Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

F our days later, Del was busting his ass behind the bar. The warmer weather drove people into the mountains for hiking, river kayaking, and camping. Along the way, tourists stopped in Kismet to enjoy everything the quaint town had to offer, including a stop at the local distillery.

He hadn't seen Cassie since Monday, but they'd been texting all week about wedding plans and what they were going to do to get this thing moving along. Honestly, he kind of got the impression she'd been avoiding him since the hot as hell kiss they'd shared. Every kiss—granted, they hadn't had many—had been fire-alarm worthy, but that last one in particular…

He swore he could still feel the soft curves of her body pressed against his, hear her sweet little moans as he devoured her delicious lips. Damn, he needed to stop thinking about it or Kelley would bust his chops for having a hard-on at work. She never missed an opportunity to harp on him.

"Hey there," a voice said.

He shook his head, shaking off his daydream. At six in the evening, they weren't super busy, but the rush was coming. He needed to snap out of it and stop thinking of Cassie and how much he'd like to make certain aspects of their relationship real.

Glancing up at the pretty blonde on the other side of the bar, smiling at him, he grinned politely. "What can I get for you tonight, miss?"

Blonde giggled, leaning forward 'til her impressive—and hard to miss in a barely-there top—cleavage practically fell out onto the bar. "I'll have a vodka and cranberry juice."

"Coming right up."

As he made her drink, two more blondes joined her.

"Vodka and cranberry, ladies?" Tending bar for so many years, he'd learned to pick people's drinks from just a glance. These women were transparent.

"Yes, please," blonde number two purred, twirling a lock of her bleach-damaged hair around a finger.

"Oh, he's good," blonde number three commented. Her gaze roamed over him in an overtly suggestive manner. "Makes a girl wonder what else he's good at."

Normally he'd be all over the vibes these women were throwing out, but not tonight. Something about the whole situation felt…wrong. As he poured their cocktails, it hit him. The whole town, including his siblings—most of whom were only a few feet away—thought he was engaged to Cassie for real. It'd take some kind of colossal dick to cheat on his fiancée where everyone could see. He may be a lot of things, but a cheating asshole wasn't one of them.

A strange buzz filled his head as he realized that wasn't it. Sure, he didn't want to do anything to jeopardize their plan, but there was more. Since entertaining the idea of an actual relationship with Cassie, even a purely physical one, other women held zero appeal. Even blondes one through three, stacked and sexy though they were, created not one ounce of desire within him.

He wasn't entirely sure he liked it.

"Here you are, ladies." He slid their drinks across the polished oak bar top. "Shall I start a tab for you?"

"Oh yes, please," blonde number two said, pulling out a credit card and handing it over. "We're going to make a night of it."

"Our poor friend Allison here broke up with her boyfriend and we're trying to cheer her up with a girls' weekend." Blonde number three threw an arm around blonde number one. "She's having a bit of a rough time. Any idea on how we can cheer her up? Or, maybe, who can cheer her up? We're all good friends. Really good friends."

All three women gazed at him with unchecked invitations in their eyes. Holy shit! If he wasn't mistaken, he'd just been offered every man's dream. Too bad Del's dreams had changed the moment he had an opportunity to prove himself to his family. A small part of him screamed he was being an idiot—his stupid, horny sixteen-year-old self—but he wasn't going to screw up his chance to get the money for his restaurant.

Plus, no way would he do anything to hurt Cassie. And boning the blonde brigade while supposedly engaged to her would hurt.

"Ah, ladies." He feigned a sigh. "As tempting as the offer is, I'm afraid I'm a happily taken man."

At their pouting expressions, he gave them a wink. "Don't fret. I see a table full of Kismet's finest over there just dying to give beautiful women such as yourselves some mouth to mouth demonstrations."

The women turned their heads to the back of the bar where three off-duty officers, still in uniform, sat enjoying some gin and tonics. Happily, they hopped off the barstools and made a beeline for the cops. He may pour the drinks, but Del knew women loved a man in uniform.

Grateful to have the potential hairy situation averted, he waved to Kelley at the other end of the bar. "I'm going to grab some more cranberry juice."

Judging from the gales of laughter coming from the back table, they were going to need it.

"Sounds good," Kelley replied, placing a couple of drinks in front of the couple at the bar.

Del pushed through the door into the back room. The low hum of the stills drowned out the muffled noises from the tasting room. Most of the back area held their distilling machinery: the mash bins, stills, proofing tanks. Their finished product took up the entire sidewall. In addition to selling in the tasting room, they also had a few local distributors they sold to.

Making his way to the small walk-in refrigerator that held their perishable items, like juice and fruit, he smiled. A few years ago, he would have taken those women up on their offer. Everyone may think he was a party-time guy, but he'd changed. Now if only his family could see it.

He entered the walk-in, shivering as the cool temperature of the fridge hit his sweat-slicked skin. Running around behind a bar tended to make a person hot, and the weather wasn't warm enough to crank the AC yet. Glancing around the shelves, he swore. Ace must have done inventory last. He always messed up Del's system, who had told his annoyingly anal brother he had a specific spot for everything. But Alfa Jackson had always been true to his name. He took shit from no one and did things his way.

"And your way causes me to spend ten friggin' minutes looking for the damn cranberry juice," Del mumbled.

The bottles weren't on the top shelf where he liked to put them. Bending down, he saw the juice-filled containers on the middle shelf, back behind the orange juice.

"How the hell does that make any sense?"

He needed to talk to his brother about his organization system.

Suddenly Del felt a push and found himself falling forward. His head smacked into the cold metal rack of the shelving unit. Yelling out a four-letter word his mother would smack him upside the head for, he stood and turned to face his assailant.

"What the shit, Charlie?!" He glared at his sister, rubbing the sore spot on his forehead. "You trying to bash my brains in?"

She stood there, eyes flaring. "Like you have any."

Ouch. And people said women were the sweeter sex.

"What was that for?"

"Seriously?" Her eyebrows rose, hands going to her hips in a defiant pose. "You were out there flirting with the bimbo triplets when you're supposed to be engaged to my best friend."

"I was working, dumbass. Being friendly is part of the job. You wouldn't know because you crunch numbers all day. Numbers don't give you a bigger tip if you're nice to them."

"Numbers don't tip at all."

He pressed his hand to the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. From his annoying sister or the whack she just gave him, he didn't know. Both probably.

"The point is, I was just being polite and doing my job. Besides, I sent them off after Gray and his crew. Did you not see that?"

"I might have," Charlie said, having the decency to look slightly contrite.

"Then why are you in here trying to give me a concussion?"

Her eyes rolled toward the ceiling. "I didn't mean for you to bash your head, although I can't imagine it did any damage. Your skull is too thick."

As good of an apology as he would ever get from Charlie.

"Love you too, sis."

She glared at him, hands crossing over her chest in what he and his brothers called her "shut up and listen if you know what's good for you" pose. Knowing from experience it'd be wise to do so, he shut up.

"I do love you and I love Cassie. That's why I'm only going to say this once." She pointed a finger in his face. "Don't hurt her."

Pissed at her assumption, his family's lack of faith in him, and the odd feelings his fake fiancée stirred in him, he snapped.

"Oh, you mean like you did the other day when you yelled at her, stormed off in a snit, and refused to speak to her for days?"

Charlie's face paled. Her hands dropped to her sides, shoulders slumping. "Was she really upset?"

Aw, dammit. He hadn't meant to make his sister feel bad, but he did have a ruse to uphold, and what kind of fiancé doesn't stand up for the woman he's going to marry?

"What do you think, Charlie?" He shook his head. "What should have been a happy announcement got ruined by her best friend berating her and calling it a mistake." She winced, but he didn't stop. He could still see the tears in Cassie's eyes in his mind. They haunted him. "I'm no expert, but don't all women want their best friend to squeal and jump up and down demanding to see the ring and shit?"

"I've never squealed in my life and you know it."

Yeah. His sister wasn't one for girly displays. A hazard of growing up with three very macho brothers.

Charlie tapped one darkly polished fingernail against her thigh. "I didn't mean to… I just… It was a surprising announcement is all." Pale blue eyes, the eyes every Jackson had inherited from their father, stared up at him. "Is this real, Delta? Really real?"

The pleading catch in her voice made him feel like a first-class ass. He wished he could tell her the truth, but he couldn't risk their secret getting out.

"It's between me and Cassie. But you have to know, Charlie, I'd never do anything to hurt her. I care about her."

"Me too."

All the Jacksons cared about Cassandra Brown. Since Charlie first brought her over for dinner years ago, she'd been an extended part of the family. But something hit his gut as he realized he didn't care for Cassie the same way his sister did. At some point over the years he'd stopped seeing her as his sister's best friend and started seeing her as a woman. And now that they'd kissed, he discovered he could see her as his woman.

Hell!

He was pretty sure Cassie would lose her shit if he admitted to having feelings for her. Damn, he sounded like one of those sappy love movies Penny liked to make his brother watch. He had no idea why BJ suffered through those if he wasn't getting any. No one thought men and women could be best friends and keep it purely platonic, but somehow those two had managed for years.

"I'll call her tonight and patch things up," Charlie said.

"I'd do more than call."

His sister nodded. "You're right. An apology like this calls for ice cream."

He couldn't help but smile. "She's out of rocky road."

Charlie eyed him. "How do you know? Never mind, I don't want to know."

He knew because Cassie texted him this morning when he asked what she ate for breakfast.

Ice cream, breakfast of champions, but sadly now it's all gone.

The admission followed by a crying emoji face had him laughing as he made his own breakfast of cookies and milk.

We even share a love of junk food. This marriage might just work.

She'd sent him a laughing emoji back with a winking tongue sticking out to follow. Though they hadn't seen each other in person, they'd connected. Perhaps more than he realized.

"Thanks, Del." Charlie gave his chin a light pinch. "And sorry for your head. You okay?"

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he smiled down at his sister. "Yeah, all good. It'd take a lot more than a puny shove by you to take me down."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes, "I could have you on the floor in ten seconds with one arm tied behind my back."

She couldn't, but what Charlie lacked in strength she made up for in sheer womanly terror. His sister could stare down a man like no other. The phrase ‘if looks could kill' could have been coined from her patented death stare.

"Go make up with Cassie," he said. "I have to get back to work before the nightly rush shows up."

Giving him a quick side hug, his sister hurried out of the walk-in. Del grabbed the cranberry juice and headed back to the bar. Kelley was helping some new customers and the blonde trio was happily being entertained by the police officers in the back. Everything ran smoothly just like every other Friday night.

Del rubbed at his chest where a dull ache had settled the moment he realized he cared, a bit more than he first thought, for his fake fiancée.

Everything appeared normal. Then why did he suddenly feel like the whole world had shifted?