Chapter 6
“Age is just a number.” ~ Kai
Kai
“I expect us to win the escape room this year,” Eli says.
This weekend is the Bootlegger Escape Room festival. Teams compete to be the fastest through a bootlegger themed escape room. Last year, we lost to the owners of the Five Fathoms Brewery. Although, I’m pretty sure the owners – Sophia, Chloe, Nova, Maya, and Paisley – cheated somehow.
I wiggle my eyebrows. “Afraid you’ll lose to your fiancé?”
Paisley – the master brewer at Five Fathoms – and Eli fell in love when a hurricane destroyed the brewing facilities and the brewery temporarily brewed beer in the distillery.
I had a blast watching those two try and hide their office ‘trysts’ from everyone. Did they seriously think they could hide from us? As if.
Speaking of office trysts. “Where’s Blossom?” I ask Jaxon.
“My wife didn’t want to participate in the rivalry between the distillery and the brewery. ”
Makes sense. Blossom is Paisley’s assistant, but she’s also married to Jaxon, the master distiller of Buccaneer’s Whiskey . Plus, she’s the most competitive woman I’ve ever met and can’t handle losing.
“She’s meeting us at Rumrunner later,” he adds.
My pulse spikes at the mention of Rumrunner. Harper. I can’t wait to see her again. She claims she won’t ever give me a chance, but I saw the way her blue eyes sparkled when I touched her. I know she felt the spark between us. It was undeniable.
“I’m surprised Harper agreed to provide the winning prize again this year,” Rhett says.
I frown. The winning prize is free drinks at Rumrunner all night. “Why wouldn’t she agree?”
Harper can be grumpy, but she’s a native Smuggler. She wouldn’t refuse to provide a prize for a local festival.
“She asked for a payment plan to pay for her latest delivery of whiskey.”
I stare at Rhett but he doesn’t crack a joke or glance away to indicate he’s lying. Shit. Is Harper’s business in trouble? I don’t get it. Rumrunner is packed every time I’m there. She should be making a good living.
“Raider brothers!” Lana, the mayor of Smuggler’s Rest, shouts. “You’re up next!”
Eli herds us toward the starting line. “We are winning this.”
“Did we win?” Miles asks an hour later as he stumbles his way down the alley toward Rumrunner .
Zane throws an arm around his shoulder and they nearly collapse on the ground. I rush to help them stand.
“We did win, didn’t we?” Zane slurs.
Eli grunts. “We tied. I don’t understand how we tied.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Maybe because your ‘idea’ was stolen from Paisley.”
Every time you complete a task during the escape room quest, you have to drink a shot of moonshine. Except there’s actually no requirement for each participant to drink a shot. The rule is, the shots have to be drunk.
It’s a loophole Paisley discovered. I knew they cheated last year! She made the unfortunate mistake of telling Eli about it.
When he told us about the loophole, Zane and Miles volunteered to drink all of the shots of moonshine so that Rhett, Jaxon, and Eli would be sober enough to answer the escape room questions.
Jaxon glares at Zane. “We would have won outright if you hadn’t tried to answer a question.”
“How was I supposed to know moonshine during Prohibition was made of corn?”
Jaxon purses his lips. “I told you the answer and you refused to listen.”
“But rye is a legitimate grain for whiskey making,” Zane insists.
“We weren’t discussing whiskey making.”
We arrive at the hidden door to the speakeasy and I knock. Trent opens the speakeasy window and scowls when he notices me keeping Miles upright .
“We’re here to celebrate,” Miles slurs.
The bouncer opens the door and motions us inside. “Don’t cause any trouble or Harper will kick you out.”
I glance toward the bar. Harper is scowling at us.
“We’ll behave,” I yell across the room toward her.
“Didn’t know the word behave was in your vocabulary.”
I shrug. “The teachers at school were always telling me to behave. Not sure what they meant.”
She shakes her head but her lips tip up. I accept victory for this round.
I half-drag, half-carry Miles to our usual table. We pass the women from the brewery on the way.
“Losers!” Sophia taunts.
“If we’re losers, you are as well since we tied,” Jaxon says.
She shakes a finger at him. “Don’t use your nerdy logic on me, whiskey boy. I’m not Blossom.”
Paisley frowns. “If you had let me answer the question on the main difference between distilling spirits and brewing beer, we would have won.”
Sophia’s nose wrinkles. “I was certain higher temperatures for distilling was the answer.”
Paisley purses her lips. “And you wonder why I insist you don’t set foot in my brewery.”
Miles pitches forward, but I manage to stop him before he face plants on the floor of the bar. “A little help here.”
Zane rushes to help and trips over his own feet. Rhett catches him and steers him toward our table.
Harper arrives with a bottle of moonshine and six glasses .
“Moonshine!” Miles cheers and Zane high-fives him. Except he misses Miles’s hand and ends up slapping his face.
“Why are you slapping me?” Miles asks as he rubs his cheek.
Harper snatches the bottle back. “Maybe moonshine isn’t a good idea. Shall I bring you some coffee?”
“Coffee?” Miles feigns throwing up. “I want moonshine.”
“And I don’t want to clean vomit up. You can’t always get what you want.”
“I’ll clean up any vomit,” I offer.
Zane rears back. “You’ll clean up vomit? You hate to clean up vomit. You’re a sympa- sympa…”
“Sympathetic vomiter,” Miles offers.
I shrug. “I can wear a face mask.”
“Whoa. You wear a face mask?” Miles leans close to meet my gaze and nearly headbutts me. “Are you trying to flirt?”
“Flirt?” Zane attempts to snort and ends up coughing instead.
I sigh. “Maybe coffee is a good idea after all.”
Miles stands. “Who is this man?” He points at me. I duck before he pokes me in my eye since his aim isn’t the best at the moment. “Does anyone know who this man is?”
“Dude, if you’ve forgotten I’m your brother, you’ve had enough to drink.”
“My brother? My brother?” He weaves and I pull him back down before he falls. “My brother doesn’t drink coffee in a bar.”
Everyone in the bar aims their gaze at me. My cheeks warm but I ignore it .
“I love coffee.”
“In the morning when you deign to arrive at the office,” Jaxon says.
Harper sets the bottle back on the table. “I don’t have time for this. If you want coffee, you can order at the bar.”
I grin at her. “Thank you for bringing the moonshine.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Why are you sober?”
Because I didn’t want to be under the influence when I saw her again.
“Thanks for noticing. I knew you liked me.” I wink.
She huffs. “Give it up, man-child.”
“Never, Slugger.”
She grunts before marching away. I keep my eyes on her ass. The woman has curves for days. Curves I want to explore with my hands and my tongue. My cock twitches. It’s tired of waiting. Too bad. It’s going to have to wait some more.
Harper isn’t some woman you pick up at a bar for a quickie. She’s a woman who needs to be wooed.
Speaking of wooing. I stand. “Excuse me.”
Eli groans. “Kai.”
I blink and give him my best innocent look. “What?”
“Give it up. Harper isn’t interested in you.”
“She wasn’t complaining when I carried her the other day.”
Nope. She smuggled into me and petted my abs. She’s interested. But she’s resisting me because she thinks I’m too young. It’s the twenty-first century. Age doesn’t matter anymore. It’s just a number .
I saunter toward the bar, but when Harper notices me, she scurries to the storage room. Good. She’d fight me for what I’m about to do.
“I don’t have time for whatever this is,” Sloane says when I reach the bar.
“I’m not here to cause problems. I’m here to help.”
“If you’re here to help.” She throws a towel at me. “Get to pouring the beer.”
This is working out even better than I expected. I make my way behind the bar.
“Where’s the order?”
She shows me how to bring up the orders, and I get to work.
“What are you doing?” I nearly jump at Harper’s question. I manage to stop tapping the beer before it overflows and place it on the waiting tray.
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
She scowls. “I didn’t hire you to work behind my bar.”
“I’m merely helping out. If you don’t need my help, I’ll go back to my brothers.” I nod toward the line waiting for service at the bar.
“I can handle this.”
“I know you can. My slugger can handle anything.”
She blows out a breath. “I’m not your slugger. I’m not a slugger at all. I wasn’t the one handing out punches.”
“Because you were too busy being distracted by my manly chest on display.” I wiggle my eyebrows.
She snorts. “I was merely surprised you didn’t have a chest full of tattoos you got while you were too drunk to remember. ”
“No tattoos. I don’t let any random person touch my chest.”
Her eyes flare before she clears her throat. “If you want to spend your Saturday night working for free, be my guest.”
“Oh, now I’m your guest.”
“I can’t with you. I just can’t…” She throws her arms in the air before walking off.
Sloane nudges me. “More beer pouring and less drooling over the boss, Casanova.”
I get back to work but this time with a smile on my face. Harper is warming to me. I’ll keep hammering at the ice around her heart until she finally melts in my arms.
All the effort will be worth it in the end. Harper’s worth it.