Chapter Six
Cash
I wake up to the sound of footsteps and a tiny little hand pushing my shoulder. “Dad, why are you sleeping in Ms. V’s room? Did she have a bad dream?” Cora climbs into bed next to me, cuddling under my free arm.
This is going to be a problem. I can’t believe I didn’t leave the room last night, though I’d wager to say that was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in years.
“Yeah,” Violet says, tucking her long dark hair behind her ear as she sits up from the bed. “I had a dream that this big, hairy giant snuck into my room and watched me.”
I glance toward Violet and grin. “A giant, huh?”
She nods, pretending to be serious. “He was huge!”
“What did he watch you do?” Cora’s eyes are wide as she waits for a response.
“Well, the giant saw me going crazy, so he went crazy too, and then we fell asleep. I’m thankful your dad came to help me. It was so realistic that I got a little scared.”
Cora gasps. “Dad says giants aren’t real anymore. They all turned into mountains and rocks or something.” She bounces off the mattress. “Can we eat candy breakfast now?”
“Definitely.” Violet grins and rubs her eyes as she pushes toward the edge of the bed.
“Okay!” Cora races out the door, making a B-Line for Jake’s room across the hall. Every morning, without fail, she wakes that boy with a loud whirlwind of energy. I reckon he’ll pay her back when they’re teenagers.
Teenagers! It’s hard to believe these two cute kids will be fire-breathing teenagers someday.
“So,” I lean into Violet’s head for a kiss, “a giant came after you in your dreams, huh?”
She pauses and stares at me, as though she’s unsure of what to make of the early morning affection.
Can’t say I blame her. I’m not sure what I’m doing either. Last night was a night I’ll never forget, and I want more, but I know I can’t go back there again.
“He did.” She grins. “I feel bad for him, though. I don’t think he got what he needed.”
I nod slowly, admiring this morning version of her, hair wildly everywhere and an unguarded smile. “Oh, he’s always going to want more.”
“Me too.”
Jesus Christ. As my cock hardens, my worst fears are confirmed.
I’m confident now that this is hell.
It was one thing to want her from a distance, but knowing what she tastes like, knowing what she sounds like, knowing I was so close to sinking inside of her… it’s a fresh type of torture.
God damn it all!
I want to tell her she’s mine, demand she never speak to another man again, and fuck her little pussy raw until she’s dripping my come everywhere she goes, but that’s the problem… and even the Devil knows it!
I exhale loudly and roll up from the bed, pacing the room as I drag my hand down over my beard, fighting with the beast clawing at me from the inside out.
I shouldn’t want her like I do. I shouldn’t have the thoughts I do.
I was there when she graduated high school.
Hell, I brought the fucking balloons. Sure, it’s been years since then, but still, I’d bet this is one of those seven deadly sins everyone was warned about.
“Are those horses supposed to be in the creek?” Her gaze narrows as she leans forward. “Sorry, I just saw them out of the corner of my eye, and—”
“No,” I glance out the back window to see my gelding guiding the herd toward the rising creek bed, “they’re not. I better get changed and get down there. Just promise me that we can talk tonight.”
“Sounds good! You want me to bring you some breakfast after I get the kids to summer camp?”
“Always,” I say, leaning into her head again for yet another kiss I’m not supposed to want.
Fuck. This is going to be hard.
*****
It’s another cool, rainy morning, which doesn’t fare well for a property like this.
Thankfully, the house is set on the hillside, but the barn and the pasture are sunk down into the gully.
Most years, we don’t get enough rain to worry about it, but this season’s been different.
The ground is already saturated, and every new drop feels like it’s testing the limits of what the land can hold.
I jog down to the barn and hop into my side-by-side, then head out to the fence on the corner of the lot. I need to replace the whole line of fencing.
Lord knows it’s been here since before my grandparents owned the place, but I’m not sure that’s in the budget with the way the distillery is going. Unlike the first two locations in the Springs, this place has been bleeding money for months, and it’s only getting worse.
I’ve got the wire wrapped around the post, the metal groaning when I get a call from my brother, Ryker, about the party tonight. I should probably answer, given the fact that the party is at the distillery we’re trying to save, but I’m really not in the mood.
“Hey, man. What’s up?”
“Shit,” he laughs low under his breath, “you sound miserable.”
“How does ‘what’s up’ sound miserable?”
“Tone of your voice.”
I want to tell him I’d rather be in the house fucking around with the nanny, but instead I go with the story about the pouring fucking rain.
“This weather. I thought maybe we were going to see a break after we got a little bit of sun yesterday. I’m sick of it. Got a fence line down, horses on the run, a creek that’s rising, you know… shit everywhere. What about you?”
“Not quite that bad, but I’ve got a lot riding on this party tonight. Fingers crossed the rain doesn’t fuck it all up.”
Another cold sheet sweeps sideways across the pasture, rattling the roof of the barn.
“You believe the news? They’re saying the storm tonight is going to fuck a lot of shit up. They’re calling for flooding straight through to Wildwood County.”
“All I need are half a dozen folks to come and fall in love with Dad’s whiskey. We get that and we’re gold, considering the deal I made with the rednecks at the bar down the street.”
“You didn’t tell me about a deal.”
“It’s not official yet, but they offered to buy some of Dad’s whiskey and sell it at their bar.”
“How the hell is that a deal?”
“They want thirty percent of the sale, we take seventy, and they agree to point folks in our direction if they want more. It’s not perfect, but since we’re collaborating, they should stop their bullshit, and we’d finally be selling the whiskey.”
I huff under my breath. “Unless they don’t sell the whiskey.”
“They’ll sell the whiskey,” my brother groans, as though he’s already found the best plan and doesn’t want me pissing on it.
“People want small batch orders. That’s why they’re nervous.
Most of what the rednecks sell is brewed states away.
Dad’s classic whiskey is local, legendary, and brewed right on Main Street. They should be scared of that.”
Thunder rolls in low and distant as I tighten the last of the wire around the post and ride down to wrangle in the horses. I don’t know what I’m thinking about this deal, but I don’t have time to process it right now.
“I’ll catch up with you at the party later. Let me know if you hear anything else on the weather.”
“Will do.” My brother hangs up the line as I ease the side-by-side forward, following the horses at a slow crawl toward the open pasture. Once they’re moving steady again, my mind shifts back to Violet.
While I have a new problem with the distillery and the rednecks, I managed to make it through the call without any talk about the fact that I touched my best buddy’s daughter last night.
That I laid with her. That I slid my fingers inside of her and finger-fucked her until she came.
That I licked her come clean off my hand and dreamt about spreading her virgin pussy wide all night long.
Keeping it silent in and of itself is a miracle, because right now it’s all I want to talk about. It’s all that’s on my mind.
I always saw myself as a good man, but a good man would know better than to do the things I’ve done. A good man would think about his kids, his friend… literally anyone else.
I need to stop this. I need to end it all right here, right now. She’s here for the kids. They love her. I can’t risk letting that all fall apart.
I have to keep my distance.
For the kids.