Page 151 of Loving Whiskey

“So, it all worked out?”I manage to squeak, still overwhelmed.

He smiles. “You could say that. I’ve just got a few more things to work out and yeah, it should all be alright.”

“And you’re still a cajillionaire?” I tease.

Cash smirks. “We still have the private plane, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I raise my eyebrows and point to the bottle in his hand. “What do you have there?”

Cash laughs as he brushes more tears from my face and kisses my nose. “Oh, this is a little something I had made…a special edition bottle that we’re going to roll out in the coming weeks.”

Cash holds up the bottle of whiskey which has a deep purple wrapper on it.

Hope’s Angelis written in white letters in beautiful curves.

“Have I ever told you about the distilling process, Gracie?”

I shake my head as I stare at the bottle and try to figure out the significance.

“Well, there’s three components of the whiskey when it’s being distilled. The head, the heart, and the tail. The head can actually be toxic—we distill it out of the liquid and toss it. Then comes the heart. It’s what makes up the majority of our bottles—after we’ve gotten rid of the toxic chemicals and distilled it to perfection. But here’s a little secret, Gracie. The tail…the tail can surprise you. It’s what’s left after the heart, and some distilleries,ours included, put it right back through the process so we can squeeze out more of the heart, giving us a malt that has been distilled three times.”

A bit lost as to where we’re going, I just nod. “Okay, that’s very interesting.”

Cash chuckles. “Gracie, our relationship is like a perfectly distilled bottle of whiskey. We met and things were a bit toxic. We had to work through that, toss out the perceptions we had, the baggage we both entered the relationship with, difficult pasts, broken hearts, broken families, and when we did that, we got to the heart. Things were wonderful, and during that time we really learned how much we truly cared about one another. But then we got to the tail again, and some of those toxic traits had managed to make it through. We still had the baggage from our past…we hadn’t distilled it all out yet. So now we’re going back through the process again. We’re making the tail a part of the heart. And Gracie, it’s going to be even better this time around because we’ve taken the time to work through our insecurities, our concerns, and we’ve stumbled along the way, made mistakes, but we didn’t just sweep the head off the top and enjoy the heart—we’re doing the work.”

A faint smile whispers across my face at his words. “And does this have something to do with Hope’s Angel?”

Cash smiles. “I thought you’d never ask. So, the Red, White, and Whiskey line will launch with the whiskey we distilled from the heart. It’s been sitting in barrels and aging for a few years. But Hope’s Angel, that came from the tail. It’s been distilled three times now and aged…and when you give birth to our daughter, you and I are going to toast by having a glass of this.” He takes the bottle out of my hand and stares at it. “I truly believe my mother sent you to me, Angel. I believe that she would have loved seeing us together and so this bottle is dedicated to the two women I’ve loved the most. Even if I didn’t know her well…”

I lift my hand to his chin and rub my thumb against his cheek. “You’re a good man, Cassius James.”

He smiles down at me. “Now can I show you my last surprise?”

I shake my head with laughter. “More surprises?”

I wait for him to go down on a knee. It’s all I can think about now.

Please, ask me to marry you.

But he takes my hand and starts leading me down the path. We walk for a bit through a garden which leads into a lot that is shaded by trees, but the path is clear. When we get to the end of the path my mouth drops open at the sight of the big white house with the wraparound porch and an obnoxiously large red ribbon on the front door. I look between Cash and the house, my hand flying to my mouth in surprise. “What is this?”

His whiskey eyes meet mine. “Our home, if you like it.”

There are acres of greenery, a white picket fence, flowers already blooming, and a wooden swing hanging from the porch. “If I like it?Cash, this place is incredible.”

His boyish grin breaks through, and he grabs my hand as we walk quickly toward the front door. “If you like the outside, wait until you see the bathtub.”

I laugh as he swings the door open and leads me through a beautiful living room, complete with a gorgeous fireplace with a huge hearth and white stone all the way up to the twenty-foot ceiling, past a kitchen which is all white, through a hallway which smells of fresh paint, into a bedroom which has high ceilings, a king-size four-poster bed which is already made with plenty of pillows, just like I like, and into one of the biggest bathrooms I’ve ever seen. White and gold marble line the floor, and a walk-in shower to the left catches my eye.

But it’s what sits against the back of the room, in front of beautiful windows that overlook Bristol Bay, that catches my attention. A tub that could fit both of us very comfortably, with plenty of jets and a fireplace to the right of it.

“Cash, it’s heavenly.”

When I turn around, he’s down on his knee, staring up at me intently. I shake my head in disbelief. It’s all too perfect. Too much. And yet, it’snotright. I want him to know that I pick him too. I want him to know this isn’t just what he wants…and I know precisely how to show him.

“No, Cash, not now…wait…”

He looks up in shock.

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