Page 41 of Moonshine and Magnolias (Just Add Peaches #1)

It took her a minute to remember how to bring up its call history. Once she did, she scrolled through the list until she found the two successive incoming calls from that day .

From identical numbers.

She called it back, not surprised when someone answered with “Belle’s Medicinal Brewery.”

“Hey, it’s Wendy.” She made her voice casual. Something in her tone caused Rob to look at her again. “Is Brandi around?”

“No, not yet,” the woman said. “She should be here any moment.”

Rob sat next to her and she clutched his hand. “Listen, I’m trying to find you guys and I keep getting lost.”

“You are? Okay.” The woman gave her directions to a parcel of land that bordered the grounds of Fountenoy Hall. It had belonged to the Claytons before it was sold in the mid 1930s. “Shall I tell her you’re on your way?”

“No, that’s fine. I’ll just see her when I get there.” She hung up the phone and blew out a breath. “I don’t believe this.”

“Are we taking a field trip?” Rob asked.

“Yes. Yes, we are.” She needed to know what was going on.

Twenty minutes later, near Scarlett Springs and its crystal clear water, Rob drove under the low-hanging limbs of ash and live oak trees and onto an unmarked road. If the woman hadn’t given her the exact mileage, they would have driven right by it.

He wound through the untamed landscape of wild vines and canopies of branches until he came to a clearing sporting hard-packed dirt parking lot with a golf cart and about five other cars. He took a space in front of a large open shed. A few other buildings sat behind it.

Wendy stared at the people bustling about the structure, maneuvering around monstrous silver vats and ducking under pipes.

“What do you want to do?” Rob asked.

“Damned if I know.” She opened the car door and was immediately hit with the reeking odor of fermented fruit and a hint of unbaked bread. Rob followed suit and together they approached the shed.

The employees all wore green shirts with the emblem of a peach.

Some read the gauges on the containers and recorded the information on tablets.

Others rolled kegs across the floor to join the ones already stacked against a wall.

No one acknowledged them beyond a passing nod before resuming their work.

A ginger cat crouched at the entrance, eyeing them with suspicion as they passed.

She reached for Rob’s hand when she spotted Brandi’s long blond hair poking through the back of a baseball cap. Her cousin stood outside with a small group of people, talking and pointing. Wendy tightened her grip when she saw crates of pale-orange glass bottles. The color of Fountenoy Hall liquor.

Brandi had been lying this whole time. About her responsibilities. About why she was never around the Hall. About her own future plans.

But why? Why take a second job, and why keep it secret?

Wendy swallowed the pain of her cousin’s deception. Surely there was an explanation. Instead of assuming the worst, she ignored the churning in her stomach and led Rob through the building to her cousin.

Brandi gasped when she noticed them. She handed something to a member of the group, and they toddled off. Brandi set her shoulders, like she always did when faced with a particularly accurate player at home base, and waited.

Wendy sucked in a deep breath and forced a casual attitude. “What is this place?”

Brandi shot her a doubtful look, then spread her arms and turned in a small circle. “Welcome to Belle’s Medicinal Brewery.”

This was too surreal. “Belle’s was illegal moonshine.”

“Was. I guarantee now we pay our hefty share of taxes, though I can see why Caroline wanted to keep it all from the government.” Brandi glared at her. “How did you find us?”

“It doesn’t matter.” She leaned into the solid strength of Rob’s body.

“That’s why you always had the scent of unbaked bread around you,” he said.

“I haven’t yet found a detergent that washes it completely away. Especially when someone else does my laundry.” She took a deep breath. “I wanted to tell you, Wendy. Every time I had to skip out on a shift. But I was sworn to secrecy. I’m sorry.”

Okay, there was the explanation, even if it didn’t make much sense. “Why the cloak and dagger?”

“During Prohibition, only one or two family members knew what was happening, for everyone’s safety. It became tradition.”

“That’s when it was against the law. There’s no more need for plausible deniability.” The scent of peaches that had always been so familiar now made her feel like a stranger. “I had to play detective to figure out you had a job somewhere else.”

Brandi cleared her throat and adjusted her hat, keeping her eyes averted. “It’s not exactly a job. This was part of my inheritance.”

Wendy’s world spun away too fast for her to handle. Rob put a hand on her shoulder. Not their inheritance. Brandi’s inheritance. When Wendy had to work her butt off to cover their shared legacy and failed to keep her career going in another city.

“How did you find out?” Brandi asked.

Wendy relayed the part Gerald Mitchell had played in sparking her curiosity.

Brandi nodded. “And how are you doing with finding the missing source of income?”

“You knew about that? I thought about asking you, but you always hated numbers.”

“Eulalee was supposed to get the books to our accountant, but you swooped in and started organizing everything. Both the Hall and Belle’s are owned by the same parent company, though they act independent of each other.

After the employees and suppliers and taxes are paid, everything is put back into the business. ”

“Which explains the extra money.” Wendy tugged her hair.

It would have been better if she had never gotten involved with the inn.

If she had stayed in Atlanta and let her mom and cousin and aunt deal with everything the way they had assumed she would.

To let Brandi run Belle’s and Eulalee take charge of the Hall.

But then she’d still be the same woman struggling to mold herself into what thought she needed. Never would have met Rob.

A woman approached them while tapping her wrist. “Hey, Brandi. You’ve got that phone meeting coming up with the distributors in Macon.”

“Thanks, Ona. I’ll be right there.”

Wendy waited until the woman left. “Do our moms know?”

“Yours might suspect. If mine knew, we’d have no product to sell.” She took her cap off and ran her fingers over her hair before putting it back on. “Look, I have to get back to work. But I won’t if you need me.”

“That’s fine. Go.” This work ethic was something Wendy hadn’t seen much of at the Hall. She flapped her hand in the direction Ona had taken. “See you tonight.”

Brandi enveloped her in a quick hug. “I’m so glad this is out in the open now. You have no idea.”

Oh, Wendy had some idea.

She and Rob rode back to the Hall in silence.

Too many contradicting thoughts swirled through her mind.

She ought to be more pissed off. Brandi and Eulalee had danced around the truth, avoiding outright lies by omitting the pertinent information.

Wendy had had to deal with the effects without knowing the cause.

It wasn’t anything she could have controlled.

She looked over at Rob, who concentrated on not hitting any of the trees that brushed the road. She didn’t need to always be the commander. And trying to be one had added more stress and pain and anxiety over a situation that had nothing to do with her.

Rob pulled into the Fountenoy Hall parking lot and turned off the ignition. Neither moved from the car. “You okay?” he asked.

“This never would have happened if you hadn’t been here. I would have been more observant, more aware of what was going on.”

Rob ran his hands down the thighs of his jeans and opened his mouth to speak. “Wendy—”

“Thank you. Being with you has made me let go of what I can’t control. And I wouldn’t change a thing. ”

A smile broke out on his handsome face, making his hazel eyes crinkle. “Anytime you need to lose control, you know where to find me.”

She got out of the car and poked her head back inside. “Come with me.”

They skirted the house and went to the orchard, but Wendy didn’t stop.

She breezed past the rows of fruit with Rob and kept going until she was at Fenwick’s oak tree.

Generations of Claytons would sit in its cradle of branches to contemplate which path to take when faced with life-changing decisions.

Wendy hoped its wisdom would guide her now.

She hoisted herself onto a low branch and patted the space next to her.

Once Rob had joined her, she took his hand and ran her fingers over his palm, its lines and dips and edges.

It was easier to focus on that than on him.

Of all the thing outside of the scope of her influence, she had never wanted anything more than she wanted this moment.

“I’m scared,” she whispered.

“I’ve got you,” he said.

Her heart overflowed that he understood what she meant. “You’re the first person in a long time who made me want to feel.” She swallowed around the thickness in her throat. “I’m a better person when I’m with you.”

“Wendy.” His voice was thick.

“Don’t say anything.” She threaded their fingers together. “I don’t need to put up any walls. When you hold me. It’s safe.”

He kissed the back of her hand.

“Don’t leave.” Wendy whispered the words to Rob’s chest, unable to look at him, unwilling to see his expression. “When you’re done with your research. Stay. Please.”