“I, um, went to Bootleg last night.”
“Uh-oh,” she drawled. “No good decision starts with that sentence.”
“It worked for you.” She met Iverson in the bar, and he hadn’t known she was his boss’s forbidden daughter. Daddy had made me and my sisters off-limits to the cowboys working for him, and Iverson had had no idea “Sunny” was Jamison Hawthorne. Which she had known full well was the case. That’s why she introduced herself as Sunny.
“Once,” she says. “Once in the history of that dive has it worked. Are you telling me that’s what happened?”
That’s the last thing that’ll happen. “I went home with a Hennessy, but I can assure you it didn’t work out the same.”
Durban Hennessy always looks at me with that slightly perplexed frown of his, the one that says he can’t believe I’m not lost in the woods somewhere, batting my eyes at the big, bad wolf. Joke’s on him. I can’t read amap, and I wander off trails, so I don’t hike without someone who’s more adept than me.
“You went home with a Hennessy? Not Haven. Oh my God. You did not?—”
“No, not Haven.”
Iverson made the comment once that I remind him of his youngest brother, who’s still older than me. Reckless. Impulsive. It’s only celebrated in good-looking guys like Haven and less desirable in a young woman.
Besides, I’m not reckless. Impulsive, yes. Forgetful? Too often. “Um, it was Durban.”
“What?” Rustling comes over the line like she’s switching ears. “You went home withDurban?”
“More like he hauled me out of the bar because he thought I couldn’t take care of myself.” I sound inane to my own ears. I wasn’t able to walk straight last night. I knew it at the time, and I figured I’d dive into my back seat and sleep it off. Silas wouldn’t care, and I’d probably be left alone.
Probably.
My gut gurgles at the odds. The likelihood that I wouldn’t be bothered had been better before my new acquaintances left, and the three guys set their sights on me. Yeah, I was irresponsible.
“You were that drunk?” she asks, shocked and concerned.
“I mixed drinks. My bad.” I also didn’t eat a decent dinner.
“Campbell.”
“I said my bad. I just wanted to forget.”
A sigh gusts over the line. “You should’ve stayed at the lodge. Then Mom and Dad wouldn’t worry about you.”
“I can’t take up a room in the garage.” Our childhood home isn’t the same as the lodge where guests stay. Doesn’t mean it’s a good hiding spot. “Mom keeps asking if I’m okay. Daddy won’t quit about the wedding.”
She makes a disgusted sound. “Can’t he see— Anyway. I guess that’s what the meeting’s for. How are you doing now? I thought Iverson was with Durban at the distillery.”
“I just woke up.” Something pricks at my brain. Didn’t he say something about being gone in the morning? To call him to figure out my car situation? Right. My car’s at Bootleg. “Hey, um, is there any chance you can give me a ride? Only if you’re feeling up to it,” I rush to add.
“Not you too.”
“What about me?”
“Treating me like I’m fragile. I swear, Iverson is afraid I’ll break into a million pieces. Durban won’t even let me open a door on my own. And now you? If I wasn’t pregnant, you’d have told me to quit prying and come pick you up already.”
The corner of my mouth tips up. “Fine. Quit prying and come pick me up already.”
I hang up, grateful she’s able and willing to rescue me from a really nice, cozy house. Iverson does fret, and he’d glare at me for using that word. Durban seems to think women are breakable creatures who need a guy like him to protect us.
I’m not doing a good job of proving him wrong, since my clothes are in his washing machine, and I’m in his sweater and in his bed. Add in that I woke up and immediately partook of the pain meds and water, and I do appear as if I need to be taken care of.
I roll out of bed and wait for any lightheadedness to make me dizzy, but it doesn’t happen, probably thanks to heaving out my last couple of drinks. I tiptoe out of the room and into the quiet house.
I blink. “Damn.”
