Distiller's Choice (Bourbon Springs Book 4)

by Bramseth, Jennifer

  If you’ve made it this far, I guess I did something you like—so may I ask a favor or two?

  First, when the book is ready, I’ll e-mail you a FREE advance review copy of the next Bourbon Springs book, CEDAR AND CINNAMON, if you e-mail me a link to where you left a text review of DISTILLER’S CHOICE. Leave a text review on Amazon and/or Goodreads and send me the link, and I’ll get the book to you. This offer is only available up until the publication date of CEDAR AND CINNAMON, which will be on December 8, 2015.

  You get the first two chapters of CEDAR AND CINNAMON to read below, so you’ll get a taste of it. Yes, that’s a bit different; in previous books, I’ve only given you the first chapter of the next book. You’ll see why you get two chapters. And then you’ll hate me when you come to the end of the sample.

  Harriet Hensley is an attorney for Old Garnet. She loves her job, her town, and the work she does for the distillery. But when Hannah calls upon Harriet to work with Goose Davenport on a project to get the distillery designated a National Historic Landmark, good-girl Harriet struggles professionally and personally—but not because Goose is known as the local wild child. Appearances are not what they seem when it comes to this couple, and they share their own bit of history, a story known only to the two of them. Goose has his own story as well—the story of his family’s past and the struggles of his branch of the Davenports.

  Interested? E-mail me at jenniferbramseth@gmail.com and I’ll get a FREE advance review copy to you (electronic form) when the book is ready. I will request that you leave a text review for the book when it goes live, and I’ll (try to remember to) e-mail you when that happens so you can post a text review if you wish.

  Second thing: if you sign up for my mailing list, I’ll give you a FREE short story about Rachel and Brady, SECRET SAUCE. This story occurs about a week or so after the end of SECRET BLEND, so it is a nice continuation of their love story and bridges their story to the next book, FILTERED THROUGH BLUE.

  SECRET SAUCE is now available for preorder on Amazon and will be released on Tuesday, November 17, 2015. It will not be available for free after that date.

  You can find me all kinds of places

  Sign up for my mailing list (and get the free story!)

  E-mail me at jenniferbramseth@gmail.com

  Facebook

  Twitter: @jennbramseth

  My Amazon author page

  Goodreads

  Check out the Pinterest board for this book! See the series logo, logos for Over a Barrel, Old Garnet, and lots more!

  Bourbon Springs is a small town with a lot of big-hearted, fun, and sexy characters. In order, the books and stories so far are:

  SECRET BLEND

  (Bourbon Springs Book 1—Rachel and Brady)

  SECRET SAUCE

  (Bourbon Springs Short Stories #1—Rachel and Brady; releases November 17, 2015; free to newsletter subscribers until that date)

  FILTERED THROUGH BLUE

  (Bourbon Springs Book 2—Hannah and Kyle)

  ANGELS’ SHARE

  (Bourbon Springs Book 3—Lila and Bo)

  DISTILLER’S CHOICE

  (Bourbon Springs Book 4—CiCi and Walker)

  CEDAR AND CINNAMON

  (Bourbon Springs Book 5—Harriet and Goose; this book will be released on December 8, 2015—available now for preorder)

  DISTILLED HEAT

  (Bourbon Springs Book 6—Pepper and Jon; this book will be released in early 2016)

  BOTTLED BLUEGRASS

  (Bourbon Springs Book 7—Jorrie and Mack; this book will be released in 2016)

  TOAST AND CHAR

  (Bourbon Springs Book 8—Miranda and Prent; this book will be released in 2016)

  WATER OF LIFE

  (Bourbon Springs Book 9—Cara and Drake; this book will be released in 2016)

  Chapters 1 and 2: CEDAR AND CINNAMON

  Chapter 1

  Five years ago…

  She was her best friend’s maid of honor.

  And it sucked.

  Harriet had been so looking forward to her best friend Linsey’s May wedding. A great chance to come back to Bourbon Springs before she started her new job, her new law practice, her new life back home. Good-bye to Frankfort and her mind-numbingly dull job in the state auditor’s office. Harriet thought she’d never return to Bourbon Springs to live and work.

  But the tug of home on her heart and soul was simply too strong.

  She’d explained that to Cameron and thought he understood. A fellow attorney in her office, they’d fallen in love over the past year and he was going to join her at her new firm in Bourbon Springs. No proposal yet, but if he was willing to move to little Craig County, where barrels of aging bourbon outnumbered the human population by a very wide margin, getting engaged had to be the next step.

  But his next step had been to dump her right there on the steps of the state capitol on the most glorious April day imaginable.

  They’d gone outside to eat lunch together as they often did when the weather was nice. The front steps of the capitol had a sweeping view of the broad avenue down to the Kentucky River, and the street was lined with wide medians planted with a sea of yellow and red tulips. The cherry trees had been in bloom, and their full blossoming resembled clouds of pink fog which had descended upon the capitol grounds.

  Harriet had sensed Cameron was uptight and had finally asked him what was wrong after they’d eaten their sandwiches and were sharing her homemade bourbon and chocolate chip cookies. Maybe that had been the thing that had attracted him to her. She made some damn fine cookies. Or maybe it was just the bourbon. Coming from Bourbon Springs, Harriet Hensley knew her stuff, and her home was never without a bottle of the finest, that being Old Garnet Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

  It had all come tumbling out with that one simple question.

  He didn’t want to leave his job, Frankfort, everything he’d worked for (he’d only been there two short years) and move to Craig County. He wanted to stay, and he was keeping his job.

  “I’m sorry, Harriet,” he said and stood, running a hand through his short wiry red hair, “I can’t do it.”

  What she’d heard was I can’t do it for you.

  And that was it for them.

  So she was back in Bourbon Springs, alone but not alone. Because she was Harriet Hensley, former Miss BourbonDaze, valedictorian of her high school class, voted most likely to succeed, and daughter of the soon-to-retire county school superintendent. Everyone knew her, admired her, liked her, and considered her if not a friend then a good acquaintance.

  Big fucking deal.

  Because she’d felt like a failure the previous day as she’d crossed the county line with her car full of her stuff, ready to move in to an apartment rather than the rental house she and Cameron had picked out together.

  Nonetheless, it was wonderful to be home for good in the middle of spring.

  “Better you found out now rather than later,” had been her father’s wise pronouncement on her former almost fiancé’s lack of dedication to her.

  So.

  New job.

  No guy.

  Whatever.

  She was angry, anxious, and, yes, horny. She wanted to blow off some steam, and get the resentment, hurt and frustration out her system. She wanted to want someone and feel wanted in return, if only for a night. And while she usually wasn’t the kind of gal to go for that thing—casual, recreational, or, in her case, therapeutic sex or hookups—Harriet had also never been so brokenhearted, so low, so completely devastated.

  She’d thought Cameron had been The One.

  What a bunch of bullshit that idea turned out to be. And not just that Cameron had been destined for her. She questioned the whole soulmate-The One-destiny thing in general now.

  If it happened, it happened. But she’d be damned if she’d go looking for it again.

  Time to start anew at home and have some fun in the effort. Harriet just needed to make sure to find a guy for a tryst who wasn
’t local.

  That definitely wouldn’t do in little old Bourbon Springs. She wanted no gossip, no chatter. Hard to survive that kind of thing in a small town, especially when you’re supposed to be Little Miss Perfect.

  But perfection was going to go out the window for at least one night—if she could get away with it.

  Why the fuck did I ever agree to do this?

  He was not accustomed to wearing a tux. Hell, he only had one good suit—for church and funerals, as he told his mother who repeatedly nagged him to get a decent wardrobe. But he didn’t need to dress up. He already did, every day, by proudly wearing a uniform. He was a Craig County Deputy Sheriff, serving along with his father, the elected sheriff-for-life himself, Fuzzy Davenport.

  But his buddy Rob Gordon was getting married to his girl, Linsey Steele, and Goose couldn’t turn him down. So he was a groomsman. He vowed it would be the first and last time he ever got hooked into such a ridiculous situation.

  Although he had to admit that the bachelor party had been pretty fun. Goose smiled as he remembered when those two girls had taken off their—

  The music changed suddenly, and he snapped out of his naughty recollection, although he wondered whether he still had that one girl’s number. Where had he put it?

  He was standing in a line with the other groomsmen, waiting for Linsey to appear in all her glowing, bridal glory.

  Then he saw her.

  But not Linsey.

  Down the aisle came Harriet Hensley, the maid of honor, on the arm of another groomsman Goose barely knew.

  Why the hell did Linsey have to pick that color for her attendants?

  Harriet was wearing an eerie replica of the dress she’d worn when she’d been Miss BourbonDaze and he’d had the honor of driving her in the big parade in a huge old black convertible. Harriet had only been eighteen, right out of high school. At the time, he’d just dropped out of college and had been a newly minted sheriff’s deputy, thanks to his dad bailing out his ass and giving him a job after his grades dropped too low to continue at the University of Kentucky.

  He had never forgotten how hot Harriet had looked in that strapless bright turquoise gown when she’d been the local beauty queen. The color had been perfect for her: the cool hue against her pale skin and jet black hair. He’d almost wrecked the car twice trying to ogle her fine assets.

  That summer, he’d asked her out repeatedly but she’d turned him down every time. She’d always been with her friends—her own little popular posse—and she’d laughed him off. No doubt Harriet had thought him ridiculous for thinking she’d want to date Mr. Bad Reputation himself.

  He’d even asked her out a few times when she had returned home in the summers after college and law school. It had become a joke between them, of sorts. He’d ask, she’d say no, and they’d walk away laughing.

  Except he’d always walked away a bit brokenhearted, and into the arms of almost any pliant, willing woman who’d have him. And there were a lot of those of women.

  Now Harriet was walking down the aisle in another turquoise dress, a weird, freakish reminder of the past.

  Harriet’s hair was in a loose bun, with delicate dark tendrils curling around her oval-shaped face. Her lips were painted a bright pink, and she looked lovely. In coloring and demeanor, she resembled a latter-day Snow White.

  Except for one thing.

  No smile.

  And every time Goose had seen her, Harriet Hensley had been smiling or ready with one. Even when she’d been rejecting his requests for a date.

  But there she was, standing at the altar at a wedding and looking like she was at a funeral instead.

  That wasn’t right.

  Booking a room at The Cooperage, the restaurant-and-resort site of Linsey and Rob’s reception, had at first seemed to her a bit of an unnecessary extravagance. She lived in Bourbon Springs and wasn’t an out-of-town guest in need of overnight accommodations. But Linsey had suggested getting a room and offered to pay, so Harriet had accepted her friend’s generosity. She thought it would be fun to party into the night with her newly married friends and others from town. But that had sounded fun when Cameron had still been in the picture.

  Now Harriet had come to see the room as an excuse to get rip-roaringly drunk and have a place to crash should she manage to hook up with a guy.

  The problem, she had soon realized upon arriving at the reception, was that nonlocal guys were in decidedly short supply. So no private after-party for her.

  She supposed it was the universe’s way of telling her to be the good girl she was supposed to be, that everyone expected her to be.

  Fine.

  But she wasn’t going to be happy about it.

  At least she could still drink.

  After the champagne, Harriet went to the open bar and ordered three Pitted Garnets: a shot of Old Garnet with a cherry in the bottom of the glass.

  After tossing them back in pretty quick order to the amusement of the bride, groom, and several groomsmen, Harriet soon felt giddy and good and danced with a lot of the local boys. Most of the guys her age she hadn’t seen in years, some since high school. She also wound up dancing with Josh Cassidy, Hannah Davenport’s relatively new husband. Josh was polite and good-looking, but a little creepy. He was too eager to talk to her—and other women, she had noticed—and had left his wife sitting alone for several periods of time. Harriet was thrilled she briefly got to talk to Lila McNee and her husband, Colin Bell, before they hit the road back to Lexington. Lila was one of Harriet’s friends in high school, although they had fallen out of touch since graduation.

  The only local guy not to ask her to dance had been that batshit crazy Goose Davenport.

  Stocky, ruddy-faced, and with a head full of thick black hair that he hadn’t bothered to get cut for the occasion, Goose was well-built and ruggedly handsome in the dangerous kind of way. He’d been watching her through the evening, and as she’d left the dance floor for the last time that night she had noticed his long stare as she found a seat.

  At that moment, Harriet decided it was probably for the best that she stop drinking for the evening.

  She ended up sitting alone a few tables away from Goose, who was also sitting alone and drinking something on the rocks (it had to be Garnet). He hadn’t looked at her since she’d stopped dancing, thank goodness.

  Harriet sat there watching others have fun and feeling sorry for herself. She turned down several invitations to dance again, and the guys in the room finally got the message that she just wasn’t interested. When the bride and groom finally left in a gigantic limo (where’d that thing come from? All the way from Lexington?) and Harriet’s maid of honor duties had officially been discharged, she decided it was time to head for her room.

  Friends tried to tempt her to join them in The Cooperage’s bourbon bar, which was not that far from the reception room, a large space at the northern end of the main facility which overlooked the golf course and had a decent view of Old Crow Creek. Harriet had been there often enough to know that on a clear day when the leaves were off the trees, one could see all the way to the distillery itself, several miles to the north and across the McNee property.

  Harriet relented long enough to go into the bar and get a glass of white wine, thus violating her policy of no more drinking for that evening and risking sickness by mixing up her booze. But she was a big girl, and a Bourbon Springs girl at that, and a spot of wine wasn’t going to send her into a stupor; that night she craved the taste and relaxation. She sipped awhile, then excused herself, physically tired and tired of being around a lot of people, and decided to call it a night.

  Yet she couldn’t bear the thought of returning to her room.

  It was warm and the night air was sweet and light. It would be a shame to abandon the beauty of a perfect spring evening in Craig County. So with wineglass in hand, Harriet headed toward the hotel part of the complex, and through a breezeway connecting the main building which housed the restaurant, bar, and me
eting rooms with the lodge.

  Off to the right of this area, which was covered with a narrow awning, was a sprawling patio overlooking Old Crow Creek. There was no bar here and thus no people. It was simply a nice place to sit, which was exactly what she needed.

  She sat as close as possible to the edge of the patio, so close that she could hear the rushing waters of the creek below, the soft sound soothing and relaxing. Harriet put her wineglass on the table next to her, twisted a large pink paisley silk scarf around herself that she’d been using as a wrap, and let her head fall back against the chair. Dozing, she heard people walking back and forth in noisy groupings, but no one came to the patio as the itinerant visitors passed between the buildings. Even though it began to get a little cool by the creek and the fog was starting to form and creep up around the buildings, Harriet continued to nod off until she was properly asleep in the open night air.

  Chapter 2

  Goose hoped he still had the number of that girl in his wallet. He was anxious to get back to his buddy’s room, get out of the stupid tux, and put on some real clothes. Then he’d call the girl and see if he could get the chance to get out of his clothes again that night.

  He was passing between the buildings with a keycard in one hand and trying to untie his tie when he noticed something out of place. His eyes were drawn to the right where he saw a flash of pink. And that bright shade of blue that always made him think of—

  He froze.

  What the hell was Harriet Hensley doing over there all alone? Was she sick?

  Goose wound his way through the unoccupied tables until he reached her.

  She was fast asleep.

  Probably too much Garnet—and wine, he saw. The glass on the table was nearly empty. And she’d had a big day too. Being maid of honor couldn’t be easy, even though he didn’t know all the things that role entailed.