Bourbon Springs Box Set: Volume II, Books 4-6 (Bourbon Springs Box Sets Book 2)

by Jennifer Bramseth

  But did she really want to avoid him?

  No.

  She wanted to figure out a way to get back together, if her wounded heart and pride would allow it.

  Lost in the view of the roses and their intoxicating aroma, she felt confused and extraordinarily stupid for not being able to think of what she needed to say.

  But maybe they didn’t need to have this conversation today. They hadn’t seen each other for over two weeks. Maybe all she could handle on that day was a promise to keep talking, to think about things before rushing into each other’s arms again to—

  Then she heard something rustling in the grass behind her. Believing it was one of the barn cats, she turned around with a smile to bestow up on a feline friend.

  Instead, Jon was down on one knee before her and holding the biggest bouquet of red roses she’d ever seen.

  In a tux.

  “Marry me.”

  He pulled a box from his cuff and popped it open with one hand.

  She saw something large and sparkling inside the little box, but was too shocked to further inspect the contents. Pepper teetered on her feet in total bewilderment, and took a step back.

  Her mouth made movements, but no words or sounds came out.

  “Expected all during that tour I was gonna make a move on you, didn’t you?” he said with an evil little grin. “Well, this is the move.” Jon spread his arms wide, the flowers in one hand and the ring box in the other. “I wasn’t going to get the chance to be with you again just to talk and beg and plead and wring my hands about getting back together. We’ve had twenty years to talk and think about what we are to each other. So no more talk. Because I know what you are to me. The woman I love more than anyone else on this planet. The woman who drives me crazy in the bedroom. The woman I never want to be without again.

  “I promised you I was going to do this, remember? I promised I would propose to you. And I promise you now that I will love you for the rest of my life, Elizabeth Joy Montrose. And I keep my promises.”

  He was right.

  He was the only man in her life who’d ever kept his promises to her. And to others.

  He might trip up from time to time, but he also tried to make it right.

  And that made all the difference in the world.

  “Marry me, Pepper,” he urged again.

  “Where are the violins?” she asked, a smile finally at her lips as she recalled her description of the silly and romantic vision they’d shared.

  He put the roses on the ground, reached into his pocket, and drew out his phone. After a few taps, the strains of Rhapsody in Blue emanated from the device.

  “I would’ve turned it on already, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to sneak up on you.” He tossed the phone onto the ground with the music still playing. She laughed in astonishment as he picked up the roses and resumed his pose of pleading suitor. “It had to be Rhapsody in Blue, of course. We’re smack in the middle of the Bluegrass.”

  “You’re—you’re—” she struggled, and held her arms out to her side as though she were physically searching for the right word to come along so she could grab it and throw it at him.

  “Clever? Charming? Resourceful? Romantic?” he offered in quick succession, with an eager-beaver, silly smile.

  “Goofy!”

  He shrugged. “I’m in love with you.”

  “So which one’s the cause and which one’s the effect?”

  He dropped the roses again and offered her his hand, which she took.

  “Does it matter?”

  “No…”

  “Marry me,” he begged for the third time.

  “Yes.”

  The answer came without thinking, not from her mind but from her heart. For here was no stranger, nor even a mere friend, but the man who had loved her for years, promising to love her forever.

  Jon dropped the ring box, sprung to his feet, and kissed his fiancée.

  The kiss was actually quick compared to the embrace; they needed to feel each other again, to drink in the other’s presence. Pepper buried her head in his chest as he nuzzled against her hair. She felt an enormous wave of peace wash over her as it sank in that this was a beginning and no longer would she have to wonder what the future might be—because she was holding it in her arms.

  “Oh, no! The ring!” he cried.

  They both immediately began looking for the little box and found it closed and on top of a few spent and scattered red rose petals. Jon bent, picked it up, opened it, and presented it to Pepper.

  “Um… the ring isn’t in there.” She pointed to a box devoid of any jewel-encrusted contents.

  Thus began a desperate search in the cemetery.

  “What does it look like?” Pepper asked.

  “What do you need to know? It’s an engagement ring! It’s sparkly! And beyond that, I don’t want to tell you anything about it. I wanted the design to be a surprise,” he said, getting down on hands and knees and picking through the grass at close range.

  “Some surprise,” she muttered and joined him on the ground. After a few minutes of scrambling around with nothing to show for it except the discovery of a button and a quarter, Pepper suggested calling Rolly to help them look. Jon nixed the idea at once.

  “I don’t want anyone else around when I slip that ring on your finger,” he declared.

  “We gotta find it before you can do that.”

  Pepper wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. She looked at Jon as he poked in the grass and uttered curses under his breath. All her ideas about luck and choices started flitting through her head, and she started to laugh.

  This silly situation wasn’t bad luck or a choice. It was just life.

  And even though they might not actually find the ring, she was happy to be sharing the moment—her life—with him.

  Because just like little Jacob Elijah’s epic belch, losing the ring wasn’t a necessarily welcome event but it was also one of those things that made life a little more interesting, memorable, and ultimately worth living.

  Tired of searching, and wondering how Jon could keep up the search with the heat of a midday May sun beating down on the back of his tux, Pepper plopped down in the grass and sat with her legs out in front of her. She put her arms behind her to support herself while she watched him, and was rewarded with a nice view of his posterior. The pants of the tux were a wee bit too tight, and now she wished he’d stand up so she could get a good view of the front.

  “Aren’t you going to keep looking?” he asked.

  “I am,” she replied, smiling at him. “Why don’t you take off that jacket? You look pretty damn hot.”

  Jon sat back on his heels and considered her. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

  “Oh, yes, immensely.” Pepper waved at the ground. “Carry on.”

  “You’re not going to help?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want to spoil my surprise, would I?”

  Jon shook his head and resumed the search while Pepper continued to observe. But soon she became a little uncomfortable and stiff, and changed her posture to where she was sitting cross-legged on the lawn amid a cascade of cast-off red rose petals. Only a few of the petals were yellow, and she absentmindedly began to pick them up and gather them in her left hand.

  As she plucked the sixth petal from the ground, something sparkled in the grass as the sun hit it.

  She delicately took the ring between her thumb and forefinger and gaped at the sacred treasure.

  Jon had apparently noticed that she had gone very still and quiet, and scrambled across the grass to her side.

  Pepper was transfixed by her find: a large round solitaire diamond, with a small round garnet set on each side, and channel set with alternating sapphires and diamonds all around the band like an eternity ring.

  “I suppose you can figure out the meaning of the garnets,” Jon said. “But can you see the symbolism of the other stones?”

  She shook her head.

  �
�Garnet,” he said, touching one of the red gems. “Brooke, blue and white, like water.”

  She swallowed and was shaking so hard she nearly dropped the ring.

  “Look at the inscription,” he urged.

  Pepper tilted the ring so she could see inside the band.

  From the luckiest man in Bourbon Springs

  She started to throw her arms around him, but he stopped her.

  “Let’s put the ring where it belongs,” he said decidedly.

  Jon took the ring and slid it onto Pepper’s slender finger. She held her hand out in front of her, allowing the sun to catch the color and brilliance of the jewels. Jon let her admire her gift for a few moments, then grabbed her hand, kissed it, and kissed her on the lips.

  They embraced and Jon gently eased her into the soft grass. His kisses were gentle, then more and more demanding. His tongue fought with hers, and when he moved his mouth to her earlobe and then her neck, Pepper moved her leg against his thigh.

  “I don’t think GiGi would appreciate what we’re doing,” he said as he gave Pepper’s collarbone a few kisses. They were still right in front of GiGi’s marker in the cemetery.

  "Sure she would.” Pepper titled her head back further so that Jon could continue to kiss her neck. “She helped me find the ring.”

  Jon was about to ask what Pepper meant, but she put her hands on his face and kissed him again.

  Jon pulled away, stood, and helped her to her feet. “C’mon. I have to get the bus back to the distillery.”

  “We just got engaged and you’re more interested in returning a bus than taking your fiancée upstairs?”

  “I would take you right here, if I could, but that bus needs to go back. Hannah is expecting us. I really wasn’t fibbing about that call. I called Hannah when I was on the bus to tell her where I was in the plan. It was a condition of being able to use the bus.” He kissed her quickly, then pulled her toward the vehicle. “Let’s get this over with now. We’ll get rid of the bus so we won’t have to worry about it later. You can show Hannah your ring and we’ll come back here and spend the rest of the day together upstairs,” he said with a little leer.

  “Actually, we’ll be spending the rest of our lives here.”

  He reached for her, but she slipped from his grasp. Laughing and with her bright red hair joyfully waving behind her like a thoroughbred’s mane, Pepper sprinted toward the bus, Jon chasing after her.

  Epilogue

  Mack held the phone in his hand and stared at the number flashing across the screen. It wasn’t familiar. He’d memorized his agent’s number, the numbers of a few reporters, and the numbers of more than a few women.

  And the caller sure as hell wasn’t his former fiancée looking to get back together with the now nonfamous Mack Blanton.

  Yet without picking up the call, he knew the caller’s identity.

  Or, to be more precise, he knew the purpose of the call.

  Another debt collector.

  It felt like he had as many of those after him now as he used to have fans.

  “Ain’t you gonna answer that?”

  Mack looked up from the kitchen table and saw his grandfather, Albert, shuffling into the kitchen.

  “No. I know what they want.”

  Albert grunted an unhappy acknowledgment and fell into the chair across the table. He picked up the local paper, the weekly Bourbon Springs Bugle, and opened it as Mack fixed them both some coffee.

  “You still thinkin’ about gettin’ another job?” Albert asked as Mack delivered a mug.

  “I’m going to have to,” Mack said. “I can’t even give you anything right now for staying here, and that’s not right. I’m not paying my way.”

  “Shut your mouth about that, boy,” Albert snapped. “You’re family. Besides, I need the company and the help. I feel older than these Knobs most days.” Albert pointed toward the hills behind the house.

  “It’s not fair to you.”

  “It ain’t fair what happened to you down in Nashville, but there it is. Never is fair when good luck runs out. People go around trying to figure out what the hell went wrong when what they really need to do is get on with livin’.”

  “And that’s where another job comes in. I get that.”

  Mack moved away from the table, fixed himself a mug of coffee and bowl of cereal, and returned to the table.

  Albert’s attention was focused on the paper. He folded a section neatly into quarters and handed it to his grandson.

  “Take a look at that. Distillery’s hiring.”

  An ad announced a part-time job in the bottling house. Weekends only.

  The same part-time job Mack had before he left Bourbon Springs.

  “I really don’t want to go back there,” Mack said.

  “What? You’d get that job in a heartbeat, boy!”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “But what? Too proud to go back? You came back home didn’t you? Not too proud to return to Craig County.”

  “But that was a matter of necessity.”

  “And I’d say another job is just as much a necessity right now. You’d better look at this the right way.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “That you just stumbled upon some good luck.”

  His grandfather was right.

  For the time being, his place was in Bourbon Springs, drawn back to the places, people, and the ordinary life he had tried to escape.

  Because even though he loved his grandfather—his only family—and the land where he grew up, Mack craved more. He thought he’d found what he’d needed making his dreams come true in Nashville. He’d made a lot of money—but he’d done it making his music.

  And that’s what he wanted back. That passion, that fire, that calling beyond the limits he saw and felt around him in a small town in the middle of Kentucky.

  He wanted his music back.

  Because his music made him soar.

  * * *

  The turnout for the first Memorial Day celebration at GarnetBrooke was a little below Pepper’s expectations, but that was fine with her. For this day, she preferred a smaller crowd, with just the people around she knew and loved.

  The weather, though hot, had cooperated, and rain was not expected until the evening. The ceremony was scheduled for late morning, in the hopes that the worst of the heat might be avoided.

  Attendees had shown up in their best suits and dresses—attire suitable for church or, just as often and appropriate in Kentucky, a day at the races.

  In addition to the mayor and a few other local politicians, Rachel, Brady, and Jacob Elijah made the event. Judge Cara Forrest had even shown up, one of her rare public appearances. Hannah had mentioned that Rachel and CiCi had been urging the young widow to attend. Drake and Jorrie were also present; they had decided to go into practice together and were looking happy.

  And of course every Davenport Pepper knew was there, even Lucy. Harriet and Lila wore turquoise and green dresses, respectively. Pepper noted how Goose couldn’t keep his eyes and hands off his fiancée, and Harriet seemed to be reveling in the power she had over her man. CiCi and Walker made a smart-looking couple. She was wearing a lilac sundress, and Walker’s tie matched the color of his wife’s frock.

  Hannah looked particularly sassy in a bright purple dress and matching hat. But her color choice perplexed Pepper.

  “They didn’t have this dress in red,” Hannah explained. “But it was so comfy when I tried it on, I had to get it,” she said as she adjusted Kyle’s tie. He smiled at his wife and put his hands on her belly as she fidgeted with his collar and tie.

  “I can feel Jamie moving in there,” Kyle said with wonder in his voice.

  “He’s hiccupping again,” Hannah sighed. “Does it all the time—when he’s not kicking me, that is.”

  “He’s gonna be just like you.”

  “I know,” she sighed. “I’m really in for it.”

  Pepper was wearing an ivory suit with matching hat, accented
by a large red feather. In addition to her new engagement ring, Pepper had made a point to wear the bracelet made from BB’s hair; it seemed a required accessory on the day his passing would be memorialized for the first time.

  Jon had not spent the night at GarnetBrooke, although his move to the farm was nearly complete and he would soon call himself a resident. He’d arrived with the distillery group in the tour bus, along with the other ceremony guests, including Mona Buckler. Rather than have a lot of people parking all over the front lawn, Goose had proposed gathering at the distillery and coming across Ashbrooke Pike in the bus when it became evident that there would be only around twenty people in attendance.

  Hannah introduced Pepper to the bugler from Keeneland, while the minister—the same long-winded fellow who’d presided at Glenda’s funeral—started talking to Jon. After a few minutes Pepper began the event by thanking all for their attendance, and asked the minister to say a short prayer.

  The prayer, a thanksgiving for equine friends long gone and still with them, was followed by the bugler, who played Call to Post. The loud blast did not agree with the tender ears of the baby, who began crying in his father’s arms. Brady eventually carried Jacob Elijah away from the crowd and into the lane where the child was amused by a horse that had come to the fence to investigate the festivities.

  “Hey, wait a minute,” Bo cried, pointing to a table on the patio with waiting glasses of Old Garnet. “We forgot the toast! I thought we were supposed to do it between the prayer and Call to Post.”

  “If you don’t mind,” Pepper said, addressing the crowd, “we’d like you to delay the toast until after the next ceremony.”

  “The next ceremony?” CiCi asked.

  Jon asked Rachel to join Pepper and himself in front of GiGi’s grave. He then pulled an envelope from his coat pocket and handed it to Rachel, who was glowing like a second sun in a yellow silk dress.