Bourbon Springs Box Set: Volume III, Books 7-9 (Bourbon Springs Box Sets Book 3)

by Jennifer Bramseth

  Her hands fell away from Drake’s face as she remembered that they weren’t alone. “No—he’s not—”

  “He’s not breathing? Damn! Get back! I’m trained!”

  Kyle got down on his knees beside Drake and stared at the prone but quite conscious figure.

  “Wait—you’re…?”

  “I like you well enough, Sheriff, but I’d rather kiss my fiancée right now if you don’t mind.”

  Kyle fell back on his heels, blinking. “Your fiancée? But I thought—” Kyle stammered. “Oh!” he cried, understanding what was happening. “I… um…” He stood, looked down at them red-faced, and pointed up the hill. “I’ll… um… go see if the EMTs are here yet. Want me to take Nate along with me?”

  “No,” Cara said, putting one hand on Drake’s shoulder and her other arm around her son’s waist. “Everything’s good. We’re all here.”

  Drake reached for her hand and brought it his lips. “So good,” he said, kissing her palm.

  Nate moved to Drake’s opposite side. Kneeling in the same spot where Kyle had been, Nate bent over and put his head on Drake’s chest.

  “We need to keep him warm,” the boy declared.

  “Yes, we do,” Cara said. She placed her body on the ground next to Drake’s and reached her arm across his chest to grab one of Nate’s hands.

  With her head against Drake’s shoulder, she closed her eyes. A siren cried in the distance, along with the call of a crow, the sounds mixing together and fading until all that could be heard was the perfect resonance of the creek as it flowed northward.

  Epilogue

  Garner stared down at the city bathed in the light of the first day of the year. Below and to his right, the dome of New Capitol shone like a star fallen to Earth. In front of him, the Kentucky River carved its way through the land, a silvery shimmering beast reflecting the sun’s blinding rays directly into his face.

  Blinking, he moved away from the window and adjusted his tie. He had no plans for New Year’s Day, except to go to Bourbon Springs and perform the wedding ceremony for Cara Forrest and Drake Mercer.

  He hadn’t been surprised to hear that they’d gotten engaged. It had happened around the time Drake, according to news reports, had nearly drowned while saving Cara’s son. Cara had then returned the favor and saved him after he’d been trapped on a log after managing to save the kid. The story had made all the papers, and Cara, once the object of press scorn, had become a heroine.

  She’d called him the week following the incident to reveal what the press had not discovered: she and Drake were engaged and wanted to get married.

  “And I want you to be the officiant,” she’d told him.

  “Why me?” he’d asked. “I mean, I’m honored, but I thought you were close with the other judges down there.”

  “That’s true, but… I don’t know. It just feels right, Garner. New beginnings. Water under the bridge and all that.”

  He didn’t argue and happily agreed, again saying it would be his honor.

  Still having trouble with his tie, Garner went into the foyer to stand before the mirror there over a small table. He was irritable and couldn’t understand why he couldn’t manage to properly dress himself. But looking down at the item, he realized why he was likely struggling with the damned thing.

  He pulled it off his neck, disgusted, and held it in his right hand.

  It was the tie Penny had given him for his birthday, which had been their first date.

  As well as the first time they’d made love.

  And then he’d worn the damn thing to her funeral.

  He dropped the tie into a small trash can next to the table, a decorative flourish that Penny had added to his home during her short tenure as lady of the house.

  Garner looked at the tie in the trash, a frustrating mixture of guilt and sadness washing over him as he considered the lonely looking garment.

  The grandfather clock in the hall chimed. He needed to get upstairs and grab a new tie so he could get on the road to Craig County. As he put his hand on the banister, the quality of the light in the foyer shifted from bright to shadowy, and he turned.

  There was that familiar bright blue coat peeking through the sidelights of the door.

  Even though he had longed to talk to her, he still wasn’t ready for the encounter. Swallowing and trying to calm his nerves, Garner strode to the door and opened it, hoping to keep his emotions in check.

  Nina stood before him looking the same yet different. Her hair was longer but her face was still that perfect combination of intelligence and beauty.

  “Hi. I hope I’m not disturbing you,” Nina said.

  “Not at all.”

  “May I come in?”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry,” he said, and moved aside to admit her.

  They stood in the foyer facing each other. He could see how nervous she was by the way she twisted her gloves in her hands, and the gesture looked alien to him. He’d never known Nina Cain to be upset except without very good reason.

  But he had certainly given her that.

  Why was she here? They’d not properly spoken since that night at the hospital. The final break.

  “Come on back into the house,” he offered.

  “I don’t want to hold you up.”

  “How did you know I was going somewhere?”

  Nina grinned, and he thought his heart had stopped. So she still had that power over him.

  “Garner, everyone in Bourbon Springs knows you’re doing that wedding today. My brother and sister-in-law will be there.”

  “But I thought it was to be a small affair,” Garner said. “That’s what they told me. It’s at some gazebo near a creek or—”

  “It’s an outdoor wedding on New Year’s Day?” Nina asked. “I had some notion it was at the distillery.”

  Garner shook his head. “Reception is there, not the wedding.”

  He wanted to ask her to go with him but knew it was so completely inappropriate. Yet now that she was here with him, talking to him, it was almost like nothing had changed.

  But when he glimpsed a small toy in the corner, Garner was reminded that their world was a very different place.

  Nina wrung her gloves again and took a step toward him.

  “Look, I came by because… well, it’s a new year and I want to start it right,” she said, dropping her head briefly. “I’m so sorry about Penny. And I’m sorry that I didn’t say that months ago—”

  “Nina, I didn’t expect to hear from you, honestly,” Garner said, interrupting her. He scratched the back of his head, looking away. “The past months have been kind of a blur. In fact, everything sort of still is.”

  “And that’s why I’m here. I’m here to make sure you’re okay. I can’t imagine going through—”

  “Can’t you?”

  “No, I mean, us breaking up… it’s not like one of us died,” she said, swallowing.

  “It sure as hell felt like that.”

  Her hands were buried in her pockets, and she was shaking.

  “How’s the baby?” she finally asked.

  He blinked, shocked at the question. “Ruby’s great. She’s so big! I’d introduce you, but she’s with a sitter for the day.”

  “Any pictures?”

  Flabbergasted that Nina would ask to see a photo of his child, he nonetheless happily complied and pulled out his phone. He immediately began scrolling through photo after photo of Ruby, from birth to just a few hours earlier.

  “She’s gorgeous, Garner. She resembles your mother.”

  Garner turned off the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. “That’s what everyone says. Drove Penny nuts to hear that all the time.”

  Even though Nina hadn’t been rattled by the images of Penny, the mention of her name in such a way did seem to bother her. Garner noticed that the specific reference to Nina’s rival, even though dead, didn’t sit right with her.

  Wait—was Penny still her rival?

  Perhaps Ni
na had thought that shortly after they had broken up and when he’d had started to date and then quickly became engaged to Penny. But now?

  Garner saw the hard yet hurt look in Nina’s eyes and knew he had been the cause of that hurt. He stiffened, straightened, and cleared his throat.

  And in that moment, he knew that Nina’s visit there was something beyond a mere condolence call.

  She was there to see him as a friend—or maybe more. He hoped it was more.

  Perhaps another man in his situation would’ve thought the situation distasteful, but he couldn’t. Not after the years together they had shared.

  “Well,” she said in a tremulous voice, “I’ll get out of here so you can get to Craig County. Say hi to my brother for me, would you?”

  “Want to come with me?” he asked on impulse.

  “But… but I’m hardly dressed for it,” Nina said, gesturing down to her casual attire.

  “You look wonderful.”

  Her mouth fell open a little, and he recognized the spark of desire mingled with distrust in those blue eyes.

  “Better not.”

  “Please? I could use the company on the drive.”

  “And just what do you think my brother would say if we showed up together?”

  He shrugged. “Probably not much. He shook my hand at Judge Forrest’s swearing in.”

  “But I doubt my sister-in-law was as nice.”

  “A bit cold,” he acknowledged. “But not unexpected. Or completely undeserved.”

  “I… never thought I’d hear you say anything like that.”

  “I never thought you’d give me the chance to tell you.”

  Nina edged toward the door. “And I didn’t come here today to give you that chance, Garner. That’s not why I’m here. I just came here to give you my good wishes and condolences.”

  She was reaching for the doorknob when he grabbed her hand and held it. Nina didn’t resist.

  “But you came. And you’re still here.”

  “I need to go.”

  “Don’t. Come down to Craig County with me. I’d love to catch up.”

  Her hand slipped from his. “We’re not exactly old friends who just haven’t seen each other for a long time.”

  “Maybe not. But that still doesn’t mean I don’t want to catch up, that I don’t want to see you and talk to you.”

  She looked away and grabbed the doorknob. “I don’t know, Garner. I just— I don’t know if I can handle it.” She sighed and kept her eyes on the ground. “It took me a while just to screw up the courage to come here today. I’ve felt like a fool, a coward. And then I’d get mad about feeling that way. I’ve driven by here more times than I care to admit, trying to talk myself into knocking on the door.”

  “I think I saw you once,” he said. “Happened to be when Cara Forrest came to see me right after Penny died. You drove away when we came to the door.”

  “I did get scared away once,” she admitted. “Most times, I just never even stopped.”

  “Until today.”

  “Finally getting it over with. Like ripping off a bandage.”

  “Or planting a seed?”

  “I—”

  With one step, he stood inches from Nina, looking into the face of the woman he’d always wanted to end up with. But then life intervened.

  Nina’s chest was heaving, and he could tell she was trying to hide her emotions as she always did. But today she was doing a really bad job.

  Showing up unannounced, offering condolences and apologies, looking at baby pictures.

  Things had changed between them in minutes.

  “You said that Judge Forrest was here the day I drove by?” she asked.

  He nodded, a bit confused by her change of subject. “Yes. She called me and asked to come see me after Penny passed away.”

  “But wasn’t that at the time you were still in the mix for the seat on the Court of Appeals?”

  “Yes.”

  “And she called you?”

  “Yes. Cara called me, wanting to see me in person. I knew she was a widow with a young child. She’s been there as well, and I wanted to hear what she had to say.”

  “She came to see you even after all those rumors about her?”

  “Do you suspect me of starting those rumors?”

  “Well, I—”

  “I didn’t start them, but my campaign did. But I did nothing to stop them. I told Cara that when she came here. Just like you, she suspected me.”

  “And she came here to see you anyway?”

  Garner dropped his head. “Yes. She sought me out not to confront but comfort me. The citizens of this state are lucky to have her on the Court of Appeals instead of me.”

  “That’s awfully harsh.”

  “Do you disagree?”

  After a long pause during which Nina’s eyes did not leave his face, she finally answered.

  “Maybe.”

  Her answer told him everything.

  “Come with me to Bourbon Springs,” he asked again.

  She laughed, but her mirth did not reach her eyes. “You make it sound so exotic and romantic.”

  “Well, romance is guaranteed.”

  “It is?”

  “I am about to go officiate at a wedding.”

  “I hadn’t really planned on a day trip. And I don’t know how I could easily explain my presence to my brother. Or CiCi.”

  “Embarrassed to be seen with me?”

  “No,” she said. “Just not willing to deal with the questions or reliving the things those questions will bring up.”

  He nodded and understood that she was still healing, just as he was. And even though he’d been the cause of so much of her hurt, Garner wondered whether she understood just how much power she still held over his heart.

  This was a chance to show her.

  “If you don’t want to come to Craig County with me today, may I please leave you with a little bit of romance?”

  He saw her eyes narrow in confusion but then widen as he leaned to kiss her.

  Garner was barely breathing as he moved closer and closer to her, but Nina did not flinch or flee.

  Terrified she’d move away, Garner held back and planted only light kisses at first. But then he felt her responding. Nina’s arms crept up his back, and he put his hands on her hips.

  He opened himself to her, feeling a vulnerability he’d never known, waiting for her to put on the brakes. And as the kiss deepened and he sensed the soft sweep of her tongue across his lips, it became too much for him, and he was the one to pull away.

  Although the look of complete shock on Nina’s face was delicious, he also saw the fear. He felt it as well.

  “How’s that for romance?” he asked, thinking of nothing better to say.

  “Kissing my widowed, single-father ex-boyfriend? Not really sure.”

  “You make it sound wrong.”

  She dropped her arms from him and took a step backward.

  And right onto one of Ruby’s toys, which emitted a very loud and unwelcome squeak.

  Nina swallowed and dropped her head. “Maybe it is,” she said, finally reaching for the door and opening it.

  He started to plead with her not to leave, to come with him to Bourbon Springs, anything to get her to stay. Because now that he’d seen her again—had kissed her again!—his heart broke as she stepped onto his porch.

  But he knew he deserved every slice and stab of pain he was feeling. In his gut, his deepest fear was that he’d brought everything upon himself as some kind of karmic retribution for what had happened.

  Nina’s back was to him, and her hair glistened in the cold sun.

  “Would it make any difference for me to say how much I’ve missed you? How many times I’ve wanted to call you, to talk to you, to hear your voice, to tell you again and again that I’m sorry?” Nina shivered and said nothing. Garner closed the distance between them until he stood right behind her. “Don’t go.”

  “There was a tim
e when you probably wouldn’t have said that,” she said, not turning around and anger thick in her voice.

  “And I was wrong. I tried to tell you but—”

  “Happy New Year, Garner,” she said, choking on the words.

  Nina hastened to her car and sped away, leaving him standing and shivering in the cold as the wind tore across his front lawn.

  His hope shattered, Garner dropped his head and retreated into his house, wondering how he was going to fake looking chipper for the wedding he had promised to perform.

  And wondering how the hell he could win back the heart of Nina Cain.

  Maybe some people would think that getting married on a bitterly cold New Year’s Day afternoon out in the elements was a crazy thing to do.

  But Cara had done crazier things in her life and some of them on the very same spot where she was getting married.

  She couldn’t think of a better place to marry the love of her life than the gazebo at the confluence of Old Crow and Brush Grove Creeks.

  Although they had been anxious to marry as soon as possible, they had decided that due to the busyness of the season and for the significance of the date, that they would put off their nuptials until New Year’s Day. Drake also needed a time to recover from his ordeal. He’d spent the night in the hospital as a precaution and missed some work, but Jorrie happily pitched in to cover his cases for the time he was out of the office.

  Delaying their wedding by a few weeks also gave them time to enjoy a short engagement. They went ring shopping together in Lexington, selecting rings at a jeweler Hannah had recommended. Cara selected a large marquis solitaire in a platinum setting. When Drake asked her why she chose that particular shape, she told him for the symbolism.

  “My first engagement ring was the standard round solitaire, so I definitely want something different this time. Also, Rachel’s ring is marquise shape, and I’ve always admired it. But more than that, the marquise shape reminds me of your kayak. It reminds me of you.”

  They also had to deal with some press attention. They had both become heroes in their own right, something which irritated Cara to no end since she had been so recently vilified.

  To top it off, the ethics investigation was closed, with the official explanation being that the commission member to which it had been assigned thought the case had already been closed weeks earlier. In other words, they claimed it was an “oversight,” but Cara didn’t believe the story and neither did Drake. Vera told them to consider it a nice little Christmas gift and get over it, which they did, happily planning their wedding and short honeymoon.