Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
I roll my eyes. “You guys have this meeting every week, I’m not sure what you think I can contribute at this point. I’ve been back a week. Hell, less than a week.”
He throws his hands up in the air in frustration. “I don’t know. Shit man, can’t you just come and sit in? We’ve all been waiting years for you to come home, and now you’re here. I don’t care if you just sit there and stare off into space.”
I slowly stand up and tower over my brother. “Fine.”
I walk over and grab my boots before sitting down, putting them on, and lacing them up. It’s not until I stand up that I notice Austin's smirk.
I look down at myself and back at him. Fuck, I haven’t gone shopping for clothes either. “You think Ford’s going to lose his shit if I show up at the office in jeans and a T-shirt?”
“Probably, but hell, dude needs to relax anyway.”
I laugh and slap my little brother on the back. “You still fucking with him all the time?”
He pulls his keys from his pocket. “He wouldn’t know how to react if I didn’t.”
I follow behind him and jump into the passenger side of his truck. I pull the lever to move the seat back a few inches and then grab the other lever to lean the seat back. “All right, so what about you? What have you been up to?”
He backs out of my driveway. “Uh, honestly? I work… a lot. But I do my best to stay out of the Blaze offices. I go in once a week, and that’s one time too many. All my time is spent at the distillery.”
“Why? Something I need to know about?”
He smirks and looks at my jeans and T-shirt before looking at the exposed tattoos on my arms. “No, but there’s a dress code at the office. Khakis and button-ups at the minimal. Of course, they all wear suits and ties.”
My head turns to look at him, and he’s pointing at the back seat where he has a pair of khakis and a button-up shirt hanging. “Uh, you think you should have mentioned that before we left the house?”
He shrugs as he presses on the gas. “Really? You have dress clothes back there or something?” Before I can answer, he continues, “Yeah, I figured not. And you’re sure as shit not going to fit into my clothes.”
I cross my arms over my chest. I try to relax as I’m being driven around by my brother, but I can’t seem to let myself go. I’m used to being the one in control. Even on missions and even though I was higher rank, I still drove. “I know you, Austin, and you don’t work all the time. You’re always getting into some shit. How’s your girl? How’s Ally?”
Austin tenses at the mention of his best friend's name. Interesting.
He clears his throat. “She’s good,” he answers before changing the subject. “So have you thought about what you’re going to do now that you’re back?”
I look out the window. That seems to be the main topic of conversation since I got back. The truth is I retired because I was feeling my age when I was out on missions. I knew it was time for me to either take on a desk job in the military or retire. I thought about it for a while and knew that I wanted to come home, but now I’m not so sure what I want to do with my life. I’m not one that can just sit around idle either. “Nope. But I’ll figure something out.”
He opens his mouth to say something but must change his mind. He points up ahead. “Check it out. Still pretty cool, right?”
I look at the offices of Blaze Whiskey ahead of us. Behind that, higher up, is the distillery. The smile comes naturally to my face. Even though I haven’t had a lot to do with it in the last twenty years, a sense of pride comes over me. “Yep, still pretty cool.”
Austin parks, and we get a few feet away from the truck when I stop. “You going to change?”
He keeps going but gestures to his own jeans and T-shirt. “Nope. I’m going to tell Ford I didn’t want you to feel out of place.”
I laugh. “You fucker.”
As we walk into the building, he’s busting my balls about any and everything. A few people wave and say hello to Austin and look at me curiously. I give them each a nod of my head. We don’t stop until we’re standing at a desk with Ford’s fiancée Lilian sitting behind it.
As soon as she sees us, she comes around the desk and hugs me. It’s awkward, but I hug her back. I only met her a week ago, but it’s obvious that she makes both Ford and my nephew Ollie happy.