One More Taste Read Free

You’re awesome, sis.”
    â€œFigured you’d need one for that awful truck. It always was unreliable, even when it was brand new.”
    Knox glanced again at the Chevy. It might be a pain in the ass, but some of the best memories of his life involved that truck. “It has its moments.”
    â€œIs the Cab’d driver there yet?” Shayla said. “Should be, any minute.”
    â€œHe’s here. One more thing. I need you to email me with some information on a property.” He rattled off the address of the lakefront home from memory and thanked her again. When the call ended, Knox turned to Ralph and sized him up. The two of them were roughly the same height and build. “You’re, what, six-one? One-eighty?”
    Ralph gave him the side-eye, apparently on to Knox’s plan. “Six even and one-ninety,” he said hesitantly.
    Close enough. Knox took out three, soggy one hundred dollar bills from his wallet. “Ralph, I’m going to need to buy your suit.”
    *   *   *
    It wasn’t the first time Emily Ford had spied on a VIP guest at Briscoe Ranch Resort. In fact, she considered it a mandatory part of her research as the resort’s Executive Special Event Chef. Wowing elite guests with personalized, gastronomic marvels was her specialty. As long as the guests never checked her internet search history or spotted her peering at them through binoculars, she was golden.
    She didn’t usually involve her best friend for life, Carina Decker, in her covert ops, but today was an exception. Because today’s resort VIP was Knox Briscoe—a cousin of Carina’s whom Emily had never met, and Carina had only seen a handful of times, though they’d grown up a couple hundred miles from each other. He was about to sign on with Carina’s dad as the heir apparent of the resort, making him Carina’s future landlord and Emily’s newest boss.
    Since Carina was eight months along in a pregnancy that had supersized her whole body from her ankles to her face, stealthiness in this covert ops mission was not easily achieved. So, once Emily had gotten the call from the security guard manning the resort’s cameras that Knox had arrived, Emily and Carina had settled for spying on him from a window in the bridal gown shop Carina operated in the resort’s lobby.
    A shiny, black sedan matching the description the security guard had given Emily came into view on the long road through the property leading to the circular driveway in front of the resort’s main building.
    Carina nudged Emily in the ribs. “This is exciting. I’m glad he’s here, and I’m proud of my dad for putting the rift behind him. Whatever my dad, Uncle Clint, and Grandpa Tyson fought over that made Uncle Clint leave, it’s been more than thirty years. That’s ancient history.”
    Ancient history that was still shrouded in silence and speculation , Emily added silently. To the best of her knowledge, no one but Tyson, Ty, and Clint knew the reason for the fight—and Clint and Tyson had already taken that secret to their graves.
    Carina wrapped an arm around her belly. “With a new generation of Briscoes coming along soon, it’s time for the family to forgive and move on. And I think Knox represents a new era of greatness for our family and for our business.”
    Carina was right. Probably. Knox’s private equity firm’s investment in Briscoe Ranch might just be the monetary boost the resort needed to propel it to the next level in luxury destinations. Including the building of the dream restaurant that Emily had been working toward at the resort for a decade. Only weeks earlier, Ty had finally, finally, agreed to give Emily the space to build her restaurant at the resort. All they needed now were investors. Knox’s timing couldn’t be more perfect—unless it wasn’t.
    â€œYou don’t think this all