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“Scotch sounds good.”
“Great. Have a seat and I’ll get it.”
The small living room had a fireplace with a flowery armchair beside it. Across sat one of those two-seater sofas in dark blue that Dog planted his ass on. Maybe she’d sit close.
Ice clinked against glass in the kitchen, and Charley entered the living room holding two tumblers in one hand and a bottle ofMcCallan15 in the other. Damn, she hadn’t been kidding about a nice scotch.
“I didn’t think to ask before I gave you ice,” she said as she sat beside him, close enough for their knees to touch. She put the bottle and glasses on the coffee table. “I can dump it out if you’d prefer it neat. It’s habit to put it in—it’s how my dad took it. We used to sit in this very room and toast to almost anything. It didn’t matter what, as long as we got to drink scotch after.”
“Ice is fine.” Dog picked up the bottle. It was half full. “Did he help you empty this one?”
Her face fell. “No. I, um…I spent a lot of time here after he died. Wallowed in liquor for a while. Dad never touched that bottle. Only me.”
He poured two fingers of the brown liquid in each glass.
“Oh, please, Dog,” she said, sizing up the glass with a frown. “You can do better than that. It’s been a day.”
“Doc said to take it easy.”
Her lips flattened. “He also said I could return to my normal activities. Drinking McCallan is one of my normal activities.” She smiled a little. “Plus, the ice is going to dilute it, sadly. I really should switch to neat but old habits and all that. More, please.”
Dog added another inch of liquid to both glasses and set the bottle down. He raised his glass. “To having a father you loved.”
She cocked her head. “You didn’t love yours?”
“Not in the least.”
She frowned. “Sounds like there’s a story there. Care to share?”
“Not especially.”
She laughed. “Well, I won’t press.” She raised her glass. “To having a father I loved and to making new memories in my favorite place in the world.”
They tapped glasses, and Dog took a sip. Jesus, it was smooth.
“This cottage is your favorite place?”
“This cottage, Edwards, the sum total of it. Daddy used to bring us here to get away from work. He loved the firm, mind you, but family time away made him happy.”
Dog shook his head. “Can’t believe someone is so sold on Edwards. Feels small to me. Only thing that makes it worthwhile is the club.”
Charley looked around the room, gaze moving from furniture to fireplace to window, stopping only when she took a sip from her glass. “I love the smallness. The slow pace. I’d move here in a second if I didn’t have work.”
Okay, now, that thought pleased Dog way more than it should have. “So quit, or whatever you have to do when you own a business like yours.”
Charley stared at him but had a distant look in her gaze. “I added a new client yesterday. With more businesses using tax software and big, publicly held companies bound to ‘The Big Four’ accounting firms, small operations like mine are getting squeezed out of existence. Daddy knew we needed to expand into new markets just to keep afloat. The new account will make expansion into Knoxville a viable possibility. Maybe set up an office there one day.”
“That what you want to do?”
She sighed and studied her glass. “Not really. I’ve had an offer to sell.”
Dog’s heartbeat spiked. “Well, there you go. Problem solved.”
Her face twisted in what looked like pain for a second, and he didn’t like it at all. He leaned toward her and ran his fingers up her forearm. He wanted to soothe her, but the smooth skin did the opposite for him. “What’d I say?”
She shook her head but didn’t look at him. “Nothing really. I’ve made promises to other clients. I have to protect my employees. They’re like family. And besides, I…let’s just say I owe it to my father to stay.”
Would her father want her to stay no matter the cost to her health? Obviously, something had put her in the hospital, and he guessed it was the stress of a job she didn’t want to do. He understood duty and responsibility—he had that with the club. But his duty allowed him to beat the shit out of someone he hated. Charley didn’t have that to look forward to.
