by Piper Rayne
“I’m serious, Cole.”
He raises his hands up in a placating gesture. “Okay. Tell me what it is you want from me.”
Such a loaded question and he knows it, based on the grin on his face.
I cross my arms over my chest and cock a hip. Cole’s gaze darts down to my cleavage and I immediately uncross my arms. “I want you to pick me up tomorrow at eleven so that we can go check out the last few of the locations. Can you do that?”
“Consider it done,” he says and does an exaggerated bow.
“Stop bowing. I’m not royalty.”
He scoffs and shakes his head before running a hand through his hair. “To the right guy, you are.” Without another word, he pivots on his heel and heads deeper into the pub, leaving me stunned and speechless.
19
I’m cuddled on a chair in the living room writing in my journal. Sparky glares at me from the floor, yelping every so often. Eventually, I can’t stand it.
“Fine, come up here, you little monkey.” I place my notebook down open face on the side table and lean forward. I pick up the little fur ball, placing him in my lap. In return he uses my chest as a prop for his front paws and licks my cheek in thanks.
“Ew, Sparky. Gross.” I use my shirt sleeve to wipe his doggie saliva off my cheek. He doesn’t seem to get the hint because he just stands there panting happily. I pick him up and turn him around, placing him across my lap. When I scratch behind his ears he tilts his head back and closes his eyes.
I roll mine in response, realizing that I’m slowly becoming the slave to this master. When I stop and pick up my book again he lets out a little whine and lowers his head to rest on my leg. I can’t help but think how cute he looks. Then I remind myself of that pair of shoes of mine that he ate last week.
A little while later my grandparents join me. I look up to see my grandpa shuffle into the room. I’ve noticed that he holds onto the furniture sometimes as he navigates his way through the house, almost as if he uses it for balance. I’ve questioned them both on it, but they insist it’s nothing—just all part of getting older.
“I see you two are becoming fast friends,” my grandma says.
I glance down at Sparky for a second. “He kind of forces you to. He won’t quit until you give him what he wants.”
“Reminds me of someone else I know,” my grandpa says before taking a seat in one of the chairs.
My grandma sits and looks over at him. “She was a stubborn child, wasn’t she?”
They both laugh and I can tell that they’re both remembering something from when I was younger.
“I wasn’t that bad.”
My grandma tilts her head. “Sweetheart, you’ve always known what you want and haven’t been afraid to go after it.”
There’s not much I can argue against there so I shrug. When both of your birth parents abandon you, you learn quickly that the only person you can ever truly rely on is yourself.
“I’m going to grab a drink. Anyone else want anything?” I ask.
“Can you grab Sparky a treat? I usually give him one a little before lunch,” my grandma says.
“Sure thing. Where are they?” I ask and set aside my journal.
“In the drawer beside the cutlery.”
“Okay.” I lift Sparky up and rise from the chair.
“If you keep pampering that dog so much, Edna, he’s never going to want to leave,” my grandpa says.
I laugh as I make my way into the kitchen and then yank open the drawer we affectionately always referred to as the junk drawer when I was growing up. Since I don’t see the treats immediately I rifle through and end up pulling out a few notepads, some Scotch tape, and various pens. An envelope catches my eye and I pull it out. There’s a Hillside Retirement Residence logo on the corner.
I know I shouldn’t snoop, but I’m curious and I know that if I ask my grandparents what this is about I won’t get a straight answer. So instead of doing the right thing and respecting my grandparents’ privacy, I pull the papers out to examine them.
It’s an application for the retirement residence and my grandmother has filled it out. The bottom required her to sign and date it and I realize that she filled this out the day before I called and asked if it would be okay for me to move back in with them for a while.
Guilt, hot and fast, pours into my veins, heating me from the inside out. Neither my grandma nor my grandpa has mentioned moving to a retirement community to me. But of course they didn’t. They’ve always put me first regardless of how it would inconvenience their own lives. Case in point—raising a child they never should have had to be responsible for.
I debate whether I should mention anything to them, but quickly decide against it. They’ll only put me off and say it’s not a big deal, they’re happy to have me, blah, blah. But in reality, I’ve prevented them from moving on to the next phase of their life because I haven’t been able to move on to the next phase of my own life.
Nails click on the floor and I look behind me to see Sparky strut into the kitchen. He must sense something is amiss because he walks over to me and nudges my leg with his head and sits down beside it.
“Are you having trouble finding them?” my grandma calls out from the living room.
“Just found them!” I try to keep my voice light and easy, all things I’m not feeling as I shove the papers back into the envelope. I move a couple other things around and finally spot a small bag of treats and pull one out.
Sparky trails me by only a few inches as I walk back to the living room.
“Here you go.” I hand the treat out to my grandma.
“Oh, you can give it to him, sweetheart. You seem to be his favorite anyway.”
Melancholy invades my chest. My grandma is always so sweet and she never fails to put me first. I need to do right by them both and find a job so that I can stand on my own two feet again and allow them to live their golden years the way they want. They’re the only two people I’ve ever allowed myself to rely on in my life and it’s time for me to prove that I really do only need myself.
Me getting that job at the news is even more important now, but if that doesn’t happen I’m going to have to take the first thing I can find. I owe it to the two of them and to myself.
20
“You don’t seem like your usual self. Everything okay?” Cole asks from the driver’s seat of his Jeep.
We’re headed to our second destination of the day. The first venue was a total bust. The pictures online that Tahlia sent me made it look special enough, so I understand why she chose it, but it was worn, dated, and in need of updating. In no way was it fit for the union of the two most prominent families in the city.
“Just a lot on my mind, that’s all.” I continue to stare out at the gray autumn day.
“I’m here if you need to vent.”
I glance over and ours eyes lock for a second before safety dictates he look back at the street in front of us. “I’m sure you have better things to do than listen to me complain.”
He reaches over and squeezes my leg, just over the top of my knee. It’s not a sexual thing at all, but any time Cole touches me I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to let him explore my body further.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but all I have is time right now.” He motions to the line of traffic out the front window. “We’re both running around for a wedding that isn’t ours and we’re trapped. Vent away.”
A small, sad smile forms on my face. “I found out that my grandparents planned to move to a retirement community right before I returned home.”
“Okay…” He shifts a bit in his seat. “Why does that upset you?”
I let my head fall back against the headrest and stare up at the roof. “Before I returned home I was working at the local paper in Sacramento. I’d been there since I finished college, but I was fired, laid off… it’s complicated. Anyway, I tried to find another job in town, but it was a bust. When my finances ran out I had to
move back in with my grandparents here in the city.”
“Why does it sound like there’s something more to you losing your job than just an ordinary downsizing?” he asks.
This is going to go from a venting session to a full-blown therapy session if I’m not careful. “I made the colossal mistake of sleeping with my boss.” I cover my face in shame.
The oppressive weight of silence in the car threatens to suffocate me. I can’t bring myself to look over at Cole.
“And?”
I sense no judgment in his voice and so I let my hands fall to my lap and peek over at him. “We fooled around for a while and I thought we were dating, but apparently he was dating a few people. Basically, his new treat of the week was uncomfortable with me being around and so he let me go.” My description, as distasteful as it sounds, is being generous as to the character of my former boss. But Cole doesn’t need to hear all the dirty details.
Cole presses on the brake and the car comes to a complete stop. A moment later his large hand covers mine and squeezes.
“Whitney, forgive me for saying this, but your boss sounds like a class-A asshole. It’s his loss.”
“It was stupid of me to start anything with him in the first place. I’d heard rumors about what he was like.”
Cole shrugs. “Maybe, but it doesn’t make the way he treated you okay. You deserve to be treated like the prize that you really are.”
I hold his gaze and the attraction between us intensifies until we’re both leaning in toward one another. We both move slowly, and I wonder if he wants to remember this moment as much as me. My lips tingle when we’re only an inch apart and my eyes drift shut. I feel his breath inching closer and my heart races, waiting for the touch of his lips to mine.
The loud ring of a phone echoes throughout the vehicle.
My eyes fly open and we both jump apart with wide eyes. I half expect to see my grandpa’s face in the window like when he caught me kissing Bobby Sinclair in his beat-up Honda my sophomore year.
The ringing pierces the silence again, dragging me out of my thoughts. Cole must have his phone connected to his Bluetooth in the car. He pushes a button and the ringing stops.
“Yeah?” he answers.
“Hey, man. I think we might have an issue with one of the batches. Any chance you can swing by to check it out?” a man on the other end of the line says.
Cole glances over at me and I don’t miss the way he tightens his grip on the steering wheel. “Sure thing. Be there in fifteen.” He pushes another button and hangs up. “Mind if we make a quick stop before we go to the next place?”
“It’s not like I have anywhere to be.” I shrug.
“Thanks.”
He doesn’t offer any further info so I don’t ask, figuring I’ll see where we’re headed once we get there. His mood has done a one-eighty from minutes before when we almost played tonsil hockey and I have no idea why, but I have a feeling I’m about to get a better glimpse at who this man really is. And I’m not sure he’s happy about that.
A short time later we pull into a commercial area in the outskirts of the city and park in front of a medium-size industrial building.
“I don’t think this should take very long. Do you want to wait in the car?”
Hell, no, I don’t want to wait in the car. I’m way too curious for that.
“Mind if I join you?”
He seems resigned when he replies. “Okay.”
“So what is this place?” I ask as we walk along a concrete path to the glass doors in the front of the building.
“This is Rock Hard Whiskey. I own this place.”
“Wait.” I tug on his arm and pull him to a stop. “You own a whiskey distillery?”
“Yep.”
“How come you never mentioned it?”
“It never came up.” He turns and continues to the entrance.
I follow him into a small reception area. It’s somewhat dated and appears to have whatever furniture was there when the building was originally built. A woman with long, dark hair sits behind the lone desk working away on a computer.
She glances up when she hears the door open and smiles at Cole as we enter. “Hey, boss man. Did Brady call you?”
“Yep. He out back?”
She smiles and nods.
“Ashley, this is Whitney.” Cole gestures between the two us.
“Nice to meet you, Whitney.”
“Same here,” I say. Ashley is an attractive woman, probably in her late thirties if I had to guess. She seems genuinely fond of Cole, but not in the same way the bartender who works for him at the Thirsty Monk does.
“Do you want to stay here while I sort this out?” Cole asks me. “If you want I can take you on a tour of the place after I sort out this problem. It’s not much, but—”
“I’d love that.” And I mean it. I’ve never seen a distillery in my life. Actually, I have no idea how you even make whiskey so I’m looking forward to finding out.
I take a seat in one of the three chairs in the small foyer. I have a feeling it’s coming, though it takes Ashley longer than I expect to ask. It’s a full twenty seconds before she strikes.
“So, what’s going on with you and Cole?” she whispers conspiratorially.
I smile. “We’re just friends. His brother is marrying my friend and we’re both in the wedding party. We’re helping them out with the planning.”
She turns her head to the side and screws up her lips a bit before speaking again. “But you like him.”
“Excuse me?” I try hard not to let the shock of what she just said show on my face.
“You can tell me. I won’t say anything to him about it.”
I have a feeling that’s about as far from the truth as you can get. “Like I said. We’re just friends.” I smile again, hoping she’ll drop it. There’s nothing bitchy or aggressive about her interrogation. She comes across more like she’s genuinely curious and maybe wants the inside scoop more than anything.
“Damn. I wish he’d find himself a nice girl.” She sighs and rests her chin on her hand. “You look like a nice girl.”
“Thanks?” She’s quiet for a moment and I decide to change the subject while I have the chance. “So how long has he had this distillery?”
“A little more than three years. I’ve been here since day one.” Ashley sits up a little straighter and puffs her chest out a bit, obviously proud of that fact.
“Is the business doing well?” As soon as the question is out of my mouth I realize what a gold-digger I sound like. “What I mean is, how are things going?”
My remark doesn’t faze Ashley. “Pretty well. We’ve kept our heads above water the past couple years and we’re finally starting to make some headway. Right now, we’re only on the West Coast and mostly just in California. Cole is working on getting a meeting with a big distributor. If he nails it, we’ll have distribution nationwide.”
“Wow. That’s exciting!”
“It really is,” she says and then frowns.
“Everything okay?”
She waves me off. “Oh, I’m just a worrier, that’s all. It’s the mom in me.”
“What’s there to worry about?” I set my purse on the chair beside me. “It sounds like everything is going well.”
She glances to the hallway Cole disappeared to moments ago and turns back my way. “It is. I just… I know Cole would like to spend more time here and I fear that he’s going to have to make a decision that won’t be easy for him.”
“Between this and his father’s company?” I ask, figuring it out on my own.
Ashley nods.
“I’m sure if he tried to make a go at this and it didn’t work out his father would welcome him back with open arms, no?”
She shrugs. “It’s complicated.”
Interesting. It seems like maybe I’m not the only one with daddy issues. I wonder if that’s why Cole reacted so strongly when I divulged the information about my parents, or lack thereof.
Cole finally returns, looking a lot more relaxed than he did when we arrived. “Sorry that took so long. You ready for the grand tour?”
“Absolutely.” I reach for my purse and stand from the chair, directing my attention to Ashley. “Thanks for chatting with me while I waited.”
“The pleasure was all mine.” She turns her attention to Cole. “You’d be a fool to let this one get away, Cole. Better man up before someone else makes a move.”
Maybe I don’t like Ashley as much as I thought.
My face heats and I can’t make eye contact with Cole so I turn and walk back out to his Jeep, pulling my coat tighter around myself. He jogs up from behind me.
“You don’t want the grand tour anymore?”
I don’t turn around when I answer. “We should probably get moving so we have time to hit all the places before they close.”
“Sorry about Ashley,” he calls out from behind me. “She can be a little much some times.”
I come to a stop beside his Jeep and wonder whether he’s sorry because he thinks she embarrassed me or if he’s sorry because the idea is so preposterous to him.
I decide not to ask. There are some questions you’re better off not knowing the answer to.
21
Finally, near the end of a long day, we’re headed to our final stop. So far nothing has beat the Reserve that we saw the other day and since we’ve both been dragging ass we decide to make a quick pit stop at Starbucks to refuel.
Turns out Cole is a Grande Americano kinda guy.
All afternoon I’ve been wanting to turn the topic of conversation back to his whiskey business, but I’m too chickenshit. Since our day is coming to a close soon I feel like it’s now or never and so I finally gather up the courage to ask what’s been bothering me. “Why didn’t you mention your whiskey business before?” It’s not like he owes me an explanation, but it just seems like something that would have come up before now, given all the time we’ve spent together lately.
