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“You need to tell her she’s not allowed to be riding her fucking horse alone without anyone here.” He motions with his head toward Lilah. “It’s a security hazard.”
“A security hazard,” I repeat the words because I don’t think I’ve ever heard that sentence before in my life.
“Yeah, like if she fucking falls and breaks her neck, she’s going to sue your ass, and then I’ll be out of a job.” He tries to play it off, but my eyebrows just pinch together.
“You mean safety hazard,” I tell him, trying to hide the fact I’m joking. “Just got off the phone with my father.” I look over at him. “You been telling tales?”
His eyebrows pinch together before he glares at me. “You think I have time to be sitting around, twirling my hair, and talking about you?” His voice is low as he shakes his head. “You better check your sources.” I nod at him, not saying a word. “Could be the fact you walked into your house in the morning after spending the night God knows where.” I don’t turn back to look at him. “I see the cat’s got your tongue.” He turns his head toward the fence. “I have things to do”—he turns to walk away from me—“and it’s not sit here and discuss the shit you are up to.”
I watch him walk away without saying anything because, frankly, there is nothing to be said. The last two nights were a mistake, a mistake I will never repeat again. At least that is what I plan to do.
Chapter Fourteen
Autumn
I make the mistake of looking out the window and seeing him walk away. His head is down, probably in shame that he spent another night with me. I close my eyes so I don’t have to watch him walk away and make sure when I turn my head on the pillow. Opening my eyes after a second, I see the dent from his head on the pillow beside me. I turn on my side, grabbing the cover and pulling it up to my neck, which is a mistake because I smell him all around me.
Tossing the cover off me, I get up and strip the bed again for the second time in three days. I toss the bedding inside the washer while I walk to the kitchen, making myself a coffee before heading back to the bathroom and starting the shower. The mark on my neck has faded a bit, but not enough that I don’t need to cover it up.
I leave my house an hour later when the sheets are back in the dryer. I have another pair of blue jeans on with a baby-blue-and-white striped linen button-down shirt that is rolled up to my elbows. My hair is half dry since my shower, and all I did was run a comb through it. I get to the distillery and see I’m the only one here, so I hit up the bakery.
Walking in and spotting a couple of people, I avoid eye contact, as usual, focusing on the line in front of me, getting my coffee, and getting to my desk to tackle the past due invoices. I hold my hands in front of me, trying not to let everyone see they are shaking with nerves as I step to the counter. “Morning, Autumn.”
“Morning, Ms. Maddie.” I smile. “Can I have one sugar donut and a cup of coffee, black, please?” I reach in my purse to grab my wallet as she rings me up, and I hand her the five dollars. The rest of the change is put in the glass tip jar by the register.
“Sure thing.” She turns and walks to the paper coffee cups, filling the blue cup and then putting on the white lid, walking to me and setting it down in front of me before she grabs the donut and hands me the blue bag. “See you tomorrow.” I nod at her, grabbing the bag and the coffee in one hand before walking out.
I keep my head forward as I walk, not making the mistake I did yesterday. I take the keys out to the bar and open the door, locking it after me before making my way to the distillery office. Switching on the lights, I see the whole floor light up as I walk to the office. Putting my purse in the chair in front of the desk, I pull out the desk chair and sit down.
I flip open the laptop and turn it on as I pull off a piece of donut and pop it in my mouth. The sugar hitting my tongue makes me smile before I flip open the little tab to take a sip of the coffee. “Good morning,” I tell myself before turning to the side, taking the ledger book off the cabinet, and opening it.
The white envelopes are all stacked one on top of each other, all of them stamped with the red past due mark. I close my eyes and take a deep inhale before pulling out the white paper and unfolding it. Seeing the amount past due, I grab a pen and write down the amount. I do the same thing when I go through the whole stack, then look at the total. “Fuck.” That’s the only thing I can say, leaning back in the chair.
I pull up my bank balance and see I have just enough to cover it all, but then I won’t have anything left to help do all the things I want to do to bring new people in. As I go through the stack of bills again, I hear footsteps coming from the back and look out the window to see Brady coming in.
“Hey,” he says, picking up my purse and putting it on the corner of the desk before sitting down in the chair. “What are you up to?”
“I’m up to these.” I pick up the stack of white papers. “It’s a lot worse than I thought it would be.” He just nods. “I’ve been thinking.”
He puts his head back and groans, “That is never a good thing.” I fold my arms in front of me.
“Well, you don’t even know what I’m thinking.” I tap the desk. “But here is what we are going to do. I called the Morgans.” I mention the distribution company we used to use some ten years ago.
“They dropped us,” he reminds me.
“Yes, but that was then, this is now. Time has passed, and I found out the old man has retired, and his son is in charge.” I tilt my head to the side. “Then I think we should offer a tasting menu for businesses.” His eyebrows pinch together. “We have that room off the bar. We can get some tables in there. Have companies come in and do their parties here. Get bachelor parties and bachelorette parties. Couples’ night with the chef. There are a bunch of things we could do.”
“I never thought about that,” he admits.
“Then there is bringing a cook in from five to ten every night.” He shakes his head. “Too bad, it’s happening and I have interviews next week. Small menu, I’m thinking burgers, fish and chips, a good cut of steak with a side, and a sample of whiskey. We can work on the menu with the cook we hire.” He leans forward. “We also do a five-to-seven two-for-one. After work people drop in before going home.”
“They have to come in.” His voice goes high.
“If you offer them two-for-one, trust me, people will come in. Maybe not in droves, but as time goes on, word of mouth.” He puts his head back, looking up at the ceiling. “Listen, we have to try. If we don’t try, then they win.Also, Brady, I was thinking since my samples were such a hit, I think we should add whiskey flights to the drink menu. It’s relatively inexpensive to order a few flight sets for now. If business picks up, we can invest in more.”
“What are you going to tell Dad?”
“I’m not going to tell Dad anything,” I admit. “He has other things to worry about than worrying about this.” He nods. “I also am going to be working nights. You need some time off to sleep. You look like shit.”
