Whiskey Rebellion Read online

  “Don’t tell me what to do.”

  “Oh, I will, and you’ll listen.”

  I scoff. “Says who?”

  “The man who needs you to believe in him when he doesn’t.”

  “Done.”

  “Done?”

  “As long as ya do the same for me.”

  “Done.”

  “Grand, now kiss me.”

  He chuckles. “Now, who’s telling who—”

  But before he can finish, I take his mouth with mine.

  Because there are no words left to be said.

  We’ve said them all.

  Now it’s time to live them.

  Together.

  “Ma, I want my cottage just like Declan’s.”

  “But you’re to live here with us. We love Jackson, and he can stay too,” Mrs. O’Callaghan protests, but I’m pretty sure she’s lying. It’s only been a few days, but I think she wants to poison my food.

  She doesn’t think I’m good enough for Lena.

  But I don’t care.

  Lena thinks I am, and while I still struggle a little with that, I know there is no other way I want to live except with her by my side.

  “Ya don’t have to move.”

  “But we want to,” Lena says with a flick of her wrist. “I want construction to start soon, so that when we come back, we can move in.”

  “I swear, this is all Amberlyn’s fault,” Mrs. O’Callaghan says, and I smile as Mr. O’Callaghan shrugs.

  “I happen to think Amberlyn is pretty awesome,” I say before glancing at Lena. I’m reasonably certain Amberlyn’s little talk was what helped me realize what I couldn’t give up.

  Mrs. O’Callaghan waves her hand to me. “So does everyone else.”

  Lena’s eyes burn into mine as her dad says, “It’ll be nice to have the house to ourselves.”

  “It will not!” Mrs. O’Callaghan rolls her eyes. “Plus, where are ya going again?”

  “We don’t know yet,” I reply. “Wherever we want, I guess.”

  “Yup, as long as we go together, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I say as Lena takes my hand, and just the mere touch has my heart pounding in my chest. Her touch has always done that to me, though. Made me inexplicably wild. I want to say that I’m not scared or freaked out, but I am. My mom says it’s something I just have to deal with, and I agree. But Lena makes it bearable for sure. I have the itch to leave, but thankfully, Lena gets to leave with me, and I’m not as nervous as I was to come back.

  I’ll be with her.

  And she makes me happy.

  Plus, my buddies at the pub were happy to see me back; Fiona was waiting at the door with open arms. Mrs. O’Callaghan said I’m not to work in the stables if I plan on being with Lena. I’m pretty sure she wanted me to quit the pub too, but Lena wouldn’t let me. She told me she fell for me on the side of the pub, and she wasn’t letting that go. I told her I’d do her on any building, but apparently, she thinks it wouldn’t mean as much.

  I guess she’s right.

  Our story started a little unorthodoxly, but I love that about us.

  Especially about her.

  “So ya still wanna live with me, right?”

  I shrug. “Will ya feed me?”

  She grimaces. “I’m an awful cook.”

  “Eh, I don’t think so, especially when we get to the end of the meal.”

  Her face fills with color as she smacks me. “You’s dirty.” I give her a look that says so is she, and she just laughs. “Yer impossible.”

  “Good, ’cause you drive me wild.”

  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Later, when we find ourselves in her dad’s study, I hold the darts in my hand as she tapes the map to the wall. “He’s gonna kill me for this. I don’t care, though.”

  “You’re the one who suggested we throw darts at the wall to figure out where we want to go.”

  “Because ya won’t make up yer mind!”

  I can only grin at her. She’s beautiful, so stunning in only a pair of sweats and a large pullover that I think is mine, though she won’t own up to it. Gazing at her, her hair up in a bun on top of her head, I wonder how in the hell I ever thought I could walk away from her.

  She is my other half.

  “I did,” I say simply, crossing my arms over my chest.

  She does the same, glaring at me. “Well, this is news to me! Ya didn’t tell me.”

  I shrug. “Maybe not, ’cause I just thought about it. Just now as I take in every beautiful thing about you.”

  She makes a face, moving her hands along her body. “I’m a mess! I just rolled out of bed.”

  “The way I love you,” I say, and her cheeks warm. “I love you every way.”

  Her eyes sparkle as she looks away. “Yer crazy.”

  “I am. For you.”

  Leaning her hip to the desk, she grins over at me. “Well then, out with it.”

  Holding her gaze as she moves a little piece of hair out of her eyes, I find I can’t breathe. She stuns me. Daily. “I want to go to Scotland for a week.”

  “Just a week?”

  “Just one. Do everything we can, and then I want to fly back home to Canada.”

  Her eyes light up. “So I can meet yer ma?”

  “Yeah,” I say, breathless. “And I want to get my grandma’s wedding ring.”

  Her lips part. “Ya do?”

  “Yeah, and then after a week with my mom, we’ll have to leave in the middle of the night ’cause she’s crazy,” I say with a small laugh. But Lena only looks at me, her eyes wide and filling with tears. “And I want to come back here where I fell head over heels for you. I want to take you on the side of the building, and I want to drop down to one knee and ask for your forever.”

  Her lips start to curve. “My forever?”

  “Yeah, ’cause it’s mine.”

  “It is.” She wipes away a tear and then shakes her head.

  “And I want a life with you. One full of happiness, love, and of course, naughty adventures.”

  She smiles widely. “All the naughty adventures.”

  I grin as our fingers lace together. “But above all, I want to be with the person my soul chose.”

  “I like yer soul.”

  I smile. “I figured you would.”

  She nods, a tear rolling down her face. “Fine, but ya better tell me I’m pretty,” she says as she starts for me. “And that I complete you.”

  I reach for her, pulling her to me as I nod. “Done.”

  “Okay, well, I guess ya can ask me, then.”

  “Oh, how nice to have your permission,” I laugh as I wrap my arms around her.

  She gives me that little kitten grin. “Well, just think, ya gotta ask my parents too.” She taps my chest then as my eyes widen. “Good luck with that.”

  When she starts to laugh, I trap her in my arms as I press my forehead to hers. “But you’ll say yes?”

  “Maybe,” she answers, cupping my jaw.

  “Maybe, eh?”

  She grins. “Guess yer gonna have to ask to find out.”

  My heart jumps into my throat as I hold her, gazing into her bottomless eyes. “Always such a pain.”

  “Ah, ya love it.”

  I do. God, I do.

  “I love you, Lena.”

  “Grand, ’cause I love ya too.”

  Which is all I could ever hope for.

  Someone to love me when I didn’t love myself.

  I never thought it would be a princess who would love me. But then again, she isn’t a normal princess.

  No, she’s the missing piece of me.

  My rebellious Whiskey Princess.

  Read more books by Toni Aleo

  A small note of thanks…

  Thank you so much for reading my newest novel, Whiskey Rebellion. It’s sort of funny how this came about. For years, I’ve been asked to write Lena’s story, but it was never there for me. Around Christmas last year, it came to me out