“To business,” her father said.
Evan raised his glass. “To making a deal.”
Colton raised his glass higher. “To diligent daughters.”
Gretchen had to roll her lips in again to keep from laughing. Next to her, Colton took a drink and sucked in an appreciative hiss. “Wow.”
Her father tipped his glass toward Colton. “That’s what a fifty-year-old whiskey tastes like.”
Evan downed his in a single shot and reached for the bottle. Anna gently grabbed his knee. With a disgruntled look, Evan sat back down.
Anna attempted to cover the uncomfortable moment with a bright smile. “So, you guys knew each other before all of this, right?”
She and Colton spoke at the same time.
“Not really.”
“We sure did.”
The awkwardness grew heavy until Colton laughed and nudged her with his elbow. “Come on now, Gretchen. You don’t have to protect my ego.”
Oh God. Gretchen held her breath and braced for bullshit.
“Gretchy here is the only girl who ever broke my heart.”
Her sisters-in-law sucked in enough air to rival a Hoover Deluxe.
Gretchen coughed. “He’s messing with you guys.”
Colton adopted his aw-shucks accent. “Sadly, I’m not. We met at a friend’s wedding last year and then she never returned my calls.”
“And here I thought you were just acquaintances,” Evan said.
Before anyone could respond, Colton kicked it up a notch. “Y’all must be proud of Gretchen.”
“Oh, we are,” her mother gushed. “So proud.”
Gretchen looked sharply at her mother. Her parents had never, not once, said they were proud of her.
“Absolutely,” Evan said. Gretchen’s head whipped so fast in the other direction that she heard a popping noise. “She does important work.”
What the hell was going on? Actually, she knew the answer to that. They were trying to impress Colton so he would sign the endorsement deal. She’d be furious if it weren’t clear that Colton could see right through them.
Blake snickered. “Yes, Gretchen is very devoted to her little cause.”
“How could you not be?” Colton said. “It takes an incredible person to walk away from everything to help people who have nothing.”
Blake snorted. “In Gretchen’s case, it was more like running away, but—”
“Blake.” Her mother’s sharp tone split the air and stunned the room into silence. Her mother never raised her voice, and certainly never at her brothers. To do so in front of an outsider was akin to blasphemy.
“So,” her father said, swirling his whiskey with deceptive nonchalance, “just what did Gretchen show you tonight before we interrupted?”
Colton tensed, the muscles of his arm around her shoulder growing stiff and heavy.
“I took him to the gallery in the tasting room,” Gretchen said quickly.
Colton’s fingers gripped his glass so tightly she feared he’d break it. “Your company has quite a history.”
“Indeed it does,” her father said. “Our family has a legacy that goes back generations. Did you know it takes a minimum of twelve years to make a batch of whiskey?”
Colton’s fingers brushed her shoulder. “I did not.”
“The bottles on the shelf today were put in barrels back when you signed your first record deal.”
“No kidding.”
“And the bottles on the shelf back then had been started when Gretchen was still in elementary school.”
“Impressive.”
“We don’t ask just anybody to put their face to our family’s brand. We care very deeply about a person’s values.”
“In that case, I’m honored to be considered.”
“But you haven’t signed a deal yet,” Evan jumped in. “Why is that?”
Her mother interrupted. “Evan, Frasier, please. Can we not talk about business right now?”
Colton smiled. “It’s okay, Mrs. Winthrop—”
“Please call me Diane.”
He nodded. “Diane. It’s okay. A man has to be careful who he associates with, right?” Colton set his glass on the coffee table and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I’m careful too. Every person on my team is carefully vetted to make sure we’re all in it for the same reason, creatively and financially.”
“What kind of team does a country music star have?” Blake asked the question with a practiced condescension that sparked an almost PTSD response in her. That tone had mocked her for her entire life.