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To discovering that you’re allowed to fall in love as many times as possible in your lifetime. Whether it’s with a new lover or an old friend. Whether it’s with the same person, but new versions of each other as you grow. Fucking fall. Do it loudly. Do it at your own pace. Rush. Ease in. Enjoy an instant lust, a slow burn, or a happy for now. Rebound. Fall again. And if you’re craving a little something extra… Lincoln Foxx has a few creative suggestions during your discovery. They may include some bourbon…
Every bourbon is whiskey, but not every whiskey is bourbon. There are rules for bourbon to be called bourbon. It must be made in the United States The mash must be at least 51% corn It must be aged for at least two years in a new, charred, oak barrel The whiskey cannot enter the barrel higher than 125 proof Nothing can be added but water and only to lessen the proof when necessary
I glare down at her. “People assume I’m the nice one. The family man. But I’m very good at letting people believe what I want them to.”
“Isn’t it usually a woman who ends up being behind the best things?
She’s teasing the entire room, and I’d put money on the fact that not a single seat in the house is dry or soft.
“See, Ace, I never thought I’d need to explain this to grown-ass men. But you and that one over there”—I nod to Lincoln. He crosses his arms and glares at me—“should know that most women nowadays don’t lead their lives based on the expectations of men. Maybe if you realized that, then you might walk around less surprised by our choices and more aware of yours.”
The way he manspreads in his chair isn’t intimidating; instead, I find it rather amusing. Some men need to take up space in order to feel bigger. Especially when they feel threatened.
steps away, I can’t help but instigate. “I know you’re watching me walk away,” I call out as I turn my head to the side. “Hard not to when you consider how much I liked watching you come,” he says, far too loudly.
“How did you pay for this?” I ask quietly. It’s the even tone that tells my girls I’m about to flip my shit. “Curse purse,” they respond in unison. What. The. Fuck.
“What the fuck?” Hadley says as she approaches my side, her hands on her hips as we both watch them streak by. They kick up the wind and whatever dirt had been settled along the pathway. I give my best friend a glance. “Didn’t get asked to go for a ride?” “Not the kind of ride I want.”
The only thing I’m certain of is that I don’t want my older brother anywhere near her.
“So what are we going to do about it?”
He has such a full life—it’s so different from mine, but I feel such a connection when I’m with him.
“You call me Peach like I’m sweet, but Foxx, you know better. I’m the furthest thing from sweet.”
“I don’t have pants on,” I say as quietly as possible. “Are we going to get a peep show if we pull this blanket off you two?” Griz says loudly. Oh god, there’s an actual audience out here. “What’s a peep show?” Lily asks him. I’m praying he doesn’t answer her. I hear Lark rush out, “I don’t think it’s the marshmallow kind, let’s put it that way.”
I huff a laugh, walking closer to him as he tries to scoot away from me. “You better watch who you threaten, Waz. Like you said, I have a habit of murderin’ men.”
“A drink would be good,” I say as my body settles into the leather seat. “Have anything other than bourbon?” The right side of his mouth kicks up and that charming dimple divots low on his cheek, just barely noticeable beneath his facial scruff. “I know you didn’t just say that to me.”
“What should we toast to? Punches and pepper spray?” With an unexpected chuckle, she studies the color, swirling the bourbon in her glass. “To bourbon and secrets.” “To bourbon and secrets,” I repeat and clink her glass.
“There may never be such a thing as a great bottle of bourbon for me ever again unless I have the taste of your pussy with it.”
I could be a lot of things, but his couldn’t be one of them. Could it?
“I meant what I said. I’m not the same after having you. But if it’s too much, I’ll understand. I have two amazing kids. And apparently, animals now,” he says jokingly. “A wise-ass grandfather. Brothers who I wouldn’t have survived without. A town that thinks we’re cursed—which is another fucking hurdle that I’m not sure I’m entirely over. And a bourbon business that’s draining and so fucking hard sometimes . . . but it defines everything about me.”
that part of herself to me. I wrap my arms around her tighter and tell her the most honest thing I can muster. “I want to be around you. I like me more when I’m around you. So let me be around you, Peach. And we figure it out as we go along. Lean into what feels right.”
“Damn, Linc. She’s got everyone here practically salivating, and she’s only removed her gloves,” Hadley says in awe.
Holding the ribbon end of her oversized bow toward me, she sweetly says, “Unwrap me, please?” I can’t help but smile at the request and . . . her. I’m not sure how it’s possible to be this enchantingly sexy and also cute as fuck. But she pulls it off somehow. And I do exactly as she requests. The band drags out the end of the song as I pull the ribbon. She spins away from me, unwrapping the red satin from her chest, all the way down to the tops of her thighs, leaving her in nothing more than red heart tassels perfectly placed over each nipple and the tiniest pair of panties—a red heart
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“I’ve been trying to save other people for so long—” Her voice cracks, and she sits back. “I didn’t know what it felt like to have someone look out for me. Not like this. Lincoln, I’m so sorry I involved you in all of this. This was never your mess—”
I started falling in love with Faye Calloway on the edge of a cornfield, on a stage, over a bottle of bourbon, and every time she’s been in my arms since.
“My granddaughters think she’s their soulmate—women, let alone Foxx women, are never wrong.”
“You and Lincoln Foxx?” Bea says with a side glance. “That’s what I said,” Maggie adds from the front seat. “Not surprised. They have that way about them, those Foxx boys.”
“The horse sanctuary I’ve opened has become a place of healing. For me and for a number of women who need to find their footing again. I was here for about a month, and when I went to the bank to open an account, there had already been one opened there under my new name. It had just over a quarter of a million dollars in it.” Maggie guesses what I’m thinking. “Griz.”
“Yeah, kiddo, then I'll make sure she knows how much we want her to stay. And how much I plan on loving her.” “We,” Lily corrects. “How much we plan on loving her.”
Maggie stands up a minute later and claps her hands in front of her. “Alright, if this is our very last meal together as the Calloway girls, then I vote cake for dinner.” “Cake for dinner,” I agree with a laugh, even as a tear slips down my cheek.
“You came back,” I say as I rush to her, wrapping my arms around her tightly. Any words that she was going to let out die off as my lips meet hers. Kissing this woman is like getting lost and finding where I’m meant to be all at once. She pulls back, just enough to say, “There’s so much I need to tell you.” She shakes her head, trying to stop the tears from falling. “But I was always coming back, Foxx. This time, I wouldn’t have been able to stay away.”
Holding it up, she smiles, her eyes brightening as they flick between mine. She reads the label aloud, “Foxx & Peach. You named a bourbon after us?”
With Lincoln Foxx, it feels bigger than a simple word like love. When I’m with him, it feels like home.
