Page 67 of Tennessee Trouble

I giggle, stealing another kiss. “Good. I know the perfect place. Plus, it’s warm there.”

“It’s a date.”

18

LINDEE

“Fix it! Now, please.”

Mikayla’s voice bounces off the old oak casks that line that hallway of the distillery rickhouse. She already sounds tense, and we haven’t even made our grand entrance into Spring Fling yet.

Oh boy…

I tighten my looped arm around Brandt’s and suck in a deep breath, trying to find…something. Comfort? Support? The ovaries to continue to walk in there and not turn tail to head back to my place? All of the above, I guess.

Placing his hand on my arm, Brandt gives me a little squeeze, providing exactly what I need. Something that is nameless and fleeting, while being easy and weight-lifting. Some weird magic that only he possesses.

We continue our way down the hall, stopping short of where Kyra is standing with her husband, Davis, in front of a panicked Mikayla. Rylan and his best friend, Declan, are off to the side, snickering. Oh…that ought to be good.

“I don’t know what I’m fixing,” Kyra responds, seemingly already out of patience.

“I don’t know what happened or which one of you did this,” Mikayla replies, holding her phone out and shaking it at Kyra. She throws a glare at the boys, who aren’t even trying to hide their amusement at her annoyance. “But there are dinosaur sex toys in my feed! Make it go away!”

The way she harshly whispers sex toys, as if we’re not all adults here or somehow might not know what a dildo is, might be the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time. Unlike my brother, though, I’m able to stifle my laugh. Barely. Either way, it’s enough that she doesn’t notice our arrival, still focused on trying to thrust her phone at our little sister.

“You must have clicked on something,” Kyra offers. “Or searched for…”

“I did no such thing!”

Another burst of laughter comes from the boys—this time Davis joining in—which earns all of them a nasty look. Don’t blame her there. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t find their amusement funny either. I am not in her shoes though, and this really is better than anything on TV at the moment.

“Try clearing your cache and browsing history,” Davis tries, managing to straighten up long enough to make the suggestion. “That should help delete whatever it’s pulling to make that suggestion.”

“Or you could take the hint the universe is giving you, Mickey,” Declan tosses out.

“Don’t call me that.” She sneers in his direction, as if that is somehow going to stop him from using the nickname she hates. He’s done it for as long as I can remember, and I always figured at some point she would realize that he does it because she hates it. But apparently not, because here we are in our thirties and it’s still going. “And just what would I do with that?”

“Want me to explain it to you?” Declan smirks, his dental ad perfect smile only adding to the effect. “I promise to go into great detail.”

“Ugggh.” Rolling her eyes, my older sister shoves her phone of Kyra, before turning on her heels and walking off. “Just fix it!”

Kyra looks around at all of us, shrugging. “I don’t know what she thinks I’m going to do.”

“At this point, I’d buy her a cockasaurus if I thought it would help,” Rylan comments.

“I’d go with the Tyrana-wreckapuss if I were you,” Declan tacks on, reducing them both to laughter again.

Next to me, Brandt breaks down, joining in with them. His laughter is deep and rich, filling me with a warm sensation not too dissimilar to when I take that first sip of Tennessee Trouble. The difference here is that I can listen to Brandt all night and not end up with a hangover in the morning.

Just potentially a broken heart later on…

“Brandt Rawlins!” Rylan exclaims, loud enough that I can promise that Mikayla heard it wherever she is in this hallway. The storage area we’re congregated in while waiting to make our entrance isn’t that big, despite the massive building, and sound carries like it’s an echo chamber.

“Hey, man.” Brandt unloops our arms, extending his hand to my brother. They shake hands, but in a relaxed way of two old friends rather than men who have only met once. That once being a rather tense business meeting. “Good to see you.”

“Same. Oh, I don’t think I actually introduced you at the Post,” Rylan says, pointing at his bestie.

At the Post? When were the three of them together at the Post?