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She blew out an exhausted breath.“Who the hell knows, I’m just thankful the fascination seems to end with small vegetables. I don’t have time for a trip to the emergency room.”
She seemed stressed out.“Do you want tea?” I didn’t drink tea or coffee, but I was sure some tea bags lurked in the back of a cupboard somewhere.
“No.” Her car keys jingled in her hand.“I have to get the girls from school soon, I just wanted to check if it’s still okay to pick them up on Friday? I have a shift at the pub.”
“Of course. I collect them every Friday.” Ever since her son of a bitch ex-husband up and deserted his family.
“Right.” She hesitated.“So… Guess who I had lunch with this afternoon?”
I frowned, thinking I’d missed part of the conversation.“Uhh… June? Juniper?”
“April Sinclair.” At my flat expression, she hurried on.“Don’t play dumb, I know you’ve seen her.”
Oh, I’d seen her all right.Shirt rucked. Legs bare. Lacy bra in my bedside drawer.“Murphy,” I choked.“Her last name is Murphy.” I didn’t know why that little detail bugged me so much.
“Whatever. We had lunch. Well, tea and cake technically.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re friends.”
“When was the last time she spoke to you?”
She folded her arms defensively.“I don’t know, the same timeIspoke toher—three years ago maybe.”
“So not that good of friends,” I pointed out.
She ignored my snide comment.“You know what else? She looked really pretty too.” She’d always been really pretty, every man on the planet was well aware of that fact. It was hardly news.“Of course, you already knew that,” she continued.
Picking up my pace by the metal vat, I went back to stirring, shifting the grain into the water with more force than necessary.“Whatever you’re trying to say, Heather, spit it out. You know I hate word games.”
Her breath whistled.“She said you were like this.”
My heart gave a painful thump.“She mentioned me?” My fingers flexed around the wood.
“Yep. She said you were mean to her.”Mean. The world rolled around in my brain.“And you know what I said to her? I said,‘That’s strange, my big, lovable brother can be a little gruff, but never mean.’”
“Get to the point,” I gritted out, hating that I was only proving her right.
“I want to make sure you’re all right.”
“I’m fine. Just busy.”Too busy for this,I almost snarled, only just swallowing the words.
She held up both her hands.“Fine. I’ll get out of your hair.”
“That’s not what I meant—” I took a step toward her.
She halted at the door.“All I wanted to say is, I know you have a lot going on here, but try to go easy on April. She tried to hide it today, but she seemed really sad.”
Sad.I filed the word away, right next tomean.
“She should be sad, her grandfather just died.” I knew if I had any chance of convincing April to sell me the distillery, I needed to play nice. Normally I was good at playing nice. No one would call me friendly, but dammit, I could be agreeable. I’d made agreeable a bloody art form. April hadn’t even been here for twenty-four hours and I already felt more agitated than I had in years.
“Exactly.” She left me with that parting shot.
Stalking across the malting room, I yanked the lever off and hit the timer on the wall for twelve hours. With Boy at my side, we went straight to the dunnage, my body craving the punishing strain of shifting and hauling barrels.
Sad. The word struck me again and I slammed the door behind me, old hinges protesting under the force. I was in near darkness and the cool air pricked my skin. Even the scent of whisky, wood, and damp earth wasn’t enough to calm me.
