Page 91 of Bourbon and Lies

“It was fucking sexy, that’s what it was. C’mere,” I say, reaching out for her. She leans down to where I’m kneeling. My knees kill me every second of it, but damn, do I love kissing this woman. Her soft lips drink mine, and if I’m not careful, I’ll end up fucking her right here. I pull back and focus back on what I was doing. Holding up the long whiskey thief and looking at the color—a deep amber in this row. “Taste.”

“The last time you and I fed each other bourbon, we ended up very naked.”

I smile at the memory. “Open,” I demand, holding the long tube of bourbon above her.

Her mouth opens, and I release a dram into it. Her eyes meet mine as she swallows it down slowly, giving me a little moan of approval. “It has a sweet finish. I like this.”

I’ve been waiting to bottle it. And even if it weren’t ready, I’d be forced to just so I could take some of it with me. But as I take a taste and it coats my tongue, I know this is good bourbon. Hell, with a little longer in these barrels, some of it could be great bourbon.

“You’re really just going to leave it?” Lips pursing, she looks around the damp space. The roar of the falls and the generator running have her practically shouting it from the distance she’s walked. “I don’t understand how you even got it all here.”

“ATV and a small trailer that hooks to the back. I only made small batches. And then, once I got here, I put down rails and rolled ’em up.”

“So what happens to it all?”

“Might be nice to leave it. Give it to my little flowers for when they inherit some of this.”

She smiles up at me, looping her arms around my neck. I take my gloves off as I pull her closer. “You’re a good uncle. Brother. Grandson. You’re a good man, Grant Foxx.”

“I have my moments,” I joke.

But she shakes her head. “How could you just leave?” Her eyebrows pinch together, looking more serious by the second. “You can’t want to leave.”

I kiss her. “I want to be with you. It’s that simple. Nobody asked me to choose, but it’s you, baby. You’re what I’ve been waiting on. Brave. Smart.” I kiss her lips again. “Fiery and sweet. And what I want.”

I push the curtain of strawberry blonde waves behind her shoulder. “I’m going to take two bottles and we’ll drink them when I’m missing home. How’s that?”

She rests her head on my bicep, looking up, and it’s the first time in a long time that I’ve felt excited about something new. For an unknown.

“It’s not true, you know?”

I search her eyes for what she’s asking.

“You’re good at more than just a few things, Grant.” She runs the tips of her fingers along my hairline, and I lean into her touch.

Julep’s bark echoes throughout the cave. I lean in and brush my lips along hers. “Time for us to go.”

She doesn’t ask any questions, just smiles big and wide at my dog, scratching her behind her ears. It hits the right spot when I see Julep’s back leg start to thump at her belly. Her coat is muddy and damp from the morning, but Laney couldn’t care less; she gives Jules all her attention.

“It’s beautiful here.” She sets her hand on her forehead, visoring the sun that’s high in the sky, reflecting off the water. When we make our way back to the horse, I swap the bottles in my hands for the shoebox-sized wooden box I stored in the Tawney’s saddle bag.

I hand the box to her. “I hadn’t realized I was even doing it until I had all these things that—” I cut myself off. “Open it.”

Her eyes bounce from the box back to me as she drags her fingers across the sanded and glossed wood top. “Did you make this?”

I give her a fast nod, pushing my hands into my back pockets. “Used some of the imperfect oak staves that didn’t make the cut for barrels. Took a while to find the right fits. But it still came together pretty nicely.”

As she sits down in the overgrown grass, the wildflowers bend around her to make space. She rests the box on her legs as she pulls out stalks of dried chamomile and purple coneflower—the same ones she wove in her hair with Lark and Lily. A few of the crystals that had been stuck to her sheer shirt the night of Ace’s birthday at Midnight Proof. “Some of those ended up in my boot and pocket.” I smile.

The smirk that ghosts her lips lets me know that she remembers exactly why those would have haphazardly ended up in god knows where. She holds up the fishing lure that she used the morning Griz and I took her fly fishing.

But it’s when she pulls out the Fiasco, Kentucky magnet, her eyes fly up to mine. I remembered what she had said about her dad and her keepsakes. Hell, I remembered everything she said. I was starting to keep stock of her different smiles and how all of her ‘tells’ weren’t tells at all, but just mannerisms and habits that I hadn’t memorized yet. I want to learn all of them.

“You’re making new memories here.” I tip my head. “You needed a new memory box.” And the way her face squints as she tries to hold back tears, the same way she did last night, has me clearing the same emotions from my throat. Her eyes meet mine, blurry and brimming with so much that I know she wants to say, but I look back down at the box, urging her to keep going. There’s one more thing in there. It was why I brought her out here today.

I know the moment she sees it. Her lips pop open just enough that I can tell she didn’t expect it. She holds up a thin gold band with a simple round diamond. It might not fit perfectly, but we’ll figure it out.

“That was my nana’s ring. I asked Griz if he wouldn’t mind if you had it. A little bit of my family with us wherever we end up.” I kneel this time, on one knee, the way I would have planned if I had more time. “I love you, Laney. I want you to be mine thesame way that I’ll be yours. I promise that I’ll make you proud to wear that ring. The same way I promise to be your family, to keep you safe, and to keep loving you a little more every day.”

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