AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wasn’t totally mollified. I was going to need to do some research on that. I wasn’t cool with taking down a whole forest so people could sip bourbon.
“How many bottles are you producing right now?”
“Ten thousand bottles a day.”
Holy crap. “Wow. I guess we need to sell some bourbon.”
Ian laughed. “That’s up to you guys. I make it, you sell it. Our master distiller, Henry, isn’t in today, but we should still go and do a tasting.”
I wasn’t really hyped to sling back a bunch of bourbon but these were just teeny tiny tasting sips, right?
Wrong.
Someone named Becky was waiting for us in a meeting room with flights of bourbon. Not shot glasses. Full glasses. Alarmed, I looked at MacKay like he was going to save me.
“That’s a lot of bourbon.”
“Don’t you want a Kentucky kiss?” he asked.
My eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”
“It’s when the bourbon hits your lips. Here, you take the bourbon and move it around your mouth before you swallow.” He demonstrated with a glass off of the table. “Then the second sip you take it straight down and that burn you feel is the Kentucky hug.”
That was a lot of kissing and hugging going on.
MacKay handed me a glass. He described what the mash was made of, how long it had aged, and what flavor I should expect. I barely heard a word he said. I was staring down into the amber liquid thinking this was a bad idea.
But my job was on the line.
I took a small sip and swished. I wasn’t sure what I was searching for but it just tasted like alcohol to me. Then I took another larger sip and swallowed immediately. The burn was real. The burn was strong.
I tried not to shudder. “That was a big ole hug, oh my word. Like a bear hug. I feel the burn everywhere.”
MacKay looked amused. He downed the rest of his glass in one swallow.
“Try this one,” Ian said, shoving a glass at me like a kid sharing his candy. “That one should have given you a taste of caramel and a little bit of the oak.”
Sure. If he said so.
“This one is fruitier,” Becky said, pointing to the third glass. “You’ll notice that on the back of your tongue.”
I didn’t notice anything on the back of my tongue except that it seemed to be going numb. By the time I had suffered down all four varieties they wanted me to try, I was rounding the corner toward tipsy.
Or straight up drunk.
Becky laughed and smiled easily and she reminded me of my mother. I suddenly felt a wave of melancholy over moving away from my mom. She was a good mom. A great mom.
I widened my eyes, trying not to allow tears to spring forth. I felt a little bit like I was floating just slightly above the carpet. I looked down at my feet to check to make sure they were on solid ground.
“Faith?” MacKay asked, leaning a little closer to me.
“Yes?” I turned quickly and swayed against him.
“Are you drunk?”
“I think I might be.” I was.
“You haven’t eaten since those pancakes, have you?”
