Sin & Tonic

by Tessa Layne

  Chapter 1

  LACEY

  I looked up at the clock for what felt like the hundredth time. I wanted the reading of my father’s will to start because, the sooner we got it over with, the sooner I could go home, crawl back into bed, and pretend like I hadn’t lost the only parent I’d ever known. Sleep was my drug of choice, and I wanted to drown in it.

  I blew out a deep breath, and my nana put her hand on my knee. Being stuck in the small office of my father’s lawyer was suffocating, and I couldn’t stop fidgeting.

  “It’s okay, dear. It’s almost nine. Mr. Bernard will start soon.”

  My father’s lawyer heard Nana, and he smiled apologetically at me. “We’re just waiting for everyone to arrive, and then we’ll begin.”

  I nodded in agreement, although I couldn’t imagine who else we were waiting for. It seemed like the whole of my small Minnesota town was already crammed into the office.

  I still couldn’t believe my dad had passed away. It almost seemed surreal. I hadn’t seen my father for five months, so I was used to not being around him. Yet, being back in the house I had grown up in, I kept expecting him to walk through the door any minute.

  I had moved to Paris, France, over ten years ago. I had hated growing up in my tiny Midwestern town, and moving to the big city of Minneapolis–St. Paul hadn’t been enough for me. Even New York or LA hadn’t been enough. I had needed to get as far away as possible.

  I had taken four years of French in high school, and when I’d seen the ad for an au pair in Paris, I had jumped at the chance. The family I had been placed with had one child at the time, and the mother, Lindsey, was an American like me.

  I had only planned to do the overseas thing for a few years, but one kid had become two, and two had become three. Now, Lindsey and Gerard had four kids, and Lindsey was one of my closest friends. I loved living in Paris. The only downside was that I hadn’t seen my father much, but we had never really been close anyway.

  However, that didn’t mean I didn’t miss him or that I wasn’t mourning the loss of him.

  Mr. Bernard cleared his throat, and I was pulled from my thoughts.

  “Thank you all for coming today. I realize that the circumstances for you being here are less than pleasant, so I will get started on reading as long as there are no objections or questions.”

  No one said a word.

  “All right then. Let’s get started.

  “I, George Scott, a resident of the State of Minnesota, declare that this is my last will and testament. I revoke all wills and codicils that I have previously made. I leave my house and all my possessions within the residence to my daughter, Lacey Scott, and my mother, Kathleen Scott, to be split fifty-fifty. I leave my bar, Leather & Lace Lounge, to my daughter, Lacey Scott.”

  Most people thought that my father’s bar had been named after me, but in reality, it was the other way around. My father had cared about me, but his bar had been his first love. It had probably been his second after my mother, but she’d died when I was five. His stupid bar was one of the reasons I’d wanted to leave as soon as I graduated.

  “The beneficiary, Lacey Scott, must reside in Becker Falls, Minnesota, and work in Leather & Lace Lounge full-time for no less than twelve months. In this time, she will not return to France under any circumstance. If the beneficiary does meet the above requirements, she forfeits the rights to Leather & Lace Lounge, and the bar will be given to Jacob Russo instead.

  “Also, during this period of one year, Lacey is not allowed to terminate, suspend, or demote Mr. Russo. Mr. Russo will remain in his position for twelve months. Ms. Scott and Mr. Russo will remain equals with no one in charge of the other …”

  My heart was pumping so hard and fast in my chest that I could no longer hear the words coming out of Mr. Bernard’s mouth.

  I couldn’t believe my father had expected me to stay in Becker Falls. For a whole year. And, if I didn’t, he was going to hand over the bar to Jake Russo. He hadn’t even been related to Jake.

  Jake had started working for my father back in high school. Leather & Lace Lounge also sold food, so he’d started out as a server alongside me. The only difference was that Jake had wanted to be there, and I had been forced to. Sure, my father had paid me, but I’d never wanted to work there.

  I hadn’t seen Jake since he left for college—he’d graduated a year before me—but I’d known he still worked for my dad. Every once in a while, his name would come up when I called home. But I’d had no idea that they were so close that my father would leave the bar to him. I was his daughter.

  I think I’m going to puke.

  I took a deep breath to calm my stomach, but it didn’t work.

  “I have to go,” I told Nana.

  I jumped up from my seat and ran out of the office and toward the nearest bathroom. I barely made it to the toilet before I threw up.

  Chapter 2

  LACEY

  I cupped some water from the sink and rinsed my mouth out. Then, I grabbed a paper towel, got it wet, and ran it over my face. I stared at myself in the mirror. I didn’t think it was possible to be flushed and pale at the same time, yet that was exactly how I looked.

  The door to the restroom swung open, and Nana walked in.

  “Honey, are you okay?” she said the second she saw me.

  I nodded. “I’m sorry I got up and ran away like that, but I knew I was going to be sick.”

  Nana stepped toward me and put her hand on my shoulder. “Did you throw up?”

  I nodded. “I think the reality that Dad is gone hit me in there.” It was partly the truth.

  “Are you sure it had nothing to do with the bar and Jake Russo?”

  Nana saw right through me, and I hated it. Couldn’t I keep these thoughts to myself?

  A tear escaped my eye. “How could he, Nana? I’m his daughter. His only child. And he wants to leave the bar to some stranger?”

  Nana pursed her lips together and clicked her tongue. “Shame on you, Lacey.”

  I stepped back, embarrassed and angry that my grandmother had chided me like that.

  “You have never expressed any interest in Leather & Lace. In fact, since the day you could talk, you’ve always said how much you hated it.”

  Only because I’d wanted my father to love me as much as he loved the bar.

  “Your father built that place from the ground up. He wasn’t going to leave it to someone who was going to turn around and sell it for a profit. You’re lucky you have a chance at all. I told him to leave the bar to Jake, but he was determined to give you a chance.”

  I gasped, and my lip began to quiver.

  Nana sighed and pulled me into her arms. I let my own arms hang at my sides. My own grandmother was against me.

  “Honey, I love you, but you’ve never wanted the place. Please, don’t take it personally. I didn’t want you to be put in this situation. If your father had left the bar to Jake, you could have gone back to France and not worried about anything.”

  I pulled away. “Is that what you think of me? That I’m some flake?”

  “Lacey, you know better than that.”

  She was right. I did. I was just angry.

  “Jake has been working at Leather & Lace for almost ten years. He’ll take good care of the place. Your father trusted him.”

  “But not me.”

  “That’s not fair, young lady. He knew how much you hated it. He was giving you an out.” She shook her gray head. “You don’t have to stay here. You don’t have to work at the bar at all. You can hand it over to Jake today and go back to Paris two days from now, like you had planned all along. You won’t be any worse off.”

  I absentmindedly nodded my head. Nana was right. I wouldn’t be any worse off. My life could go back to normal.

  “I’ll sell the house, and any proceeds will be split in half.”

  I sucked in my breath. Just because I rarely came home didn’t mean I still didn’t think of it as home. I couldn’t imagine my fat
her’s house just gone. “What about all his stuff?”

  “You go through it and take what you want. What you don’t take and what I don’t take, I’ll sell.”

  A noise sounded outside the restroom, and more and more voices began to talk. I knew I should go out there. I couldn’t hide in the restroom forever.

  “Can I think about it?” I asked.

  My grandmother looked surprised. She must have thought I was going to give up the bar. But I couldn’t just do that without thinking about it. It had been my father’s and all I had left of him.

  “Of course you can think about it,” Nana said. She put her arm around me. “I’m proud of you for taking your time.”

  I sniffled. “Really?”

  “Yes. Your father would have been, too.” She squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s go out there.”

  I nodded, and we headed for the door.

  “Do you know how long I have to decide?”

  “I think, as long as you’re here, the bar is yours. You don’t have to decide until you go back to Paris.”

  That gave me two days to make a decision or reschedule my flight back to France. I could do this.

  I think.

  It was a big decision.

  Nana took her arm from around my shoulders and let me walk in front of her since the door wouldn’t fit us both.

  I walked out and ran into my next sexual fantasy.

  He was tall—several inches over my five-seven, around six-one or six-two—with dark hair that was on the verge of needing a trim and dark eyes that I could get lost in while he fucked the shit out of me.

  Who’s this mystery man? Besides being the one who I was going to masturbate to when I got my libido back.

  “Oof,” came out of my grandmother as she ran into my back.

  It was a little embarrassing, but at least it knocked me out of my sexual stupor.

  I shook my head and stepped off to the side.

  Sexual Fantasy held out his hand to Nana. “Hi, Kathy. Sorry I didn’t speak to you at the funeral yesterday.”

  This guy was at my father’s funeral? Despite being upset, I’d think I still would have noticed this man.

  “It’s totally understandable. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone either.”

  Sexual Fantasy cleared his throat, his eyes turning miserable. “George will be missed.”

  This guy sounded like he really cared about my father.

  “He will be,” Nana agreed.

  Sexual Fantasy turned to me. “Sorry for your loss, Lacey.”

  “Thank you. Same to you?” I guessed since he seemed so sad about my father’s passing.

  “Thank you,” he answered sincerely. He cleared his throat. “Listen, I know this is a horrible time to talk about stuff like this, but I know we don’t have a lot of time before you head back to Europe. I’m available all day today and tomorrow. Mr. Bernard said we can take care of everything with him. He’ll make it as quick and painless as possible.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “I’m sorry. Take care of what?” I asked, confused.

  “Oh.” He raised his eyebrow. “The bar. We can take care of the bar situation.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What do you have to do with the bar situation?”

  Nana stepped over to Sexual Fantasy and put her arm on the guy. “Lacey, this is Jake. Jake Russo. He gets the bar when you go back to Paris.”

  I gritted my teeth. The two of them sounded so confident that I was going to forfeit my inheritance, even after the conversation my grandmother and I had just had in the restroom.

  And who in the hell gave Jake Russo the right to be so fricking sexy? The last time I had seen him, he’d been a skinny beanpole. Now, his muscles had muscles, and nothing on him was skinny.

  There went my sexual fantasy, which almost pissed me off the most. I had been looking forward to a few minutes of escaping life with my vibrator tonight.

  I took a deep breath and leaned in close. I gave him and Nana a fake smile. “I appreciate everyone’s concern, but I’m staying.”

  Two pairs of eyes grew wide. One brown, one blue.

  “That’s right. You can cancel your stupid appointment with Mr. Bernard because I’m not going anywhere.”

  I spun on my heel and walked away. I was not some flaky daughter who was going to throw her inheritance away. I was going to prove to my father—may he rest in peace—and everyone else that I could stay.

  Chapter 3

  JAKE

  I stood, openmouthed, as I watched Lacey Scott walk away after springing her news on me.

  Kathy squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll talk to her. I don’t think she understands what she’s giving up back in France. She’s just upset right now. She wasn’t expecting your name to come up in the will.”

  I turned to Kathy. “I’m not so sure about that. She looked pretty determined.”

  “I’ll talk to her,” she repeated and went after her granddaughter while I was left with disappointment.

  I had worked my ass off at Leather & Lace for years. George had become like a father to me. My own had walked out when I was two years old. And George had repeatedly told me that I was like the son he’d never had. He’d often talked about how I was going to run things when he passed away.

  I would give the whole bar away—if it were mine—if it would bring George back. But it wouldn’t, and I didn’t want his spoiled daughter to ruin everything we’d built.

  I sighed and headed for my truck. There was no way Kathy was going to talk sense into Lacey today, so I might as well head home.

  I replayed our conversation over in my head. I had barely recognized Lacey. In high school, she had dyed her brunette an awful blonde color that didn’t fit her. Even I, a clueless male, knew that she looked better with her natural brown locks. If I hadn’t seen the few pictures over the years that Lacey had sent George or the fact that she was sitting with Kathy, I wouldn’t have known it was her.

  It was obvious she hadn’t recognized me either. I saw the confusion in her eyes. At the time, I thought she didn’t understand how quickly we could transfer ownership of Leather & Lace over to me. But, no, she just hadn’t realized who I was.

  I recalled the fire in her green eyes as she’d told me she wasn’t going anywhere, and I suddenly had to adjust myself in my too-tight pants.

  I’d had a crush on her in high school, and damn if all my carnal fantasies hadn’t come rushing back to me in one fell swoop. It was embarrassing how many times I’d pictured Lacey in my head as I beat off.

  I cursed myself.

  I refused to let my brain wander in that direction now.

  Lacey had had a father who loved her and would have given her his pride and joy with no strings attached. My father hadn’t paid one penny of child support my whole life. But Lacey had thrown away her father’s love to go to Europe. She was his only child, and she had left him.

  I could not and would not think someone that selfish was hot.

  Okay, so she was hot.

  But I could not and would not—I absolutely refused to—think about her when I touched my dick. I would rather think about her grandmother.

  Not in a sexual way. Gross.

  I meant, I would rather think about her grandma convincing Lacey that going back to Europe was the best choice for everyone. She had no idea how to run the bar, and George had told me multiple times how much she hated Becker Falls. I didn’t understand what Lacey thought she was going to get out of staying here.

  Money. The bar was worth money. Of course.

  Maybe, if I offered to buy the bar from her, she’d sell it to me. I didn’t have enough to pay full price, but perhaps a fair amount of cash and the chance to leave now rather than a year later would be enough for her.

  I winced at the thought of losing my life savings and my cushion. Growing up poor, I had vowed to never let myself live paycheck to paycheck. I’d gone to college on a scholarship but still worked part-time. After graduation, when I’d come back home, George had
offered me a manager position at the bar, and I had pinched every penny.

  But handing over my savings for the bar would be worth it. I loved that place. Not many people got to say they loved what they did for a living, but I did. I loved the atmosphere and the clients. Living in a small town, I knew everyone who came in.

  When my mom and I had moved to Becker Falls after she got a job at the soybean plant, I had been worried. Not only was I the only Latino kid in school, but I was also the only minority. I was the brown kid in a sea of white. But no one ever made fun of me for that. I got picked on a few times for being skinny, but believe it or not, that made me feel better. The kids at school treated me like everyone else. They hadn’t made fun of my race, but they also hadn’t treated me with kid gloves.

  We’d moved when I was nine, and now that I was thirty-two, I’d spent the majority of my life in Becker Falls. I didn’t want to live anywhere else. And, if I didn’t work at the bar, there weren’t a lot of options. I had no interest in working at the soybean plant with my mother, but it was a small town. That plant employed seventy-five percent of the residents.

  The bottom line was, I could not lose the bar. I loved it. Lacey hated it. It was meant to be mine.

  Chapter 4

  LACEY

  When I left the lawyer’s office, I went straight for my car. I was ready to take off when I heard my grandmother call my name.

  “Lacey.”

  “Nana, not right now, okay?” I didn’t want to hear another word out of her mouth. I was offended and hurt.

  “You’re my ride, dear.”

  “Of course.” That was why she’d come after me. “Get in. It’s unlocked.”

  I drove Nana home in silence. Thankfully, she didn’t try to say anything to me.

  Until we got to her house.

  She turned in her seat. “Lacey, please think about giving it to Jake right away.”