Page 102 of Bourbon and Lies

He would have told me I was brave after all of this too.

I had rehashed that night of the fire and the night in the storage unit repeatedly with a therapist until I was able to sleep through the night. There was no clear-cut answer as to how Waz might have known something or someone was coming for me. Or how he knew that I had been from New York.“But like most things having to do with Hadley’s father and his associates,” Ace said. “We know never to let our guard down.”The conversation about it ended there and the authorities never dug deeper.

The weeks that followed were hard, but as it seemed with everything, it was time that helped ease the anxiety of the nightmares that would come to wake me. I didn’t have any remorse. But I had plenty of emotions about what had happened to my loved ones in the process. For one, Grant had gone through a surgery to repair the damage of the gunshot wound to his leg and a fair amount of physical therapy.

“Where are you going?”

He stops dead in his tracks, with one foot slung into his saddle stirrup. I knew he wasn’t coming down to the stables just for grooming and time with Tawney.

“The doctor said he wanted you on the ground walking, not riding.”

He hoists his other leg over and winces. “She needed to go for a ride. I’m not hiking, I’m riding. I’m fine.”

He really is the worst patient. Grant doesn’t know how to sit down for too long. So, I resort to bribery. “I need to go for a ride.”

Smirking, he looks down at the reins in his hand. “That’s how we’re playing this now, baby?”

“That’s the deal, cowboy. You have a choice, either I get a ride or Tawney does. You choose.” I turn on my heel and stride back to the house with Julep in tow. She’s a far better patient than her dad.

Julep barks, her way of telling Grant, “let’s go!” I pet her head and grab onto the handle connected to her hind legs. Julep’s hip and one of her back legs were in rough shape, but she’s out of her cast as of yesterday and the hip brace is there for added support until she’s strong enough to run again. I know she misses her morning rides alongside Grant as much as he does, so I’ve been filling in until they both can get back to it. My girl—that’s what Julep was now. As much mine as she was Grant’s. It felt that way long before, but especially so after the way she saved my life and then loved me through it. Julep and I go for a slow walk to the cafe every morning and grab a flat white for me, a black coffee for Grant, and a puppuccino for her.

“C’mon, honey, I just did the hard part,” he yells out to me, like he’s taken a second to think about it. It makes me chuckle.

“Guess I’m not getting thehardpart, then.”

I can hear him swearing to himself, but I know he’ll be about ten minutes behind Julep and me. That man’s appetite for me is ravenous. But so is mine.

“You still planning on marrying him?”

I look up and see Bea leaning against her truck parked in front of our house. “I kinda love him, so yeah, I’m planning to marry him. Are you going to come?”

She shakes her head, pulling out her silver case.

“I didn’t realize you were in town.”

She clears her throat. “You did good, kid. More than good. Just came to tell you that the items from your storage unit are no longer evidence. Thought you might want some of your old life back.” She hands me a small gold key and a key card. “I had them moved to a spot just outside of Mongomery about twenty minutes from here.”

I turn over the key in my hand as I swallow down my emotions. “Thank you.”

“You’re your father’s daughter, Laney. That's for sure.” She opens the door to her truck.

“So that’s it?”

“You were cleared on anything in question. Your part in his death was considered self-defense. There won’t be any charges filed. You’re not technically in WITSEC anyway, so yeah. That’s it.”

Before she gets into her car, she stops and looks down, searching for words to whatever it is she wants to say. “You ended up rescuing yourself. Again. That’s not something that comes naturally to most people—doing what has to be done in order to survive.”

She pulls in a deep, lungful of smoke, and on her exhale, she says, “Just remember that the next time life gets hard, or if you’re feeling like the memories of the shit you survived might swallow you, you’re a badass, Laney.”

You can do hard things.

“What the hell did she want?” Grant asks from a few feet away. The dirt kicks up behind Bea’s truck tires in the distance.

I think about how much of what got me to this place was hard. How much of it turned me into someone I wouldn’t recognize if Manhattan Eleanor was looking.

I turn to him with a smile. “Just wanted to tell me I was awesome.” Even with a slight hitch in his step, he stands there so confidently. “Looks like you decided which ride you wanted, huh, cowboy?”

He rushes toward me and lifts me at my waist as I let out a yelp. “Always you, baby. I’ll always choose you.”

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