Amused and curious, Rachel opened the envelope.
After she scanned the contents, she broke into a broad smile.
“Now? Here?” she asked.
“Yes,” Jon and Pepper said in unison.
“What’s going on?” Hannah asked.
“We’re getting married,” Pepper replied.
A collective gasp went up from the crowd, except from Mona, who was aware of the plan. Jon called Drake up to be his best man, and Pepper called upon Lucy to be her matron of honor. After a small smattering of applause, Rachel began the wedding ceremony. She had gotten to the part where the bride and groom were about to exchange rings when Brady returned to the area with the baby, who was laughing.
“What the—” he said, interrupting his wife.
“You Craft boys have a real talent for interrupting weddings,” Rachel cracked, and immediately went back to the ceremony while Pepper, Jon, CiCi, and Walker broke into laughter.
After a shaky exchange of rings (due to giggles rather than nerves), Rachel pronounced Pepper and Jon husband and wife.
“Now hurry up and kiss the bride before anything else happens,” Rachel urged. He obeyed the judge’s order as the crowd began to clap.
Unable to drink, Hannah grabbed the tray of glasses and began to pass out the drinks while Bo took the other tray and did the same.
Hannah took a deep breath of the spirits as she held the tray. “At least I can smell it,” she lamented.
Drake offered the toast and all (save Hannah) drank. But while the rest were imbibing, Hannah took the opportunity to sneak over to the bugler, who was standing at a distance from the newly married couple, looking highly amused at the spectacle. Hannah whispered something to the man, dressed in his bright green coat just as he would be at the track, and he smiled, nodded, and put his trumpet to his lips.
As the glasses went down and the bride and groom kissed again, the bugler began playing My Old Kentucky Home.
Pepper’s tears fell as the crowd serenaded the couple to the familiar strains of the state song.
Jon drew his arm around his wife and moved her hat aside so he could whisper in her ear.
“Weep no more my lady,” he whispered, echoing the song’s familiar refrain. “We’re home.”
Want the next book, a novella, and two short stories for free? KEEP READING.
Afterword
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the books. Now for the free stuff.
First, if you leave a review for this box set (Amazon, iBooks, Goodreads, or wherever you downloaded the set), I’ll send you the next book in this series, Bottled Bluegrass (Bourbon Springs Book 7) for free (ebook download link). All you have to do is leave the review, send me the link to your review or a screenshot of it via email ([email protected]), and I’ll email you a download link for Bottled Bluegrass.
Second, if you sign up for my newsletter, you can get two free short stories and a free novella, (short stories exclusively available at this time to my newsletter subscribers). The first story features Hannah and Kyle, the couple from the second book in the Bourbon Springs Series, Filtered Through Blue (Bourbon Springs Book 2). The story takes place shortly after the end of that book, and overlaps a little in time with Angels’ Share (Bourbon Springs Book 3). The second story features Lila and Bo, the couple from Angels’ Share, and takes place between Bourbon Springs Books 6 and 7 (Distilled Heat and Bottled Bluegrass). The novella takes place during the last third of Water of Life (Bourbon Springs Book 9) and overlaps with the first part of Sharp Practice (Bourbonland Book 1).
You can sign up for my mailing list via this link.
Keep reading for Chapter 1 of Bottled Bluegrass. Also, keep reading for “Bits About Bourbon,” little tidbits that show the things which inspired me as I wrote this book.
Excerpt from Chapter 1: Bottled Bluegrass
Mack Blanton had vowed to never again set foot on the grounds of Old Garnet Distillery, at least not as an employee.
How the mighty had fallen.
That gorgeous early June Saturday should’ve seen him singing at the big music festival that weekend in Louisville, like his agent had promised him.
But that dream was so last month.
The fact that his agent finally dropped him a week ago shouldn’t have surprised him. But it still hurt.
So here he was, Mack Blanton, the former pride of Bourbon Springs, Kentucky, winner of the Big Sing Thing—Nashville Edition only two years ago, on his way up Ashbrooke Pike in a rattletrap of an old pickup truck to apply for a job he’d left years ago.
The same guy who’d been promised a great recording contract, a fabulous career, concerts in packed arenas, and product endorsement deals out the wazoo now was praying that he could get a part-time job at his hometown distillery on the bottling line.
The information on Old Garnet’s website said to apply early on Saturdays for distillery jobs, and he was going to make damn sure that he was the first applicant there that day. Not because he was eager or even happy to return to Old Garnet. The sad truth was that he needed the job. He needed the money.
Because Mack Blanton, one of the sexiest dudes in country music according to some magazine a few years ago, was flat broke and living with his grandfather on the outskirts of little Bourbon Springs, Kentucky.
He pulled into the distillery parking lot outside the visitors’ center, and cursed when he saw a number of vehicles already in the lot. He knew it was too early for the tourists—he’d checked and knew that the distillery didn’t open until later for tours—so all these people had to be here at eight to apply for the same job he desperately needed.
Mack picked up a folder from the passenger seat of his truck and flipped through the contents. His application, copy of his driver’s license, and a letter of recommendation from the principal of the elementary school where he was working again were all in order.
Time to do this.
He checked his hair in the cracked rearview mirror, ran a hand through his shaggy blond locks, and wished he’d heeded his grandfather’s advice and gotten a haircut. But his shirt and pants were new and clean, so he felt confident about his looks although not so much about his prospects if all these other people were here looking to snag the same job.
He stood for a few moments taking in the scene—and the smell. The mash was cooking, and the yeasty scent was all around. That sweet smell had been at the top of his very short list of things he’d missed about Bourbon Springs when he’d been in the big city.
Mack slowly walked to the front door, sensing something didn’t feel quite right. He stopped in the middle of the flower-and-fern-lined path and looked back at the vehicles in the lot. Several expensive cars and SUVs were there, along with a sheriff’s cruiser. Those weren’t the kinds of vehicles that people needing part-time work usually drove.
Confused but undaunted, Mack shook off his mild trepidation and walked through the front doors of the visitors’ center, pausing to look at the Old Garnet logo above the doors.
Uisce beatha—there was that Gaelic inscription on the logo which meant water of life. He’d learned that bit of bourbon knowledge during his earlier stint as a bottler at the distillery.
Water of life—what a great song or album title that would’ve been.
He shook his head to try to physically rid himself of those shattered dreams.
No more notions like that for him. No song titles or album titles. Just a career as a schoolteacher in a little Kentucky town and, if he was lucky, a part-time bottler at a distillery. Maybe someday he’d get back to Nashville. But that was a dream, and his reality was Bourbon Springs and trying to fight off bankruptcy.
He strode through the front doors, irritable and now warm in the late spring heat, hoping that he wasn’t sweating too much or that he didn’t look too angry.
Once in the visitors’ center, Mack took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the difference in the light. Overhead, a skylight in a dome allowed abundant
morning light to flow into the area. Mack blinked, and saw several people gathered in the middle of the hardwood floor, under the dome, and standing atop some kind of circular design.
These people were all very well dressed—no tuxes or ball gowns but suits, ties, and pretty dresses—and they had formed a circle around a couple.
“Do you, Harriet Jessica, take Marvin for your lawfully wedded husband?” intoned a man in a dark suit.
“I do,” said the woman. Her black hair was up in a bun and she was wearing a long, strapless ivory dress with a deep teal sash and a small veil.
“And do you, Marvin, take Harriet Jessica…”
Mack took a step back. He’d walked in on a wedding? At this time of the morning? Who the hell gets married at a distillery at eight in the morning?
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the minister declared. “You may now kiss the bride.”
And then he saw the groom as he leaned in to kiss his new wife.
It was Goose Davenport, an old acquaintance and, according to his grandfather, now an Old Garnet owner.
Mack’s heart skipped several beats when he realized what he’d done.
He’d just crashed a Davenport wedding.
Buy links for BOTTLED BLUEGRASS
Bits About Bourbon-and Horses
Maker’s Mark
Maker’s Mark is located outside the tiny town of Loretto, Kentucky. Established by the Samuels family, the bourbon began advertising in the Wall Street Journal in the early 1980s and quickly built its reputation. Maker’s is noted for its distinctive red-wax dipped bottles (which has been the subject of trademark litigation—Maker’s won).
While perhaps the Maker’s mash bill is the stuff of legend (a Samuels allegedly burned an old family recipe which was supposedly “bad” and then created the Maker’s mash bill), credit for a large part of the brand’s look and mythology belongs to a woman, Margie Samuels, a true marketing genius.
She envisioned the wax-dipped bottles.
She created the font (trademarked) for the lettering on the bottle labels.
She had the idea to make the distillery grounds look like a Bavarian village.
She created the “SIV” mark or logo on the label which resembles a pewter mark.
If there was one “maker” behind the Maker’s Mark brand, it was Margie Samuels.
Old Friends
Pepper’s vision of GarnetBrooke as a retirement and rescue facility for thoroughbreds is inspired by Old Friends at Dream Chase Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky.
The creation of Michael Blowen, a former movie critic for The Boston Globe, Old Friends opened in 2003. After the deaths of two prominent thoroughbreds in slaughterhouses (Exceller and Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner), the farm gained prominence and support. Today you can take a tour for $10 (children get free admission) and meet living legends such as Genuine Reward (son of Genuine Risk, a filly and the 1980 Kentucky Derby winner), Silver Charm (the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner), and War Emblem (the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner). The walking tour takes about two hours.
And, yes, there are two goats: Yahoo and Google.
There is also a miniature horse called Little Silver Charm, who was rescued off a kill truck in New England with some other critters (including ducks) for $40. He is the farm’s unofficial mascot and has his own Facebook page and blog. He was already a named and beloved resident of the farm long before Silver Charm, the Derby winner, became a resident in December 2014 after returning to the United States from Japan.
Several aspects of the physical landscape of Old Friends formed my interpretation of GarnetBrooke, including the main house and horse cemetery at Old Friends. I do imagine GarnetBrooke being much larger than Old Friends, however, and looking a lot like the legendary Calumet Farm in Lexington. One big difference: GarnetBrooke’s colors include red and blue, not just red (like Calumet).
Old Friends really does sell the horsehair bracelets mentioned in the book. The hair is harvested during regular grooming and sent to a jewelry maker in New York State. I have two bracelets: one from Johannesbourbon (had to get that one) and Judge’s Case (the lawyer in me liked it). Bourbon Bubba’s name was inspired by Johannesbourbon, a horse I did get to meet on my most recent visit to Old Friends.
The memorial service described in the Epilogue is based on the same ceremony at Old Friends during the Memorial Day Weekend.
Old Friends is well worth a visit and your support.
I will also add here that after writing Distilled Heat, I saw an article in the local newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, which discussed the possibility of creating a thoroughbred farm type “trail” akin to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail™.
Part of me was excited; the other part of me said “about time!”
While there are tour companies that take tourists to the distilleries and the horse farms, there is no comparable group effort by the thoroughbred industry of which I am aware that is on the level of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail™.
So Pepper and Hannah were far ahead of the curve on the Bourbon-and-Bluegrass tour idea.
Pepper’s Name
Her nickname, Pepper, comes from her red hair. I “discovered” her last name on a pillar outside the gates of Four Roses Distillery. Apparently some of the farmland where the distillery is located was once known as Montrose.
Playlist
Distilled Heat
Heat Rises by Dallas Smith
Blue Moon of Kentucky by Elvis Presley
My Old Kentucky Home by Stephen Foster
The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home
’Tis summer, the people are gay
The corn top’s ripe and the meadow’s in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor
All happy, all merry and bright
By and by hard times come a-knockin’ at the door
Then my old Kentucky home, good night…
Weep no more my lady
Weep no more today
We shall sing one song for my old Kentucky home
For my old Kentucky home far away
(I typed that from memory in one attempt)
About the Author
Jennifer Bramseth is the pen name of a practicing attorney in Kentucky. She lives within minutes of several legendary bourbon distilleries and her house is next to a major horse farm. She enjoys her Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey with water and ice.
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For more information
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Copyright © 2015, 2016 Jennifer Bramseth
All rights reserved
No part of the book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotation in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Also by Jennifer Bramseth
THE BOURBON SPRINGS SERIES
SECRET BLEND
(Bourbon Springs Book 1)
SECRET SAUCE
(Bourbon Springs Short Stories #1)
FILTERED THROUGH BLUE
(Bourbon Springs Book 2)
STANDARD EQUIPMENT
(Bourbon Springs Short Stories #2)
(available exclusively to newsletter subscribers)
ANGELS’ SHARE
(Bourbon Springs Book 3)
DISTILLER’S CHOICE
(Bourbon Springs Book 4)
CEDAR AND CINNAMON
(Bourbon Springs Book 5)
DISTILLED HEAT
(Bourbon Springs Book 6)
LITTLE TREASURES
(Bourbon Springs Short Stories #3)
(available exclusively to newsletter subscribers)
BOTTLED BLUEGRASS
(Bourbon Springs Book 7)
TOAST AND CHAR
(Bourbon Springs Book 8)
WATER OF LIFE
(Bourbon Springs Book 9)
* * *
THE BOURBONLAND SERIES
SINGLE BARREL
(Bourbonland Short Stories and Novellas #1)
(novella; free to newsletter subscribers)
SHARP PRACTICE
(Bourbonland Book 1)
STAVE AND HOOP
(Bourbonland Short Stories and Novellas #2)
(spring/summer 2017)
(novella; free to newsletter subscribers)
NOTICE OF APPEAL
(Bourbonland Book 2)
(spring/summer 2017)
BACKSET
(Bourbonland Short Stories and Novellas #3)
(summer 2017)
(novella; will be free to newsletter subscribers)
WHERE THE FIRE IS HOTTEST
(Bourbonland Book 3)
(late 2017)
BARREL PROOF
(Bourbonland Short Stories and Novellas #4)
(late 2017)
(short story; will be free to newsletter subscribers)
Bourbon Springs Box Set: Volume II, Books 4-6 (Bourbon Springs Box Sets Book 2) Page 89