What She Wants Tonight by Jillian Neal

Author:Jillian Neal [Neal, Jillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781940174600
Publisher: Jillian Neal

Chapter Thirty

Still wearing her paper ring, that she secretly really did love, Meridian climbed back in the truck. “Are we going to do one of those tours of the bourbon trail? Do I get to wax seal a bottle or something?” Her laughter was cut short by Jack’s visible cringe.

“If you really want to go, we can.”

“Oh my god, do people rush you there? Do they want you to sign their bottles of Denton Family Reserve or something?”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s not quite that bad.”

“So…it’s almost that bad?” She tried to imagine what that would be like.

“It’s more that if we go down there, word will immediately get back to my parents and they’ll get ideas that I do not want them to have.”

“Ideas like what?”

“That I have any interest in rejoining the company.” He eyed her cautiously before continuing, “All eyes would be on you, and you didn’t seem to like that at dinner last night.”

“Why would all eyes be on me? You’re the bourbon baron.”

He lifted his eyebrows but said nothing. That was enough of a clue though.

“Because I’m engaged to the baron.” She lifted her left hand. “Of course.”

“Please never call me a bourbon baron again. I…hate that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s just…not what I want my legacy to be.”

Supremely interested in that, she edged closer to him in the truck. “What do you want your legacy to be?”

He turned down a tree-lined road dripping with fall colors. “That I reshuffled the deck I was given, maybe.”

“This is beautiful,” Meridian complimented the scenery before she went on with her interrogation. “But explain what you just said.”

He held out his free hand, and she quickly laced their fingers together. “Don’t mess up my ring,” she instructed.

“I promise.” He considered for another few moments. “I didn’t grow up the way you did, but for a long time I thought I had. Every single person I thought was supposed to be a role model for me had fallen from grace before I was even born. They just did a hell of a job keeping that from me. But when I found out that the cards I’d been given were from a marked deck, I hope people remember that I demanded a new deck. I reshuffled the cards. I walked away, and I’d do it again a thousand times over.”

Amazed at his fortitude, she squeezed his hand. “That’s impressive as hell. I hope you know that. Everything about you is impressive.” That fact was getting harder and harder to deny. “And I don’t think you should hate to be called a bourbon baron. You didn’t ask to be born into your family or for them to do the things they’ve done. You know not every Holder was the pinnacle of morality. Some of my ancestors were kind of terrible.”

“Maybe, but the current generations put an end to that. Mine chose to make things worse. What we had wasn’t enough. We wanted more. That’s the thing with greed. There will never be enough

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