Page 1 of Beau & Autumn

1

Beau

Autumn sighs as she slumps onto the couch next to me.

“Bad day?” I suppress a chuckle, glancing up from my paperwork.

It was my mom’s idea to put a couch in the staff room at our family distillery. She didn’t account for the fact nobody would want to get off the damn thing because it’s so comfy.

“Don’t ask.”

“Need a shot?” It’s only ten in the morning, but what the heck.

She side eyes me, her vivid blue irises have always been beautiful. Her long lashes accentuate them even more. “Don’t tempt me.”

“Whatever it is, it can’t be as bad as the latest Minecraft glitch.”

She shifts in the seat, turning her body to face me fully. “I thought you’d moved on from that stupid game?”

“Stupid? How about I wash your mouth out with soap?” I lean over and go for the jugular; in this case, that’s the ticklish spot right near her ribs.

“Beau! No!” She slaps my hands away, straightening out her pencil skirt as she tries — and fails — to scoot back. “You’re the only one around here that pretends to listen to me. Eden’s too loved up with your brother to listen to my tails of woe. Carrie and Tom are in a similar kind of love bubble, and all my other friends are in the city. If you tickle me to death, it’ll be up to you to explain to my parents, brother and Grandma what happened. In fact, maybe that’s not a bad idea.”

I flex my hands into claws. “Not the dreaded Grandma.” I pretend to lunge at her, but I don’t make contact. “Fine. You win.”

Her eyebrows pull together in a frown. “Huh?”

“Well, if you stop talking to me, I’ve only got Georgia-Blue to annoy the shit out of me, or one of my brothers who only ever calls upon me when shit hits the fan.”

My twin sister is half an hour younger than me, but the time stamp matters and I remind her often. My three older brothers, well, I can’t tell you who annoys me more.

First we have Gray; he’s a lot less intense now he’s found his lady love, Hartley. She took over her father’s lawyers office in town and the two of them have been living in Hartley’s townhouse while they’re building a two-story ranch on the property. And it’s close to the distillery down by the creek. It’s been Gray’s dream for years and they’re about to move in.

Then Gabriel, the second eldest. He’s the CEO of the company now that Dad and Uncle Jack have retired. Aside from his adorable daughter, Trinity who’s five, he’s also a giant pain in the ass, always thinking he’s in charge. Okay, technically he is, but whatever. I admit he’s mellowed a whole lot since falling in love with his nanny, Skye. It’s made him a better person around the office. Sexual frustration clearly isn’t a thing that any of my attached brothers suffer from, that’s all I can say.

Then there’s Brooklyn. He makes all the bourbon down in the rickhouse and bottles it up with his assistant, Jarrod. He recently reunited with his ex-wife, Eden, except she was never really his ex because the douchebag never filed the divorce papers when he was supposed to. It made getting back together easier on the paperwork front. They have a kid together; my niece, Blake. She’s eleven and is cute as a button; clearly she takes after her mother. You could say Brook is the most sensitive out of all of us, including Georgia; the poor guy that gets stuck with her is in for the ride of his life. My sister is my best friend, but she also drives me a little nuts.

Autumn nudges me in the ribs. “I’m sure that’s not true about your adorable siblings.”

I snort. “Right. Brook texted me yesterday, for example,” I say. “Said it was urgent. I raced down to the rickhouse and when I didn’t find him, I saw his legs sticking out from under one of the barrels. Turns out it was leaking and he was trying to stop the flow with his hands and a bucket. I thought he’d hit his head and was dead on the floor.”

She raises a hand to her heart and lets out a little laugh. “I’m glad to hear he’s okay.”

“I swear to God I need a vacation.” I glance her way again. “What about you? Why were you huffing just now?”

She lets out another long breath, her long bangs blowing up in front of her face. “Do you really want to hear about my love life?”

Uh, oh. Probably not, but I shrug anyway. “Can’t be that bad. You’ve got suitors lined up around the block. If you need me to fight them off, I could come in handy. I did karate for like three years when I was a kid.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” She laughs.

I chuckle. “What? I’ve got a black belt in origami.”

I’m glad I amuse her. It’s good to see her laugh, because despite our goofing around, I know she’s been down about something lately. Every time I see her, she has this pensive look on her face like she’s deep in thought about some problem she can’t solve.

Maybe I’ve pushed the jokes too far?

She turns to me. “If only origami could solve my problems. I wish you could, Beauster. Seriously, you should be thanking your lucky stars your family aren’t a complete nightmare like mine are and want to control your life.”

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