The launch party for High County Whiskey’s Nineteenth-Century label is the biggest event I’ve been to in years. It’s a giant glittering affair for the start of what the press is already calling a renaissance and a rebranding for us. The whiskey, made with my rapid barrel-aging technology and my great-great grandfather’s recipe, is getting a huge amount of buzz and has been very positively reviewed by several critics.
It’s being heralded as a sign we’re moving away from scandal and flash and back to our roots: a family-brewed gentleman’s drink. Our new campaigns are subtle, mountain scenery and old photographs, small text blocks with quotes about mountain air inserted throughout them. They were Mia’s idea, of course, and every one of them has been a huge hit for us.
Mia has been incredibly instrumental in all this with the PR needed after the Calvin scandal broke and in helping steer us toward this launch. She says she doesn’t even mind because it’s the kind of advertising work she’s always wanted to do. Dad says he’d hire her to do it full-time if she wasn’t so dedicated to the chocolate shop. Dad and all our staff and family friends love Mia. She’s been a huge hit with everyone I’ve introduced her to.
She’s moved into the cabin with me, and she’s helped me turn it from a hideout into a real home. We’ve been talking about expanding it, taking the tiny cabin that had been where this all started and turning it the centerpiece of a much larger home. We could easily move out of the mountains, and maybe one day we will, but right now we’re both right where we want to be. I like the idea of keeping the cabin, making it something that fits my new life with Mia, something that uses my money and business to improve it rather being an escape.
I’m more in love with her every single day, and it’s been such a bright spot in some of the darker days these past few months. Calvin’s trial had been painful. He’d insisted the whole thing had been his friend’s idea, and that he’d only agreed to go along with it because he was drunk. The footage of him at the well, my testimony of his threats and the other events, and those quotes he gave to the press about me being dead weight said otherwise, though. The judge ruled it proved intent, and now Calvin and several of his friends are serving at least fifteen years in jail.
It had been hard for me to hear, and hard for Dad, although I think maybe part of him has had less faith in Calvin than I did for years now. It’s still had to wrap my head around, but Mia and I talk about it a lot, and it helps. She makes me see things about Calvin I tried not to do for so long.
I push thoughts of Calvin out of my head. Tonight is about new chapters, new beginnings. The room looks stunning, and Mia is on my arm, looking even more than stunning. She takes my breath away. I pull her out onto the balcony when we can get a minute away from all the press and partners.
“Mia,” I say, kissing her under the night sky, “thank you. So much of tonight is because of you.”
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she says. I smile and reach into my pocket, and then slide down on one knee. Mia gasps. I take her hand and swallow hard. I’ve been planning to do this tonight for the past six weeks.
“Will you marry me? Will you be right here with me for the rest of our lives?” I ask.
Mia nods rapidly, making my heart soar. “Yes!” she says, eyes tearing up. I slide the ring onto her finger and stand up to kiss her, pulling her in tight this time.
“I love you so much,” she says. “Oh, Jacob, I can’t wait to be your wife.”
“I love you,” I say, laughing a bit and brushing a tear from her cheek. “I’m so grateful we ran into each other that first day. Literally.”
“I’m glad I spilled coffee on you,” Mia says, smiling, eyes still watering.
“I’m glad you gave me your number,” I say.
“I’m glad you called,” Mia says.
“I always call,” I tell her, nodding.
“I know you do,” Mia says, kissing me again.
“I love you,” I whisper again, holding her close.
We stay out on the balcony for several more minutes, a private celebration of our own before we rejoin the large one. A few moments just for us.
I don’t know what led us both to a small mountain town at the same time, how life had taken us both on that path, but I’m grateful for it. I wish Calvin had made different choices, but I wouldn't trade what I have with Mia for anything in the world. I don’t know how something so beautiful came out of something so dark and terrible, but if it had to have happened, I’m so grateful it had a silver lining.
It’s hard to believe that almost a year ago, I almost died. But then, with Mia, it’s as if I really started living, maybe for the first time. I can’t wait to keep on living every minute of my life now with her right by my side.
******
THE END