Page 93 of Bourbon and Lies

“Of course I’ll wear these.” I open my mouth, pretending to be shocked, but I am absolutely impressed.

“The lace was our grandma’s from her wedding. And Dad said that our mama wore it at theirs, so you have to have it now.”

It was the first time I heard either of them mention their mother, and the fact that they wanted to share this piece with me hit me right in the chest.How am I supposed to leave this? Leave them?

Griz wraps me in a hug. “If I was forty years younger...”

Grant laughs out, “Hands off, Griz.”

He whispers to me before he lets me go, “Welcome to the family, darlin’.” I swallow down the emotions that have been so intense today. Joining this family, and knowing I won’t be here to enjoy them.

Hadley walks up behind the girls and plows into me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “You bagged a Foxx, you badass!”

I can’t help but bark out a laugh as I scrunch up my nose. “I know.”

“I get it, Grant. I want to keep her too.” She smirks at him as he comes up behind me and kisses the side of my head first, and then my lips. Leaning into Hadley, he says, “Mine.” Nothing else, just mine.

He scoops up Lily, and she starts giggling as they walk toward the main house. I hear him ask her, “You know I love you, my little flower?”

Hadley loops her arm with mine. “Those are fighting words, I hope he knows that.”

“Oh, he knows.” It feels so good—this much love between so many people.

I wrap my arm around Lark. “Will you help me tie this pretty lace into my hair?”

She smiles so brightly, so much more mature than I would have imagined a ten-year-old would be. “Are you leaving?”

“What makes you think I’m leaving?”

When we walk along the side of the house and come around to the back patio, she says, “That lady who’s fighting with Uncle Ace said she came for you.”

When I look up, I see Agent Bea Harper, and my stomach sinks, all the air in my lungs rushing out. She’s talking with her hands moving a mile a minute at Ace. As we get closer, she notices Grant approaching ahead of me with Lily in his arms. She stops her tirade and puts her hands on her hips, locking eyes with me next. She’s not happy.

“Lark, can your uncles and I have a few minutes out here?”

But it’s Hadley who answers. “C’mon, girls,” she sing-songs as she steers them inside.

“Bea,” Grant says with a nod. But then he walks closer to me, standing tall as he intertwines his fingers with mine. A protector I hadn’t realized I wanted.

She zeroes in on me, looking down at my left hand, staring at the gold band that slid onto it just a little while ago.

“You married her?” Bea asks, looking at Grant.

He looks at me first and smiles, calmly answering, “Not yet, but I will.”

Glancing at me for a beat, she then shifts her glance to Ace, like somehow this is his fault or he should have stopped it.

“Don’t look at me, Bea.” He holds up his hands. “I just found out too.”

Ace smiles at Grant, and then winks at me.

When my attention settles back to Bea, there’s something I haven’t figured out. Her relationship with the Foxx family. “How do you know each other? I don’t understand?—”

Grant tilts his chin up higher, like he’s preparing for pushback. He squeezes my hand. “You want to take that one, Bea?”

It’s not lost on me the way the mood shifts, transferring the dynamic from frustration on Bea’s part to a secret that seemslike I’m the only person who doesn’t know. She pulls out her silver case of cloves and shoves one in between her lips as she searches her suit jacket pocket for her lighter.

Lincoln wanders our way with Griz. All the Foxx men are here to listen to the truth.

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