“Now, you try.”
She took a deep breath, like she needed to focus to really do it right, and then she repeated my steps. And this time, when she finished swallowing, she smiled.
“Wow,” she said. “It’s different when you don’t just throw it back like a shot.”
I chuckled. “Well, this isn’t shooting whiskey. It’s Tennessee Sippin’ Whiskey,” I said, tilting my imaginary hat. I tucked my hands in my pockets, nodding toward the next barrel. “Take a little from that one.”
“I can pour it myself?”
I nodded. “Just twist that spout a little, not too much. You don’t need a lot to taste it.”
She was hesitant as she poured a sip into her glass, and her eyes lit up, a little squeal of joy popping from her mouth. “I did it!”
And for the next ten minutes, I watched Ruby Grace be a girl.
She was so far from the snotty woman who had offered me her hand like a prize when we first met. She was just a teenager, a soon-to-be sophomore in college, drinking whiskey, learning something new and having fun.
I wondered when the last time was that she had fun.
I wondered if she’d ever had fun at all.
The way she looked when she laughed, I hoped she had. I hoped it wasn’t the first time that laugh had been genuine, the first time that sound had made its way into the airwaves. She laughed the way the wind blew — softly, and then all at once, without an ounce of shame for how that sound might permanently shift the atmosphere around it.
When she’d decided on the barrel she wanted, Ruby Grace regretfully slipped back into her heels, and I tugged my t-shirt on before leading us out of the warehouse and toward the welcome center.
“So,” I said, walking slow so she didn’t kill her feet in the process of getting back to her car. “What are Anthony’s plans when you go back to school in the fall?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, are you guys moving in together and he’s getting a job there? Or are you guys doing long distance for a while or what?”
She laughed, her hair falling over her face a little as she watched our feet. “I’m not going back to school.”
“Oh…” I paused. “You don’t want to?”
“I mean, I guess I do… but, there’s no point. You know? I’m getting married. I’ll be his wife now, and I’ll have so much to do. He’s already getting into the political arena, and he’ll need me to be by his side, campaigning and networking and all that.” She shrugged. “I don’t really need a degree to do that.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s what I want to do,” she said quickly. “It’s what I was bred to do.”
“Bred?” I frowned. “You’re not a horse. You’re a human.”
Ruby Grace stopped with an abrupt click of her heels once we reached the welcome center entrance, and she crossed her arms defiantly as her eyes found mine. She didn’t even have to say another word for me to know I’d pushed the wrong button, and I was about to get the same woman I met in this very spot an hour before.
“Look, you don’t know anything about me, okay? Or my family, or what I want or what I don’t want, so just stop trying to presume whatever it is you’re presuming.”
“Oh, look at you,” I chided, stepping into her space. “Using big words again.”
She scoffed. “They say nothing changes when you leave this town and come back, I guess you just proved them right.”
“Well, that’s my job,” I fired back. “Proving the ominous they right. Glad I’ve still got it.”
Our chests were close again, the stains on my off-white t-shirt highlighting the crisp cleanness of her dress.
“Lucy will take your money inside,” I said, nodding to the doors behind her. “Congratulations on your engagement.”
I turned just as her mouth popped open, but I didn’t look back.
“Thanks for the tasting,” she said, making sure her voice was loud and clear.
“Go ahead and say it louder, princess,” I threw behind me. “You’d be in just as much shit as I would.”
She didn’t respond to that, and when I chanced a glance back in her direction, there was steam rolling off that cute face of hers as she ripped the door to the welcome center open.
And I couldn’t help it — I chuckled.
I didn’t mean to ruffle her feathers, but damn if I didn’t like getting under that pretty bird’s skin.
This has been an excerpt from On the Rocks, book one in the Becker Brothers series. Continue reading here (free in Kindle Unlimited)!
The Becker Brothers Series
On the Rocks (book 1)
Neat (book 2)
Manhattan (book 3)
Old Fashioned (book 4)
Four brothers finding love in a small Tennessee town that revolves around a whiskey distillery with a dark past — including the mysterious death of their father.
The Best Kept Secrets Series
What He Doesn’t Know (book 1)
What He Always Knew (book 2)
What He Never Knew (book 3)
Charlie’s marriage is dying. She’s perfectly content to go down in the flames, until her first love shows back up and reminds her the other way love can burn.
Make Me Hate You
Jasmine has been avoiding her best friend’s brother for years, but when they’re both in the same house for a wedding, she can’t resist him — no matter how she tries.
The Wrong Game
Gemma’s plan is simple: invite a new guy to each home game using her season tickets for the Chicago Bears. It’s the perfect way to avoid getting emotionally attached and also get some action. But after Zach gets his chance to be her practice round, he decides one game just isn’t enough. A sexy, fun sports romance.
On the Way to You
It was only supposed to be a road trip, but when Cooper discovers the journal of the boy
