy, frenzied, and loud kind of sex that they had regularly enjoyed, but a sweet little encounter that had developed slowly and naturally after a lot of kissing and petting.
Pepper put down her barely-eaten ham sandwich and sat back in her chair. There had been several moments like these—intense memories flooding back into her consciousness, making her miss Jon with an ache that ripped through her body and mind. It was during these episodes that she began to question herself, her resolve, her self-confidence, and whether she’d made the right decision in cutting him out of her life.
She had anticipated these periods of concentrated doubt, and that was one of the main reasons she’d kept Jon away. If she saw him, she knew that she’d cave and fall into his arms. Reflecting on their relationship, she’d seen how giving in so easily to the physical part of what they’d shared had perhaps led her to lead with her heart (and body) rather than her rational mind.
Lost in thought, she hadn’t heard the back door of the museum open and close. So when someone stood next to her and softly said her name, Pepper was so startled that she screamed, frightening several birds in the trees overhead.
“I’m sorry, honey.” Lucy lightly touched her on the shoulder. “I thought you heard me.”
“No, just enjoying this spot. It’s nice out here,” Pepper said, trying to disguise her preoccupied nature.
“May I sit?”
What was she going to say to the mother of one of the distillery owners and one of her own mother’s dearest friends? Go away and leave me alone?
Pepper nodded and Lucy took a seat to Pepper’s right; they were both facing away from the building and toward the creek.
“I’ve heard that Bo has a special thinking spot in the old rickhouse,” Lucy said. “Seems as though you have one too?”
“No,” Pepper said. “I just wanted to be away from the busyness of the visitors’ center.”
Lucy nodded, and seemed to be gathering her resolve. “I knew you were going to be here today, Pepper, and I watched for you after your tour ended. I’ve been hoping to have the chance to talk to you, but from the way you’re acting it seems as though that’s exactly what you’ve been trying to avoid.”
“Sorry,” Pepper said, looking down at her food.
“I’ll leave if you want me to, honey.”
Pepper slowly turned to Lucy, and prepared herself to have the conversation Lucy seemed intent on having.
“Why didn’t you want me to know?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Because everyone deserves a chance to tell the truth, Pepper. Even a liar. I’m sorry you got hurt. I had planned to tell you the truth myself after the hearing. But I gave Jon and Drake explicit instructions not to tell anyone, except that nice Ms. Cain. Because I was like you. I wanted to believe your father would tell the truth, even if it would hurt his case.” Lucy stopped and shook her head, her face hardening just a little bit. “Isn’t it horrible to think yourself naïve when all you expect is for someone to be honest?”
“I’m painfully familiar with that feeling.”
Lucy put a hand atop Pepper’s arm, which rested in her lap. “When Jon came to me and asked me to reveal what had happened, he also taught me a little bit about how one gets a law license back in this state. One requirement is that the person has to be remorseful about their past. And in my book, telling the truth has to be a big part of that.”
“I still would’ve preferred to have known,” Pepper said sulkily.
“But what would you have done if you’d known? You would’ve confronted Walt. And, knowing him, he’d have lied to you again. He’d have made up some cockamamie story, just enough to muddy the waters and maybe enough to get his license back. I’m sorry, but the people of Kentucky are better off without his future services as an attorney.”
“I suppose the Commonwealth can rest easy knowing Walt Montrose isn’t likely to ever be an attorney again.”
After the debacle at the hearing, Walt withdrew his application for relicensure. Her father had called and e-mailed a few times, despite her clear statement to him at the bar offices, and she had deleted the messages.
“I also wanted to urge you not to blame Jon,” Lucy said.
“I’d rather not talk about that,” Pepper said, looking away.
“I understand, and I’m sorry for bringing him up,” Lucy said. “But please let me tell you a few things before I go and then we’ll never speak of this again.
Pepper nodded, sensing she needed to hear the wisdom Lucy wished to impart—even if she didn’t want to hear it.
“Jon Buckler loves you, Pepper. He never came out and said it to me, but I saw it on his face whenever we talked about you. He knew how much the truth was going to hurt you, and it was tearing him apart. And even though he came to me to ask me to tell the truth, he eventually backed away, citing you, saying that his relationship with you shouldn’t be a factor in what advice I got. And it wasn’t. I did get a second opinion from that nice Mr. Mercer. But Jon was the one I really trusted. He did everything I wanted, and he did everything right. He’s not perfect, no one is—but he’s an honest man, and he’s worth celebrating—and more than worthy of your love.
“And the next thing is this. Take it from a widow: don’t turn away from someone offering such love. You’ll miss it dearly someday.”
“I already do,” Pepper said, her voice strong but her gut in knots.
Lucy stood.
“Then ask yourself if you’re willing to live with that feeling for the rest of your life. Because you’re lucky. You have a choice. The man who loves you still walks this earth,” she said with a shaky voice before leaving Pepper alone by the stream.
27
Jon drove north out of Bourbon Springs to the distillery, not looking forward to the meeting Bo and Hannah had asked to have that afternoon. Although he’d be pleased to see his clients, he wasn’t so happy about the suspected reason for his excursion that rainy May day. He anticipated the news that the distillery was going to stay with Bruce, or had gotten another firm altogether to do the legal work for Old Garnet.
As he turned into the distillery grounds directly across from GarnetBrooke, Jon felt surrounded by his failures and losses, despite being smack in the middle of the road between two of the most beautiful places on earth. Nonetheless, the landscape did have the power to cheer him despite his circumstances.
“Where’s Goose?” Jon said as he sat down in Hannah’s office with Bo at his side.
Hannah was sitting behind her desk, her baby bump prominent under a slightly-too-tight bright blue blouse. She was looking smug and happy—and Jon knew at once she was up to something.
“Holed up in his office working on that National Historic Landmark application,” Bo said. “The man’s obsessed.”
“I didn’t realize he was such a history nerd,” Jon said.
“It seems that we have more than one in the family now,” Bo joked, referencing his wife, Lila.
“I take it Lila’s at work today?”
“Yeah, it’s crazy at the end of the school year,” Bo said. “She’ll be here with some of her students tomorrow for a tour with CiCi though.”
“CiCi chaperones those things? I’d love to go on that tour,” Jon said.
“I’m not so sure,” Hannah warned. “She’s a real hardass when it comes to keeping the kids in line.”
“I’d stay in line. I promise,” Jon joked.
Hannah and Bo gave each other a look which indicated some predetermined signal between the siblings, and Hannah spoke.
“So how are things going with Drake?”
“We haven’t formalized anything yet. No written partnership agreement signed,” Jon said, surprised by the question. “And we haven’t even agreed on new offices. I’m still at my old office until the first of the month. Bruce has made it clear that he wants me out by then, and I’m more than happy to accommodate him. I’m ready to go.”
Jon wondered whether he’d made a mistake in obliquely criticizing his former law partner if Hannah and Bo were going to keep using Bruce’s legal services. But it was hardly a secret around Bourbon Springs that the two lawyers had parted on less-than-friendly terms, and that it had been over what Jon had discovered about Walt Montrose. Sentiment was generally in Jon’s favor, although that goodwill hadn’t been enough to get him a job offer at the handful of small law firms in town.
“We want you to continue to do the legal work for Old Garnet, Jon,” Hannah said.
“You—you do?”
“Yes, but we want you to do it here,” Bo said.
“Here? Open an office at Old Garnet?” he asked, baffled at the idea.
“No, we’re offering you the job of general counsel for Old Garnet. You’d work for us as an employee, not just hired legal help from time to time,” Bo said.
“I can’t keep up anymore,” Hannah said by way of explanation as Jon’s mouth dropped open in shock at the offer. “One of my titles is technically general counsel, but the work, along with my other nonlegal responsibilities around the distillery, just has become too much. And with this little man on the way,” she said, patting her tummy, “we knew it was time to bring someone else into the family, so to speak. You were the only one we thought about, Jon. What do you say?”
He was so stunned he couldn’t speak. It was an opportunity he’d never even considered possible.
A bit like winning the lottery.
“Oh, of course, I need to talk salary and benefits before you can give us an answer.”
Bourbon Springs Box Set: Volume II, Books 4-6 (Bourbon Springs Box Sets Book 2) Page 86
