Bourbon Springs Box Set: Volume II, Books 4-6 (Bourbon Springs Box Sets Book 2)

by Jennifer Bramseth

  She put the newspaper on the bed and slipped her phone from her jeans pocket.

  Pepper had called in sick to work that morning just so she could make this phone call. No way would she have a quiet chance to do this at work, even while the kids were at the library or music or whatever class they had that day which afforded her a short break. The thought of making this call to Jon had been so anxiety inducing that she’d felt sick to her stomach, so she’d felt no guilt about the stated reason for her absence that early January day. Not that her job mattered anymore. She’d be resigning as soon as possible, as soon as that wonderful money hit her bank account. Pepper would miss her students but not the daily grind of being a teacher.

  Hello, brand-new life.

  The flicker of excitement and happiness she’d felt when going through her mental list of do-goodery was now burning in her chest as a flame of joy.

  She punched Jon’s number on the phone.

  “Something wrong?” he answered upon receiving her call.

  “I need a lawyer.”

  “So something is wrong,” he said.

  “Jon, I—you won’t believe this, I hardly do—but I have the winning ticket. I won the lottery. It’s me.”

  “Yeah, right. Pull the other one, girl,” he said with a weary laugh. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard that one in the past few days?”

  “You don’t believe me?” she asked hotly.

  “Just as much as I believe every other person who’s told me the same crazy story. If someone local had won it, we’d already know by now. They would’ve gone running up and down Main Street with that ticket in hand, shouting the news to the world. No, someone passing through got that ticket. Maybe someone only here for the holidays, and they probably threw it away or haven’t checked it. So don’t try to fool me. What do you really need? I have to go to court soon, but if there’s a problem I could—”

  The flame of joy started to burn in Pepper’s gut as a big ball of resentment.

  “Wouldn’t think of wasting another minute of your time. And I want you to remember this moment.”

  “Why is that?”

  “You know how you’re always encouraging me? Saying you make your own luck and all that?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  It was true. He’d tried to keep her spirits up over the years by arguing with her about her alleged bad luck. He didn’t like her talking about how she was fated to bad breaks, like she couldn’t break out of that unhappy cycle. How she chose to believe that about herself. Almost like she believed she didn’t deserve better out of life.

  “Because right now I’m the luckiest person in Bourbon Springs, and you’re the unluckiest.”

  “Really?” he sniped back.

  “Yes, you were right. We do make our own luck. And you just made your own bad luck.” She hung up on him.

  How could he have been such an asshole?

  Pepper held the phone in her hand, all the wonderful things she wanted to tell him and share with him now forgotten.

  Now what?

  She’d been counting on Jon to be there for her, to share in the good news and guide her through what she knew was going to be a very strange time in her life.

  Jon had been her friend for as long as she could remember, but for him to be so dismissive really rankled. They had been close in the past—particularly right after her father left—and had remained close through high school and into college. They’d worked odd jobs together during their summers, clerking and bagging at Minnick’s Fine Foods and Beverages, the local grocery store; working the deli counter at Over a Barrel; and giving tours at Old Garnet. The only summer they hadn’t worked together was when Jon’s dad, an insurance agent, had given Pepper a job at his insurance agency while both were in college. It was grunt work—errands, copying, and boring office tasks—but Jon had wanted the job himself and was jealous. Instead, he got his commercial driver’s license and became a delivery driver for a local lumberyard. It paid well, he got to drive around, and, according to him, he’d kept the license current. He’d told Pepper on more than one occasion that his CDL knowledge had come in handy during representation of clients in automobile accident cases and had repeatedly and facetiously thanked her for stealing “his” job.

  Even after they both returned to Bourbon Springs as professionals, through their disastrous and only marriages, through her mother’s illness and his father’s recent death, they had remained steadfast friends, although not as close. She had especially kept her distance after Jon’s wife left; Pepper wanted no rumors about a possible relationship between them to cloud an already painful situation.

  But lately, over the past few years, Pepper had sensed some change in Jon. She rarely saw him. Other than major holidays—they’d managed to spend Christmas together, like the past nearly twenty years—the man was always working. Constantly.

  She knew he was proud that he’d made partner at Colyard and Borden and had even thrown a little party for him (and Harriet—they’d made partner at the same time) to celebrate his achievement. Yet it was bittersweet because Jon’s father hadn’t lived to see his son’s achievement; he’d died in the past few years. And all that work had left Jon alone. He’d had a few girlfriends, but they apparently hadn’t cared for the level of attention Jon paid them and were gone in short order.

  And now he’d been just as indifferent to her.

  Pepper was tired of being the unlucky one and so easily overlooked or put aside.

  Then she had a wicked idea.

  After a quick search using her phone, Pepper found the phone number of the perfect attorney.

  Drake Mercer.

  He’d represented her friend Lila McNee Davenport in the not-so-distant past, and she’d spoken highly of him. And it wouldn’t hurt that Drake was easy on the eyes—although she wasn’t interested. But the thing was that she knew he was interested in her. Drake had asked her out a few times, and she’d gently rebuffed him as recently as a few weeks before Christmas.

  But the best part of her plan was that she’d heard Jon bitching and moaning about the guy a few times. Apparently they’d had some pretty contested cases together over the years, and Drake had managed to get under Jon’s skin.

  No better choice for her new lawyer.

  “Hi, Drake,” she said sweetly when he answered. “It’s Pepper Montrose. I need some help.”

  * * *

  “How the hell did you lose your best friend as a client?” asked Harriet.

  He was helping his soon-to-be-former law partner move out of her office. Harriet was leaving the firm by the first of February and would be the new school board attorney for the Craig County School System. Jon had no doubt that Harriet’s dad, a former school superintendent himself, had helped her score the job. But Harriet had insisted that the new school superintendent, a hire from Lexington, had no idea of Harriet’s familial connection and had been impressed with her work background rather than aware of her pedigree.

  “Who knows?” Jon claimed as he pulled a box from a dusty corner of Harriet’s third-floor office. He’d never understood why Harriet had loved this office so much. It was remote from the other offices in the building, but she seemed to like it. It did have a nice view of the backyard and the courthouse cupola.

  “I bet you do know, but you’re just not telling.”

  His shoulders sagged and he knew he couldn’t keep the truth from Harriet. “I’ll tell, but only if you won’t breathe a word to Bruce.”

  Bruce Colyard was the senior partner; Borden had finally completely retired and gone to Florida, although the firm kept his name. And while Jon was also a partner, the relationship was not one of equals. Bruce had a bigger interest in the firm and Jon often still felt like an associate rather than a partner. He knew Harriet had felt the same way as well, and that had been a significant factor in her departure.

  Harriet promised to keep his secret, and he told of Pepper’s phone call but defended his actions.

  “
She was way too sensitive.”

  “Doesn’t sound like it to me,” Harriet said as she threw old magazines into a trash can. “Why hire an attorney who doesn’t respect you, even if he is a friend? Or supposedly a friend.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “That you weren’t very nice to her,” Harriet said.

  Nice. Of course Harriet Hensley would say that.

  She was pleasant to everyone. As a result, she’d always been a much better rainmaker for the firm than him. When it came to attracting clients, he knew he didn’t have the touch that Bruce and Harriet did. But what he lacked in personality, he made up for in hard work. He’d worked more billable hours in the past three years than Bruce or Harriet, tried more cases, and argued more on the appellate level. Career-wise, he’d accomplished a hell of a lot more than his partners. On the personal level though, he felt like he was living in a wasteland. So his time was consumed with work rather than dealing with the gaping, aching void of actually having a life. The stupid thing was that he finally had an inkling how to fill that space but had likely ruined his chance to do so.

  “I thought she might really be in trouble, Harriet, and then when she told me about the lottery, that irked me. I thought she was pulling my leg, and I didn’t have the time. I was due in court in fifteen minutes and—”

  “Why would Pepper have called you just to pull a prank, Jon? That makes absolutely no sense.”

  “Winning the lottery doesn’t make sense either.”

  “You just didn’t want to believe it was her.” Harriet heaved a box of old files off her desk and onto the floor.

  “Now that really doesn’t make sense.” He sat down in a chair in front of Harriet’s desk.

  “Oh, I think it does. A little bit of role reversal going on now big-time with you two, isn’t it? Suddenly she’s got it made, after all her years of bad luck. Face it, you need her more than she needs you.”

  “Need her?”

  “Yes, as a nice wealthy client for this firm,” Harriet said. “Don’t think I haven’t heard Bruce bemoaning my departure, Jon. I know he’s not happy about it. You two aren’t in the best financial spot right now, and a client like her would have been most welcome. But more importantly, don’t you want to keep Pepper as a friend?”

  “The firm doesn’t need her,” he said, avoiding the question. He picked up a box and threw it on the ground near the office door as Harriet sighed and continued to pack.

  The truth was that he didn’t want to keep Pepper only as a friend.

  After all the years of friendship and sometime rivalry, he wanted more, much more.

  And he had no idea how to tell her.

  2

  After it had become known in Bourbon Springs that she was the winner, Pepper had been inundated with well-wishers and favor-seekers. That was difficult to deal with, but one benefit of her newfound wealth and minor celebrity status was that she could get shit done.

  First thing on the to-do list: take care of her mother.

  The day after her win was publicly announced, Pepper had contacted the care facility attached to the hospital on the eastern side of Bourbon Springs and inquired about a spot for her mother. She’d expected a bunch of red tape: forms, problems, delays. But when they’d learned it was her—our new millionaire! someone had said to her—the process had become insultingly effortless. While she was relieved her mother was going to be in a good place, Pepper felt belittled. She’d investigated a spot around a year earlier, when she’d been but a humble schoolteacher, and had encountered nothing but complicated procedures and taciturn administrators. Not even Miranda Chaplin, Glenda’s OB/GYN and a well-respected young doctor in Bourbon Springs, had been able to pull any strings to help. Beds were limited, they had told her, and there was no way to know whether a place would be available for her mother when the time came.

  On a cold January morning just weeks after her win, Pepper had moved her mother into the facility. It had been much harder on Pepper than Glenda, who hadn’t been very aware of what was going on. Her mother had believed that it was adult day care, just a different place. Pepper had spent the entire morning choking back tears, knowing she was doing the right thing but her heart breaking nonetheless.

  It had been just the two of them for nearly twenty years. During her teens, they’d moved more times than Pepper could count; it was hard to find an affordable place after her dad left. She never felt like they’d had a true home during those days, only a safe place to which they could retreat after grueling days at school and work. Nothing felt permanent, nothing felt real, except the constancy of her mother’s love.

  The only time they’d been apart was when Pepper had been away at school (on full scholarship) and for a brief time upon her return to Bourbon Springs when she’d been married. But dabbling in marriage had turned into a debacle when her husband got arrested and convicted for drug possession, resulting in the loss of his teaching job and their ultimate divorce. She and her mother sure could pick ’em—that had been their idea of a joke.

  At least Mona Buckler had been there for them that morning.

  When Pepper had told Mona that she was moving her mother, Mona had jumped at the chance to help. In the end, there actually hadn’t been that much to do other than a little bit of packing. But Mona had insisted on being there when Pepper took Glenda to the facility that morning. Mona had left them alone after a brief appearance in Glenda’s room, but waited for Pepper in the lobby to offer a hug and a shoulder to cry on.

  “We’re still on for lunch, right? You shouldn’t be alone too much today,” Mona said, holding Pepper at arm’s length after a teary hug. “Meet you at Over a Barrel at noon.”

  “I’ll be there,” Pepper promised. “And thank you.”

  Pepper then pretended she needed to go to the restroom while Mona departed. In truth, Pepper was waiting for Mona to leave. Once assured Mona had left the premises, Pepper went to her car and cried for the next fifteen minutes.

  It was when Pepper was coming off her crying jag that she briefly wondered whether Jon would be joining them for lunch. She figured not. Probably too busy, even if he only worked one block away from the deli.

  The thought made her both mad and sad. It would’ve been nice to have had Jon’s support that day, or just a little companionship at lunch. Then again, Pepper told herself, she hadn’t asked for his support.

  But should a friend have to do that?

  That question was answered by another.

  Was he still a friend? Or just an acquaintance now?

  How had her relationship with him changed so much? The thought of the growing remoteness between them was sadly familiar, like the distance she could feel every day as she saw her mother worsening.

  How could she lose both of them?

  So it was true, she thought.

  Money can’t buy happiness.

  * * *

  Jon was alone in the office after Harriet had left with a few boxes of personal items. She’d said she was taking them to her townhome down the street, and then it was off to the school board offices to meet her new coworkers. Harriet was slowly leaving behind the private practice of law.

  And he hated it.

  He’d shown Harriet the ropes when she’d returned to Bourbon Springs nearly six years ago and started at Colyard and Borden. Since the partners weren’t about to do it, he’d mentored Harriet as best he could, and the two of them had eventually settled into a warm, professional relationship that was on equal footing. Even if they had disagreed occasionally, he respected and liked Harriet and was definitely going to miss her.

  But he was feeling the loss in more than one way. He was worried.

  Worried about his own future at Colyard and Borden without Harriet. They had a good client base, but Harriet had that special knack for getting new clients in the door. Jon was well aware that the softer side of the practice of law was not his forte.

  He was stressed, and had slept poorly the past few nights.
After returning to his own office and shutting the door, he decided to catch a quick nap on his couch before getting back to work or trying to scrounge up something to eat.

  But rest proved elusive…

  He threw his keys on the kitchen table, rubbed the back of his neck, and started to shrug out of his coat. Walking into the living room, he folded the coat over his arm and then stopped.

  Leigh was sitting across the room in her coat.

  “You going somewhere?”

  His wife glared at him.

  “You don’t miss a thing, do you? Then again, maybe you do.” She stood and looked beyond him into the kitchen, the place through which he had just passed.

  He turned and saw several suitcases next to the door.

  All of them were hers.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m leaving. I’m tired of being a second thought.”

  “What the hell—wait—you’re mad because I went to see Pepper tonight?”

  “I’m mad because you went to see Pepper tonight, yes. And the night before that. And a few nights before that. Yes, all those visits haven’t gone down well with me. In fact, I’ve told you that. Repeatedly.”

  “Leigh, she’s my oldest, dearest friend,” he protested. “And she just found out—”

  “I know, I know,” Leigh said, holding up a hand to forestall more excuses and protests. “Her mom has Alzheimer’s. I get that. But you’ve been running out to her almost every night this week. And this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”

  “You’re still mad at me for fixing her flat tire? And for helping her with that insurance claim when the tree fell on her house?”

  “No, I don’t think I’m mad anymore. I’ve accepted that she means something to you. I’ve seen you change in front of my eyes this past year, Jon. Ever since she got divorced.”

  “Are you accusing me of being unfaithful?”