"Hmm. I would have never guessed."
"Yeah, we're night and day, so I went to cosmetology school. Tried to make it in LA for a few months. Ran out of money, and now I'm back," she said, apparently not too thrilled with how things had ended up. "It wasn't exactly what I had planned for my life, but it is what it is. I'm just going to try and make the most of it."
"For what it's worth," I said, watching as she finished trimming back my cuticles. "You give a kick-ass manicure."
"Girl, I know." She grinned. "When we're finished here, I'm going to give you a blowout that will rock your world."
"I can't wait."
Chapter Five
Luke
Monday could kiss my ass. Especially this Monday.
Starting and finishing the day at Wayne's wasn't what I'd planned. First the hose on the truck was crap, and then I had to go back and get a new spark plug for the tractor we used to mow with. On top of that, I'd tried all day not to think about Charlotte. Which was impossible. Sexy little minx kept leaping to the forefront of my mind, giving me the same kind of hell she had that morning. It wasn't my day, that was for damn sure.
When Duke suggested we grab a bucket of beers at the Drunk Skunk-Shady Grove's local watering hole-I'd jumped at the chance to drown my frustrations. Now I was three beers in, and things were starting to look up.
"Here's to giving Wayne way more money than he deserves," Duke said, holding up his beer.
"Seriously." I clinked my bottle against his. "Can we please just have a month where nothing mechanical breaks down?"
"Amen," Duke agreed.
The fact was, we were so damn close to turning a profit at the distillery, we could taste it. With our next batch nearing age, we'd have a new lot to send out to distributors at the end of next month. Hopefully, from there we could finally make Wilder Whiskey a household name.
My brother and I drank our beers, but it didn't take long for him to be distracted by what he called "the local talent."
"You're seriously going to ditch me for the same girls you've been running game on since high school?" I asked when he told me he was going to the back room to play pool with Lacy Danvers.
"First of all, I don't need game," he said. "Look at me."
I shook my head. His arrogance never ceased to amaze me.
"Second, the last time Lacy Danvers was on the roster was junior year. Not sure if you remember, but she got knocked up after high school and married that prick from Hill Crest."
Hill Crest was a rival school a county over. The same school that beat us in the playoffs our senior year. We were still licking our wounds from that loss over a decade later.
"Oh yeah."
"She's divorced now and back with her parents," he explained. "She could be the one that got away, brother."
"I doubt that," I said. Duke hadn't so much as mentioned the girl in ten years. There was no point in arguing the fact that as soon as Duke sealed the deal with Lacy, he'd be on to the next.
That was where he and I differed. He had the attention span of a gnat when it came to women. I, on the other hand, was monogamous to a fault. Sometimes I wished I could be more like Duke with his one-night stands and not giving a shit. I guessed he was more like Mom in that way, able to just shut it off. Hell, he could probably leave Shady Grove just like Mom did and never even glance over his shoulder. Lucky for me, he'd stuck around. After a day like today, I wasn't sure I could handle all this on my own.
"She could be your sister-in-law," Duke said as he slapped a hand on my back.
I laughed. "I'll get the invitations made up."
"Before you do that, why don't you head on over there and take care of that problem we talked about earlier." He nodded in the direction of one very sexy brunette saddled up to the oak bar. "Might turn your Monday around."
I rolled my eyes and shook my head as he walked away. As soon as he was out of sight, I glanced over my shoulder and caught Charlotte's reflection in the mirror that hung behind the bar. Even in the muted lighting, I could see the blue of her eyes. I watched as she took a drink of the clear liquor she had poured over ice, her finger skillfully keeping the lime wedge that floated on top from slipping against her lips.
Man up. You've got nothing to lose.
She already hated me. The way I saw it, the night would either end with her still hating me-or maybe, just maybe, we'd make peace. My dick perked up in interest. On top of that, I'd come up with a very interesting proposition for her, and I was hoping like hell that I could make her an offer she couldn't refuse.