“Then let me make myself perfectly clear, Catherine,” he said as he continued to cradle her head. “I want to take the woman I love to that banquet, and that woman happens to be you. I love you. So, my love, will you be my date on July 1?”
She felt dizzy and unsupported, as though she might fall to the floor. But CiCi’s eyes remained fixed on Walker’s face.
It was the thing she had longed to hear and had wanted to say to him. And now that time had come.
“I love you, Walker,” she said softly.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Walker’s mouth came down hard on hers, his kiss a message, a promise, that he loved her and there was no one else for him. CiCi accepted and surrendered, finally assured of what she’d been feeling—safe, loved, and at home. They pulled apart slowly, each looking at the other longingly before CiCi snuggled into the nook between his chin and chest. She was perfectly content and happy and couldn’t remember the last time—if at all—she had felt this wonderful. All thoughts of Jana or Walker’s father or anything else that could possibly nip, scratch, or tear at the fabric of the bond they had built were rendered harmless in that moment.
She took him by the hand and began to lead him from the kitchen and toward his bedroom. He managed to get a few steps away before he stopped and turned back, limping.
He grabbed their drinks.
“The pizza can get cold, but we’ll not let this go to waste.” He handed CiCi her glass before they headed to bed.
Chapter 26
A week before the banquet, Hannah announced it was time for the shopping trip to Lexington. First stop: Booty-Teke, the lingerie shop Hannah had raved about and about which, given the chance, Kyle would presumably do the same—not that CiCi was ever gonna bring up the subject with him at a cocktail party.
“If we need something else after we find dresses, we can always come back,” Hannah said to CiCi and Lila as they entered the store.
Booty-Teke was a mash-up of a nineteenth-century bordello, a disco, and a set from Star Trek, with a dash of Southern trash thrown in. It was fantastically tacky and over-the-top ornate, with repurposed furniture and garishly painted surfaces. On the walls alongside Velvet Elvises were Derby posters, and in a locked shelf behind the counter were a myriad of bourbons and a large collection of shot glasses. The cabinet was well lighted inside, so the bourbon bottles sparkled prominently. There were at least three bottles of Old Garnet, one of which looked quite old.
“Did you happen to give that Garnet to the store?” CiCi asked. She pointed to the bottles as she and Hannah perused a rack of bras in a rainbow of colors.
Hannah turned and surveyed the impressive collection of bourbons. “Yes, but on the condition they display it in the middle of their cabinet. Good marketing for the brand. And they give me a nice discount here,” she said with a wink.
As much as Hannah probably bought at the store, CiCi thought any discount came in handy. Her friend had a large purple mesh shopping bag on her arm and was gleefully dropping dark red, pink, and teal bras into her bag as she plucked them from the racks.
“Might as well get the set,” Hannah said. She bent to grab the matching lacy thongs from the rack underneath. “C’mon, CiCi, get something,” she pressed.
CiCi held out the black and red bras. “I could go for these.”
“So could someone else,” Hannah retorted, leaving CiCi with a deep flush as Hannah headed toward the back of the shop where, according to her, the super-racy items were kept. CiCi stayed put and found a red bra in her size along with a few matching thongs. That was about her limit as far as racy went.
She looked around for Lila, thinking that she’d be in the more staid area of the boutique, if such a place existed. Not spotting her, CiCi ambled deeper into the store and stopped in a doorway between two areas. The room she entered was painted in deep blue with a carpet to match, and the ceiling was awash in silver. Hanging above were several ornate ceiling fans and a disco ball which was slowly turning and casting reflections around the room.
And there was Lila, alone, holding something she’d just taken off a rack and appearing as though she was about to steal it because she looked so nervous.
When CiCi saw what Lila held, she understood the germ of her friend’s embarrassment and hesitation.
It was a close call if the thing Lila clutched actually existed in this dimension because it was so insanely flimsy. CiCi had to wonder whether it wasn’t made of angels’ wings and might dissolve at a touch or glance.
CiCi saw Lila check the price tag and smile to herself. “Is it in your budget?” CiCi asked.
“Oh!” Lila cried and actually jumped. “You scared me.”
CiCi looked down at the item. “So what is that? Something for your honeymoon?”
“Oh… um… well…,” Lila stammered as she clutched the wispy garment to her chest.
“Why so jumpy?”
“Haven’t bought stuff like this in a really long time,” Lila admitted. “Since, like, I got married the first time,” she babbled as though she had to justify her presence in the shop. “I mean, I have a push-up bra and a garter belt, but that’s about as wild as I’ve gotten in years in the lingerie department. So all this is a little brand new again, I guess.”
“I can relate.” CiCi tried and failed to remember the last time she’d bought lingerie for herself that didn’t involve a support bra or sensible cotton panties. Her thongs had been gag gifts from her deputy clerks for a birthday a few years earlier. She never thought she’d wear them, but had discovered they were comfortable in hot weather. And she’d also discovered their advantages now that she and Walker were together. “And that being the case, it’s high time we got some new stuff. Can I see that?” She pointed to the negligee or camisole—or whatever the hell the thing was.
Lila reluctantly surrendered her item, and upon examining the tag, CiCi learned she was holding something called an angel’s breath flyaway tulle & lace baby-doll. It was white or cream—it was impossible to tell in the odd glowing and sparkling lighting of the room. The garment was really nothing more than a satin and lace push-up bra with a cascade of shimmering tulle attached to the bottom of the bra. Upon further inspection, CiCi discovered an attached tiny scrap of impossibly delicate fabric which appeared to be a pair of lacy panties. Or it could’ve been a handkerchief completely made of lace and tulle. It was a toss-up.
“This is sweet,” CiCi said. She handed the negligee back to Lila, who was biting her lower lip in an apparent attempt not to smile. Lila took it and to CiCi’s amusement wordlessly put the thing into her shopping bag.
“And what do you have in there?” Lila leaned over to see what goodies CiCi had chosen.
“Nothing nearly as exciting.” She pointed to her small but sexy collection of bras and thongs in her bag. “I’ve got granny garb compared to your thingy there.”
Lila peered into the bag and grinned. “I’m sure Walker will appreciate all of those, CiCi. You’ll have to go home and model them for him.”
“And you can do the same for Bo with that,” she retorted.
Lila held up her bag. “He’s gonna have to wait for this one.”
“So that really is for your honeymoon?” CiCi asked excitedly.
Lila nodded, reached into the bag, and briefly examined the tag. “Something told me to get it.”
CiCi and Lila moved around the room slowly, looking at other items and generally acting like two teenagers who had snuck into the place and expected to be kicked out at any second. CiCi fell in love with a long ivory satin gown with a plunging neckline and spaghetti straps. It looked every bit like the kind of thing a starlet from the Forties would wear: elegant, shimmering, and lush. She checked the price, but it was way out of her range.
“Too bad,” said Lila.
“Yeah, I’d love to take that home,” CiCi lamented as she put the gown back on the rack.
Lila giggled. “No, I meant it was too bad for Walker.”
They went in
search of Hannah, whom they suspected was even farther in the depths of the shop, and walked until they were outside several large dressing rooms. Upon encountering a snooty clerk who asked whether they needed assistance, CiCi felt like they were intruders on a secure military base from the chilly reception the clerk gave them.
“We’re looking for our friend, blond hair and—”
“Oh, Ms. Davenport,” the clerk said with reverential familiarity. “She’s in here.” She turned to a closed door and knocked before opening.
Hannah was inside sitting at a table with another woman opposite her. She turned and greeted her friends upon their appearance.
“Come on in and help me decide!” she said, waving them into the room. CiCi understood they were in some kind of private shopper area where Hannah was reviewing pieces a clerk had pulled for her. “Please hold up that blue one,” Hannah requested. The clerk complied by picking up a knee-length lacy negligee by its delicate straps. Rather tame considering the items CiCi and Lila had just been picking through.
“Nice, but what else you got?” asked CiCi.
The clerk put down the blue nightie and held up a red satin gown. The hue was so rich and the fabric so supple and shiny that it cast a red glow on the table in front of the clerk. It was the same gown that CiCi had desired, except a different color.
“That one,” CiCi and Lila said in unison, with Lila pointing at the garment.
“Really? But it’s so long.” Hannah looked again at the blue nightie.
“But that,” Lila said and pointed again to the red piece, “is so classy. And it’s red! It’s garnet! You gotta get it!”
CiCi sighed in agreement. “I’d love to have that in garnet! But, alas, not in the budget.”
“Your hair would look gorgeous against that red, Hannah,” said Lila.
Hannah considered her friends’ opinions, turned to the clerk and said she’d take the satin garnet gown. She then asked to see what CiCi and Lila had in their bags, and Hannah smiled appreciatively when her companions revealed their choices.
After leaving Booty-Teke, where both Lila and CiCi were allowed to use Hannah’s discount, the ladies hit the mall to go dress shopping. After taking so much time in the lingerie store, the dress shopping went comparatively quickly, and soon all three women had a dress for the Distiller’s Gala banquet. Hannah had chosen deep red, of course: a short-sleeved silk empire dress that hit just below the knee. Lila had picked a light pink linen sheath with a matching jacket.
CiCi had to be inveigled by Hannah and Lila into her dress purchase. She had originally chosen a nice and sexy-enough little black dress, but her cohorts nixed it as insufficiently hot. CiCi relented and tried on more pieces.
“Are you sure about this?” CiCi had asked as she modeled another dress for her companions. “It seems a little too sexy for the occasion.”
“No, it’s not,” Hannah declared. “I’ve been to this event before and that is perfect. It’s black and you’ve got a garnet-colored faux sash, plus you show your rack a bit with that scoop neck. Walker will love it, and everyone will notice you—in the good kind of way.”
After spending so much on lingerie and dresses, the trio eschewed new shoes. They loved to shop, but they weren’t profligate idiots, either.
For lunch, they escaped the mall and headed to a restaurant out in the country in a large old house. The mammoth two-story former residence must have once watched over what had to have been quite a large farm; now it was nearly surrounded by sprawling Lexington subdivisions. The women were seated on a patio on the side of the building, which was beneath a pergola strung with fairy lights. It was busy, and the group had snagged the last available table.
Hannah excused herself to go to the restroom, leaving Lila and CiCi alone at the table to sip their iced teas and peruse the catalog-length menu.
“I have a confession to make,” Lila said, holding her iced tea in front of her on the table. “I’m ridiculously excited about the Gala. What’s up with me?”
“You’re a part of Old Garnet now, Lila. That’s why this is making you so happy. You’re happy for Bo, for Hannah, for Walker. They’re family now.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Lila acknowledged. “And speaking of happy—how’s Walker? He seems pretty damn happy every time I see him around the distillery.”
“He’s pretty damn wonderful,” CiCi gushed, surprising herself with her girly giddiness.
“Been a long time since that Christmas distillery tour, hasn’t it?”
CiCi nodded. “It’s funny; I barely remember Walker from that trip, although I certainly remember our conversation afterward.”
“I still can’t believe you were that thick not to see it,” Lila said. “And for that matter, I can’t believe how long it finally took for you two to get together. I’m so happy for you, CiCi,” Lila said, taking CiCi’s hand. “It’s such a wonderful shock, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“Feeling like you’ve got family again, feeling like you belong,” Lila said. “Feeling loved,” she added in a whisper that bespoke her grateful amazement at her circumstances.
“Yes,” CiCi said, and tears were brimming in both women’s eyes.
They hugged and cried a little, and Hannah happened to return to the table at that moment.
“Why the lovefest?” she asked as she sat.
CiCi squeezed Lila’s hand. “Just happy to be here.”
Because CiCi wasn’t only happy because she was in a wonderful relationship with Walker. She felt inexpressible gratitude for one of life’s greatest blessings: her friends.
Chapter 27
It was no surprise to CiCi that a bunch of distillers would know how to throw one hell of a party.
The location was the Galt House, the largest hotel in downtown Louisville and right on the Ohio River. Walker had driven them up the morning of the event, the day of his fortieth birthday, and they had some time before they checked into the room. Judging by his reticence on the subject of their accommodations, CiCi suspected they were going to have a very nice suite.
After stowing their luggage at the front desk, they went to look at the banquet room on the second floor of the hotel. Walker told her that several hundred attendees were expected; she spotted numerous tables being set in the round, complete with white tablecloths and ornate flower arrangements in the middle. And she counted no less than six different bars.
“What did you expect when a bunch of bourbon industry folks got together? It’s not like they’re gonna serve ice cream and lemonade,” Walker quipped.
“Unless there’s bourbon in them,” CiCi shot back.
With time to kill, the couple took off on foot to walk around the downtown area. Their first stop was the Louisville Slugger Museum, where Walker kept checking the time as they went through the displays. When CiCi finally called him on his clock-watching while they were in the gift shop and she was getting a tiny bat with her name engraved on it, he announced he had a surprise for her.
“I’ve got lunch tickets for us on the Spirit of Jefferson,” he said. “Just a buffet and a kind of touristy thing, but I thought it would be fun.”
Walker had booked them on a lunch cruise on the old paddle wheeler, a smaller sister vessel to the famed Belle of Louisville. CiCi was delighted and said she’d always wanted to go on a lunch or dinner cruise on the river.
“Today’s the day that dream comes true.” He kissed her in front of the gigantic baseball bat that marked the museum’s entrance.
The food on the cruise was nice, but that’s not what attracted passengers: it was the two-hour excursion up the broad, flat expanse of the Ohio River. The views of the Louisville skyline were spectacular, and as the craft moved farther away from the downtown area, the scenery became more bucolic along both shores. After eating a quick lunch inside, CiCi and Walker spent most of the voyage out on the deck against the railing, enjoying the sights and each other’s company.
By the time they got bac
k to the hotel, it was very warm and CiCi was ready for a shower. Their luggage had already been delivered to their room; it was nice not to have to haul it halfway across creation.
She appreciated how nicely Walker was treating her: the museum, a lunch cruise, someone to lug her stuff around. Simple little things that made her feel very special.
And when they got on the elevator, she started to feel like a queen.
Walker slipped a key card into the elevator button panel to access one of the highest floors in the hotel.
“Where are we going?” she asked excitedly.
Walker put his arm around her and kissed the side of her head. “You’ll see.”
They emerged onto the top floor, and CiCi spotted only three doors: two at the far ends of the hall and one directly across from the elevator. Walker took his key card and slipped it into the lock on the door in front of them.
He had reserved the main penthouse suite.
“Really?” was the only thing CiCi could think to say.
“Yes. I want this to be a special night.”
Walker gave her a quick kiss and opened the door.
CiCi blinked as she entered the penthouse; the light was nearly blinding because there was no opposite wall, only a long bank of glass. As her eyes adjusted, she slowly became aware of her surroundings and took a few tentative steps inside as Walker closed the door behind them.
They were in a small foyer with a full kitchen on the left and a large bathroom on the right. Moving farther into the space, CiCi discovered a large sitting area with a fully stocked bar and dining area on the left. Farther along the wall beyond the bar hung a flat-screen television with a large white leather couch facing it. Underfoot were gleaming hardwood floors, intensifying and reflecting the light pouring in from the river-facing windows.
An open door to the left led to a large bedroom with a king-size bed, and that space appeared at a glance to be as spacious as the living area into which they had stepped.
She moved slowly toward the windows, mesmerized by the surroundings and views, drawn there like a bee to a blossom to pay her respects to the beauty which unfolded before her.
Distiller's Choice (Bourbon Springs Book 4) Page 24