Page 88 of Tennessee Trouble

I shrug, the anger in me starting to outweigh the hurt. “Why not? All it would have taken was a quick Internet search. It’s not like the transfer of Tennessee Trouble to my siblings and me wasn’t news. The article about it in Bourbon Today is framed in the lobby. Pretty sure there is another copy in the archive. I know Kyra posted about it on the ForU app.”

“Yeah, because I’m so great with that app…” he mumbles.

“Good enough to find a Wink & Shine video and make a comment. One that sat right on the line of funny and offensive, promising that it would stir something up.”

“Lindee, that’s not who I am. You know that. You know the real me. The one who loves all this as much as you do.”

“I don’t know who you are! I know—or thought I did—what you led me to believe. But none of that was real. Because this entire time, while I was letting you tell me how wonderful and beautiful and brilliant I am, while I was believing all that and letting you into my life and my family, you were working behind my back. Waiting for the moment you could best us again.”

“You have it wrong. I didn’t know who you were, and was just as surprised as everyone else when it turned out we were on opposite sides of things. And that fucking comment…” Turning around, he starts to pace, running his hands through his hair. “I hate that I made it. I’m embarrassed and feel like I’m about two inches tall that I sank to that level. I’ve been trying to make it right ever since.”

“By fucking me? Or by fucking me over?”

“No!” Brandt’s voice booms, crackling through the still air. “By trying to help you harness everything I see in you. I came here to apologize, and when that wasn’t enough, I tried to find something that would make up for it. To give your family what it wanted. So I did. I helped you create something that is going to help your sister land that deal. Should I have told you that I was also a contestant? Sure. But that’s irrelevant.”

Irrelevant.

He thinks lying to me is irrelevant. Well, then. That answers that.

Then there’s the rest of it.

“Help me harness? So you think I couldn’t have done this without you?” I snap. “And give my family what they wanted, like you’re some sort of boozy fairy godmother? Tennessee Trouble has a very long and rich tradition and history of success without the help of some backwoods brewmaster!”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s what you said.”

Brandt balls his fists, his mouth pressing into a straight line as he unfurls them and takes a step closer to me.

“Call me whatever you want. You have every right to be mad. I deserve the anger; I won’t deny that. But I did it for the right reasons. And yes, I realize that doing the wrong thing for the right reasons doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t cancel out all the wrong. That doesn’t mean my heart wasn’t in this. That it isn’t still in this. That I’m not standing here, ready to turn my entire life upside down to partner with you. Because this—you and me—is all that matters now.”

“There is no you and me.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do.”

Squaring up my shoulders, I hold my breath until my lungs hurt, crying out to give them relief, then let it all out at once. In a single, heavy sigh.

“Know what the worst part of all of this is?” I ask, turning to head back inside. “That Mikayla was right. She told me that you were using me somehow and I needed to keep my distance. I didn’t listen. I let myself believe that she was wrong. She didn’t know you like I did. She didn’t understand that I thought I’d found the person who understood me and my quirks.”

I was wrong. So, so wrong…

“Actually, I take that back. Mikayla being right isn’t the worst part. It fucking sucks, and I’m sure I’m not going to hear the end of it. But there is a worse part.” I close my eyes, trying to contain it all. “The worst part of all of this was that I was falling for you. That I trusted you. That I thought…” I steady myself, willing every fiber in my being not to unravel. “Never mind…”

“You did find that person, Lindee. I am that person. You can trust me. And⁠—”

“No, I didn’t. Because that person wouldn’t have lied to me. Wouldn’t have kept this from me. He would have told me so we could celebrate and do this together. But you didn’t think you could.”

I force myself to swallow, trying to remove the bitterness on my tongue. It’s no use.

Turning to head back inside, I swipe at my cheeks, drying them off. I need to find my siblings. I have no idea how I’m going to tell them.

More importantly, I need to go vote for my drink. Get Kyra working on rounding up votes and putting it out into the world. It’s bad enough that Mikayla was right about Brandt. I’m not also going to lose this award.

“Lindee, wait…” Brandt calls after me. “We’re not done⁠—”

I heave open the door, the air-conditioned coolness swooshing around me, pausing long enough to throw a look back over my shoulder.