“Yes, but not in the physical sense.” She said it casually, almost as if they were discussing something as ordinary as the weather or what to have for dinner. “I know you’d never act on whatever it is you’re feeling for her—well, you won’t at least as long as I’m still around.”
He took her hand. “Leigh, I love you.”
She wouldn’t look at him but squeezed his hand lightly, then let go.
“And I love you, Jon,” she said, her voice cracking. She moved toward the suitcases near the door and didn’t turn around. “But you love another, and you love her more than me.”
“Don’t go, please,” Jon begged her.
Leigh stopped moving. The door was directly in front of her; she had her purse over her shoulder and a hand on one suitcase. He was right behind her.
“Wrong thing to say, Jon,” she said, her back to him.
“What? What should I have said?”
“How about a denial that you love Pepper Montrose more than me?”
Leigh opened the door and left without a look back…
After fifteen minutes of trying to nap, Jon gave up.
Why the hell was that scene still going through his head five years after his wife had left? And why today?
Divine retribution?
His mother had begged him to come to the care facility that morning to see Glenda and Pepper, but he’d begged off, saying he needed to help Harriet, that work was crazy now that she was leaving, and there was so much to do after the holidays.
All that had been true. Jon hadn’t lied to his mother. But as his mother had told him, it wasn’t much of an excuse when it came to a friend in need.
A friend…
But Pepper hadn’t been much of a friend to him since Leigh left him.
He knew why. She’d been scared off by the rumors Leigh had started about them. Pepper had kept her distance, even after his father’s death, and he had turned to building a law practice. So his ex-wife had been proven quite wrong about the two of them. He supposed he had that small crumb of satisfaction from his brief marriage, despite his changing feelings for Pepper in recent weeks.
Because Jon hated being wrong. He figured that was why he was a halfway-decent attorney. He kept trying to get it right for the client and fought hard. He’d been so frustrated when Bo Davenport had totally capitulated to Lila McNee in their land dispute. Bo had the thing won, and Jon had been confident of their chances on appeal. But then Bo told him to give Lila everything she wanted—after they’d prevailed! And while Bo and Lila had walked off into the matrimonial sunset together, he’d felt like tearing his hair out.
A little like he felt at that moment.
It was nearly noon and he was agitated and hungry, not a good combination for trying to get any work done or catch a quick nap. Although he usually brought something and ate at his desk or didn’t eat at all, Jon wanted to get out of the office that day. A good hot meal on a cold January afternoon after a bit of physical labor sounded particularly appealing, so he grabbed his coat and headed across the street to Over a Barrel.
Not surprisingly the line was long, but he hoped he’d gotten there early enough so that they wouldn’t run out of the special (hot roast beef sandwich with bourbon au jus sauce, his favorite) and bourbon balls. He’d just found his place in line when a familiar voice called out.
His mother. Sitting with Pepper against a far wall.
The elder woman waved to her son.
“Join us after you get your food!” she called.
“I was just going back to the office,” he claimed. But a dour look from his mom, as well as a glance at Pepper—she looked so sad—convinced him to stay.
Jon was just in time to get one of the last roast beef sandwiches and a few bourbon balls. When he arrived at the table, he was in a marginally better mood than when he’d entered the establishment.
“Thought you were helping Harriet,” his mother said as she poked at a salad with her fork.
“And that’s exactly what I did for most of the morning. After moving all her stuff, I wanted to get out of the office.”
He said hello to Pepper, but she barely acknowledged him, choosing instead to look down at her barely touched sandwich.
“And speaking of moving—now that Glenda is settled, do you have any plans for a new home?” Mona asked Pepper.
Pepper brightened immediately, and he was glad to see it.
Along with that bright red hair.
And those deep brown eyes.
And her seemingly translucent skin.
His heart skipped a beat as he recognized that unsettling yet exciting feeling: attraction.
There it was again, bubbling up, those waves of butterflies in the tummy whenever he thought about her. It was a feeling he’d been wishing away for the past several weeks, but his reaction to her this day showed his efforts had been in vain.
And maybe he didn’t want those feelings to go away.
“Yes, I should have a new place soon.” Pepper picked up a plastic fork and began to attack her large sandwich.
“You’re not moving out of Bourbon Springs, are you?” Jon asked at once, surprised at the worry in his tone.
“Of course not. I’d never leave Mom. And besides, Bourbon Springs is home.”
“So a big new house you’ve bought somewhere? Or are you going to build?” Jon suggested.
She shook her head. “No, nothing like that.”
“So tell us,” Mona coaxed. “Is it some big secret?”
“Well, yeah, it actually is,” Pepper said slowly, smiling and rolling her eyes. “But now that I’ve said something like that, you’ll probably be able to guess what’s up.”
Mona’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You? It’s you? You’re buying GarnetBrooke?”
Rumors had been rampant through the town that there was a buyer, but most people thought some foreign purchaser was the most likely new owner.
Pepper nodded and Mona threw her arms around the younger woman.
“That is wonderful!” Mona exclaimed, causing other diners to cast surprised looks at their table. “So many people have been fretting about what’s going to happen when that place gets sold! Are you going to keep breeding thoroughbreds?”
“Wait a minute,” Jon interrupted. “Are you kidding? You’re buying a thoroughbred farm?”
Pepper’s jovial mood turned sour instantly. “Thought you would have learned your lesson about whether I’m kidding.”
“What?” Mona asked, looking from Jon then back to Pepper in confusion.
“I’m buying the farm, but I’m not going to breed horses there,” Pepper said, moving beyond Mona’s confusion.
“So are you just buying it to preserve it?” Jon asked.
GarnetBrooke was indeed a historic farm, and in decades past had produced champions, including one that had won the Oaks, the race for fillies the day before the Derby. Garnet Girl had been widely loved, and Bourbon Springs residents of Jon and Pepper’s age could still remember the excitement of those days. The farm had opened for the first and only time for tours, allowing the public to see GiGi, as she had been affectionately known by locals. But about a year later tragedy had struck when GiGi died after shattering a leg. The tours stopped, and the gates of GarnetBrooke were closed again to the public. The owner rarely had returned to Kentucky after the accident; rumor had it that the horse’s death had broken his heart.
“GarnetBrooke is going to become a home for retired thoroughbreds,” Pepper proudly announced. “There’s a place outside Lexington right now, but they’ve been having financial problems. I’m essentially buying them out, taking all the horses, and setting up a new facility here in Bourbon Springs.”
“All the horses?” Jon asked, eyes wide.
He was equal parts shocked and full of admiration. He had been watching her intently as she talked about the farm purchase and her plans. Pepper’s whole countenance had changed, and aside from the one slice of snark she’d thrown at him, she
had been glowingly happy once she started talking about her plans. It was as though she was an entirely new person.
Or maybe she was becoming the person she was meant to be.
Because Jon had sometimes wondered what Pepper would’ve been like had she not encountered so much adversity. While no life can be free of problems and hardship is a good test of character, Pepper had endured more than her share of woe. He was happy to see her happy.
“We’ll be taking about a hundred from the other farm,” Pepper said nonchalantly as she took a bite from her sandwich with her fork.
“But you can’t… you don’t have a staff, the workers…” Mona began to say.
“I’m hiring all of them too,” Pepper said. “At least that’s the plan. It’s still very early days, of course. And it’s true that that I don’t know that much about how to care for a horse, despite being from horse country. That’s why I need that staff, and as soon as possible.”
Pepper explained that the closing on the farm would be at the end of the month, and arrangements for horses and staff would hopefully be completed in the spring.
“I’m hoping to have the horses at the farm by Easter, if not earlier.” Pepper started talking about opening the farm for tours, and perhaps even doing joint tours with the distillery if the Davenports were interested. “Think of it!” she exclaimed. “Bluegrass and bourbon! It’s perfect! Tourists will love it!”
“But all those people, the staff,” Jon said, focused on the apparent impracticality of her plan. “Will they move here?”
“There’s actually not that many from what I understand. The core staff will move if they want to keep their jobs. The other jobs I want to be filled by locals.”
“I never knew you were interested in thoroughbreds,” said Jon.
“I really wasn’t. But I’d heard the other facility was in trouble through friends in animal rescue. We’ve never been able to do much for horses locally, even with GarnetBrooke right here on our doorstep. We’ve always been so strapped for cash and focused on dogs and cats and such. But now we can do more,” Pepper said with no small degree of satisfaction.
“So you’re going to live on the farm?” he asked.
Pepper nodded. “As of February 1, I will officially be the new owner and only human resident of GarnetBrooke.”
3
Jon returned to his office out of sorts but at least well fed. The day had clouded up considerably, rather like his mood, and on his walk back snow flurries danced around him.
He’d not been inside the building for half a minute before Bruce Colyard had poked his head out of his spacious first-floor office and asked Jon to step inside.
“Did you actually go out to lunch for once?” Bruce asked with genuine surprise as Jon unbuttoned his coat.
“Yeah,” Jon acknowledged, explaining he wanted to get away after helping Harriet earlier in the morning. “I’m really going to miss her. I don’t know whether it’s really completely hit me yet that she’s going.”
“And that’s just what I wanted to talk about.” Bruce shut his office door. He strode to the chair behind his desk and sat while telling Jon to do the same.
Jon’s thoughts turned to both Harriet and Pepper and how the two women had something in common: neither of them felt comfortable with him, or so it seemed. Harriet was tired of private practice, but a part of him wondered whether Harriet had grown tired of him as a professional companion. And Pepper had rejected him as her lawyer. True, he’d been a jerk. But he still felt the sting of her rebuff.
“You know we got problems with Harriet leaving. I don’t need to tell you that.”
“I know, I know.” Jon shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “We need to get an associate or two in here as soon as possible. We could put an ad in the state bar journal.”
“We don’t have time to train a new lawyer,” Bruce objected and shook his head. His white hair looked a little duller, and Jon unconsciously ran a hand over his own blond hair, thinking of the silver strands that seemed to be popping up with increasing regularity.
“Okay, a lateral hire.”
“No, I’m thinking we need to take on another partner.”
“What? Just like that? Bring in another full equity partner?”
“Yes, and I think there’s only one person to fit the bill. Drake Mercer.”
“Mercer? Are you kidding? He’s just some solo here in town!”
“He’s respected and a hard worker. And I’ve seen him in court. He’s good in front of judges and juries. Just because he’s solo shouldn’t be a knock on him.”
“But it shows that he likes to do his own thing, Bruce. He’s been solo for years. He won’t fit in.”
“I doubt it. He’s pleasant, never argumentative just for the sake of it, unlike a lot of lawyers I know,” Bruce said, shooting him a wry smile. “Besides, he already has an excellent client base. And he’d bring Pepper Montrose with him. That’s hard to ignore.”
Bruce gave him a not-so-nice look. Because Bruce simply could not understand how Jon had failed to land the new Bourbon Springs millionaire as a client for their little firm.
Jon knew he’d lost the argument. Bruce was not that interested in Drake’s credentials or existing stable of clients. He had to admit that Drake was a decent attorney, but for Bruce to bring him in made no sense except when viewed through the desire to have Pepper Montrose as a firm client.
“We need him, whether we like it or not,” Bruce said, correctly reading Jon’s internal dialogue. “Are you free this afternoon?”
“Yeah, Harriet’s not coming back for more of her stuff until later.”
“Good, because Drake is coming over this afternoon to talk about joining us. And you need to be there.”
“You’ve already talked to him?”
“Yes, I have. And I invited him over.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before now?”
Jon hated feeling so subordinate to Bruce when it came to partnership decisions. Bruce had his name on the firm and tended to act like he was still the boss. Yet the truth was that Jon and Harriet had been full equity partners with equal power within the firm.
“Because I figured you wouldn’t be very happy. I wanted to make sure you were here and didn’t have some excuse not to show up,” Bruce said.
“But what about conflicts?” Jon asked, looking for some reason to defeat Bruce’s idea. “We represent the distillery and Drake has been representing Goose Davenport.”
“All that’s over and you know it. You settled that thing and Goose is now an owner.” Bruce stopped as his eyes became unfocused. He shook his head. “Harriet Hensley and Goose Davenport. Never saw that one coming. But she’s happier than I’ve ever seen her,” Bruce ruminated. “New fiancé, new job, and a new life. Glad she didn’t marry that twit Mark. Not respected in Lexington from what I hear. Rather a jerk, and I’m glad she finally figured that out.”
Jon confirmed he’d be there to talk to Drake and abruptly excused himself to his office on the second floor.
What a crappy day.
The reality that Harriet was leaving was sinking in, he felt unsettled after seeing his mother and Pepper at the deli, and now Bruce had dropped this news about Drake on him. And it didn’t help his mood that he couldn’t even identify exactly what he was feeling except some intense sense of discontent. Maybe he was jealous.
Harriet had a new love and a new job.
Drake had a wealthy client.
Pepper had money and a new life.
Jon felt a little empty-handed.
No, he just felt empty. And frustrated.
As he sat at his desk looking blankly at his computer screen, his thoughts drifted to how he could banish those feelings.
And to his slowly increasing pleasure, his next thoughts were of Pepper.
How lovely she’d looked at lunch. How happy she was. And how he was already wondering when he would see her again.
He shook his head in shock and exasperation.
Was it her new wealth? No, he wasn’t a greedy guy. If he’d wanted to make a lot of money, he would’ve sought a job in a large firm in Lexington or Louisville. He liked working in his hometown and never saw himself leaving.
So what was it? What had changed?
There simply was no logical reason and that was driving the lawyer in him crazy.
But his heart didn’t give a damn about reasons.
* * *
The small clock on the table beside the door to his office chimed noon. Jon put aside the file he’d been working on all day—some problem with a water line at the distillery—and checked the weather out the window behind him. No snow, high clouds, a little sunshine. Decent weather for February 1 in central Kentucky. He stood and stretched, readying himself to walk to Drake’s office and make the appropriate professional gesture of welcome to his new law partner.
Drake had eagerly accepted Bruce’s partnership invitation, and Jon had known he had no choice but to go along with the decision. If he hadn’t, the partnership as it existed would dissolve, and Jon didn’t want to go out and start his own firm or go solo. So he accepted the situation knowing they could’ve done a lot worse than to get Drake on board.
“Care to go to lunch? My treat since it’s your first day. I think Bruce had to go to federal court in Lexington.”
Drake looked up from his desk. “Yeah, sounds great,” he said, but asked him to wait a minute. “I need to make a call about that closing for Pepper.”
Drake was in Harriet’s office—Harriet’s former office, Jon had to remind himself. Although there were other spaces in the building, Drake had chosen this office for the same reason Harriet had stayed in it during her tenure at Colyard and Borden: it afforded a nice view of the area.
“Something wrong?” Jon asked.
“Stupid delays.” Drake ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair.
He then explained that the closing on GarnetBrooke was going to be delayed by about two weeks, and that Pepper was going to have to rent an apartment somewhere in the meantime since she’d given up the lease on her house.
Bourbon Springs Box Set: Volume II, Books 4-6 (Bourbon Springs Box Sets Book 2) Page 63