I gaped at him. “We’re not selling the rights to our wedding photos. What are you talking about?”
“I’m glad you brought it up,” Kelvin said. “We’d be crazy not to. That’s a huge missed opportunity. We should get planning now if we want to capitalize on your visibility from the show.”
He walked outside, pulling out his phone as he went. The screen door banged shut behind him.
“Really?” Dad asked.
I sighed. “I know, he seems… opportunistic. It’s just the way he is. That’s why he’s so successful.”
Dad raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t buying it.
“He’s just… not a Bootleg type of man,” I said.
“No, he is not.”
“But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have other good qualities,” I said. “He’s just different from what you’re used to.”
“Leah Mae, I’ve seen the sorts of people you run with now,” he said. “Slick big city folk. Smooth talkers. I admit, I’ve never cared much for any of it. But it’s your dream and I am nothing but proud of you. And if this is what you want, I’ll be happy for you.”
“Thanks, Dad.” I squeezed his hand. “Listen, why don’t I take Kelvin into town and show him around. We’ll come back here with dinner for all of us before we go check in to our cabin. Do you need any groceries?”
“No, I’m fine.”
I didn’t believe him. I’d pick him up a few things just in case. “We’ll be back in a little while.”
I got up and found Kelvin on the front porch, typing something on his phone. Probably texting his assistant, asking her to look for wedding venues. I sighed again. That was Kelvin, always going at full speed. I figured I should be happy he’d let go of that silly run-off-to-Vegas idea so easily. He wasn’t always so quick to change his mind.
“Come on, let’s go into town,” I said. “We’ll bring back dinner.”
“Are we going to be able to find a place that’s paleo and gluten-free?”
I stopped myself from sighing. The chances of that were very slim, but I didn’t want to sour him on my hometown before he’d even seen all of it. He was just a bandwagon health nut anyway; it wasn’t like he had real food intolerances. “I’m not sure. I guess we’ll have to look around.”
We got back in the car and headed into town.
3
Jameson
The Pop In was crowded. That was normal this time of year, especially on a Saturday. Bootleg swelled with tourists in the summer, most of them staying in cabins around the lake. I slipped inside, planning to get in and out as quickly as possible.
My jaw felt fine today. Rhett didn’t hit all that hard. Hell, I’d taken worse from my brothers on more than one occasion. Wasn’t even any bruising.
I went through the store and grabbed what I needed. There wasn’t a line to check out, so I put my purchases on the counter and pulled out my wallet. Opal Bodine was working the cash register.
“Hey, Jameson,” she said.
“Opal.”
“This all for you?”
I eyed my purchases. “I think I could use something sweet. Got anything good?”
“You bet I do,” she said. “I’ve got two more cinnamon rolls if you’d like one.”
I thought about buying both and bringing one to Jonah, but he’d only tell me we shouldn’t eat so much sugar. Course, if I bought both and he didn’t eat his, I’d have no choice but to eat it for him.
“I’ll take both.”
“Sounds good,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
Someone brushed against me as they passed, and I winced. I hated it when people did that. The store wasn’t that small; there was no need for bumping into people. I glanced over, but it wasn’t anyone I knew, and he was walking out the door anyway. I shrugged it off and looked to see if Opal was coming with my cinnamon rolls.
A girl had gotten in line behind me and I did a double take when I saw her, my jaw dropping all the way to the floor. Or it would have if my jaw had been capable of such a thing. It was Leah Mae Larkin.
She was tall and willowy, with limbs that went on for miles. Her long blond hair was down and wavy. Honey-lemon skin with a few freckles across her nose. Bright eyes that were such a surprising shade of green they made you look twice.
I swallowed hard, finding it exceedingly hard to do anything but stare.
“Jameson?”
Her voice was soft and melodic, and when she smiled, I noticed the little gap between her front teeth. She’d always had it—and hated it—but it had become her trademark as a model.
“H-hey there, Leah Mae,” I said, hating how strangled my voice sounded. It was not unusual for me to get a little tongue-tied around a pretty girl, but this was something else entirely.
“Jameson Bodine?” she asked, as if she hadn’t said my name already.
I noticed her accent was gone. I’d noticed it on the show, too, but hearing that northern lilt to her speech here, in Bootleg Springs, made it stand out all the more.
“Yeah,” I said. Great job, dumbass. You’re really going to win her over with your charm.
“Wow, it’s been a long time,” Leah Mae said, looking me up and down.
I was suddenly glad I’d let Jonah talk me into working out with him and Devlin. I kept in decent shape as a rule, but I’d put on some muscle recently.
Not that it mattered. This was Leah Mae, not some girl I was hoping to impress.
I opened my mouth to speak again, but the words weren’t there. Damn it. I had this problem a lot. My mind had plenty going on, it was just that sometimes the words didn’t want to make it from my brain to my mouth.
What would Gibson do? No, he wasn’t the one to look to. Bowie? Nah, Bowie would just pretend like he wasn’t interested. I hadn’t seen Jonah with a girl enough times to know how he’d handle himself. And Dev… well, he was in love with my sister, so that just made it weird.
Damn it. I still wasn’t saying anything.
“It has been a while,” I said.
“How have you been?”
Well, my dad died and now he’s a person of interest in the Callie Kendall case. No, don’t say that. Jesus, Jameson, what in the hell is wrong with you?
“Um, I’ve been all right. You?”
“I’ve been well,” she said. “I was wondering if I’d run into you while I was here.”
“You must be in town visiting your dad?”
She nodded and adjusted the items she had in her arms. “Yeah, just got in today.”
“Here, let me help with that.” I took the loaf of bread, half-gallon of milk, and a few other items from her. Used my elbow to move my stuff over and make room on the counter for hers.
“Oh, thank you,” she said.
She smiled at me and my heart stopped. I was surprised I didn’t drop to the ground right there in the Pop In. Could you go on living when your heart quit on you?
“You’re welcome.”
I stood there another second, unable to decide whether or not I was grateful to Opal for taking her sweet time. I didn’t particularly want to stop talking to Leah Mae—although talking was a term I’d use loosely for what was happening. But I was failing at this pretty damn hard and it would have been nice to be put out of my misery sooner rather than later.
“Been watching your show,” I said.
“Really?”
I nodded. “Sure. Whole town is mighty proud of you.”
“Oh, yeah, the town,” she said.
“It’s not every day that a Bootlegger’s on TV.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Wow, I hadn’t thought about everyone here seeing it.”
“Yeah, everybody’s real excited. It’s on at the Lookout, and I hear a few people organized viewing parties.”
Her cheeks flushed a hint of pink, and she drew her teeth over her lower lip. She always did that when she was nervous. “I guess… I hope everyone’s been enjoying it.”
“I’d say so.” Some of the
tension left my shoulders and my words came a little easier now that I was starting to relax. “Been interesting to see how you’re doing, even though you’re far away.”
She smiled again and this time I was able to smile back.
A man came up beside her and my smile faded. He had dark hair and a strong jaw. Eyes that looked around the store with a fair amount of disdain. Reminded me of some of the rich tourists who swept through town, thinking they were better than all us locals. By his clothes, he looked like he belonged in an office somewhere, not a little convenience store in an out-of-the-way town like ours.
“Hey babe, we got everything?” he asked.
He stood close to Leah Mae and that’s when I realized what I’d missed. She had a ring on her finger.
I’d been wrong about my heart stopping before. It hadn’t. It had kept right on going, beating a steady rhythm. But it did stop now. Stopped dead in my chest.
I gave the guy a quick once-over. He was not wearing a ring, which meant one of two things: Either they were not yet married, or they were and he didn’t wear one. If it was the latter, he was a douche. The former, and there was still a bit of hope.
Hope? For what? For me and Leah Mae to reconnect after twelve years? As if we were going to wander off together and reminisce about being kids. Or talk about those summers when we were teenagers, and I’d been too shy to make a move.
Not that I would have. Me and Leah Mae were just friends. Always had been.
Damn it, I was doing a lot of not talking again. Where in the hell was Opal?
“Kelvin, this is Jameson Bodine,” Leah Mae said, gesturing to me. “We grew up here together.”
Kelvin seemed to notice me for the first time. He looked me up and down with a quick flick of his eyes. I wasn’t dressed all fancy and sophisticated like him. But I was wearing a clean t-shirt and decent jeans—nothing that I ever wore in my workshop. That stuff always wound up with burn holes all over it.
“Jameson, this is Kelvin Graham,” Leah Mae said.
“Leah’s fiancé,” Kelvin said.
Leah Mae glanced at him like something he’d said surprised her. Kelvin tipped his chin to me.
I decided to be the bigger man and offer to shake his hand. Some things needed to be handled like a gentleman. “Nice to meet you.”
Kelvin shook my hand with a firm grip just as Opal finally made an appearance. She glanced at Leah Mae and Kelvin, then back at me, and lifted one shoulder in a little shrug.
“Babe, is this the only store in this town?” Kelvin asked Leah Mae while Opal started ringing up my purchases.
I turned my back to them and focused on getting my money out. Tuned out the conversation they were having. I paid, and Opal handed me the bag.
“See you later, Jameson,” she said.
I started to go without saying anything else, but my pride got the better of me. I did have something else to say to Leah Mae, and I wasn’t going out like that. Pausing, I looked back at her, and she met my eyes.
“I know the fishing pole wasn’t your fault,” I said. “It looked faked, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah, thank you.”
“Good to see you again, Leah Mae,” I said. “I hope you enjoy your visit.”
Her smile lit up the world. “Thanks, Jameson. It’s good to see you too.”
Clutching my bag, I nodded and turned for the door. Because I was a gentleman, I glanced over my shoulder and tipped my chin to her fiancé. “Kevin.”
“It’s Kelvin—”
The door closed behind me before I heard the rest of what he was going to say, if anything.
My pulse raced as I got in my truck and slid my groceries over to the other seat. Had I really just seen Leah Mae Larkin at the Pop In? Or was I in the middle of a strange and terrible dream where my childhood friend was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on, and she was wearing another man’s ring?
Damn it. It wasn’t a dream, but the rest of it was true.
I shook my head, like I could shake loose out of my stupor. I needed to get myself together. Of course I was going to run into Leah Mae one of these days. Her dad lived here, so chances were she’d come back to visit at some point. And we were old enough that one of us being engaged or married was a distinct possibility.
Not that I’d ever been anywhere close to that with a girl. I’d dated Cheyenne Hastings for a while in high school, but she’d dumped me for Cody Wyatt. After that, I’d been out with a handful of other girls, but nothing that had lasted long. Then there was Willa Sawyer. But that hadn’t been much of a relationship. She’d been someone I could turn to when I needed it, but neither of us had expected much from the other. We’d known it wasn’t going to last forever.
So Leah Mae was here, and she was engaged. That was all right. I ought to be happy for her. After all, she’d been my friend. Weren’t you supposed to be happy for your friends when something good happened to them?
But happy wasn’t what I was feeling as I drove back out to my house.
4
Leah Mae
The sun lit up the little kitchen in our rental cabin. I stood at the sink, gazing out at the lake. I’d been all over the world, but there was nothing quite like a mountain lake in West Virginia. Especially on a summer day. The water sparkled, and the trees fluttered in the breeze. I opened the window to let in some of the fresh, clean air, closing my eyes and breathing it in.
Kelvin was on his laptop at the kitchen table. We were supposed to be taking the week off, but he didn’t know what time off meant. I’d been hoping he’d relax a little more, but so far, he’d been as busy as if we were back in L.A.
We’d been here a few days, and I was keenly aware that we had to leave Friday afternoon. Such a short time. It felt like we hadn’t done even a quarter of the things I wanted to do. So far, we’d spent most of our time here, at the cabin. I’d been visiting my dad in the afternoons, but other than that, we hadn’t been out much. Kelvin was frustrated by the lack of paleo and gluten-free options at the local restaurants, so he’d been cooking dinners here. And he’d been so busy working, we hadn’t done much sightseeing.
I took the whistling kettle off the stove and poured water into my mug. Dunked the tea bag a few times. The scent of pine coming in the open window filled the air while Kelvin’s fingers clicked on his keyboard.
I hadn’t seen Jameson again. Not since I’d been in line behind him at the Pop In. I’d recognized him instantly, although he looked a bit different from what I remembered. Still had short dark hair and sweet blue eyes. But he’d matured—his features taking on a more rugged look, with that strong Bodine jaw covered in stubble. He no longer had the same boyish face. He was a man now.
Jameson Bodine. Next to my daddy, he’d been my favorite person when I was a little girl. I’d been friends with the other girls my age, but Jameson and I had shared a special bond. We’d spent endless hours together, walking trails, swimming in the lake, splashing in mud puddles. He’d been a quiet child around most people, but when we were together, he’d opened up. Talked to me about all kinds of things. It had made me feel so special. Like I knew a secret. I got to see something no one else did—the things he was hiding on the inside.
I’d taken that responsibility very seriously. Guarded his secrets—such as they were when we were small—with care. I’d kept them tucked away inside my heart, like little presents that were only for me. I could remember looking at him in school during class—watching as he doodled on his papers, keeping his head low—and feeling like I was the most special girl in the world, because I knew things about Jameson Bodine that no one else knew.
My heart had broken when my parents told me they were getting a divorce and my mom and I were moving away. To Florida, of all places. I’d known I’d miss my daddy, and my friends at school. Bootleg Springs had been the only place I’d ever known—my only home.
But leaving Jameson Bodine had been the worst thing of all. The stricken loo
k on his face when I’d told him I was moving away was still burned into my memory. His blue eyes had gone dark and stormy, his jaw clenched. He’d fought back tears, which had made me cry like a baby. Then he’d wrapped his skinny twelve-year-old-boy arms around me and hugged me tight—told me everything would be okay.
When I’d come back to stay with my dad the next summer, I’d gone straight for the Bodines’ house. And it had been as if Jameson and I hadn’t been apart for more than a day. We’d spent the long summer days wandering around town, down to the lake, through the woods. At first, we’d caught up on what had happened over the past school year. He’d filled me in on all the Bootleg gossip; I’d told him about life in Florida. After that, things between us had gone on like they always had. We’d spent our days together, running home at sunset like all the other kids in town.
And so it had gone for the next several years. I’d spend the school year living with my mom in Jacksonville. I had friends at school. Joined the theater club and acted in plays. Performed in talent shows. Did my homework and talked on the phone too much—normal teenage girl things.
But I lived for summers, when I’d go stay with my dad in Bootleg Springs. Jameson would be waiting for me on the front steps of his house my first day in town, and we’d pick up right where we left off, as if we hadn’t been apart at all.
Everything had changed the summer Callie Kendall disappeared. My mom had heard the news and hopped the first flight she could get to West Virginia. Callie and I had been the same age, and my mom had been convinced Bootleg was suddenly dangerous. Too dangerous for her daughter to be unsupervised like I was. Telling her I was rarely alone, even with Dad working all day, hadn’t helped. Because for the first time, she seemed to realize I spent my summers running around with one of those Bodine boys.
I’d heard Mom and Dad fighting, so I’d walked into town to find Jameson. He’d sat with me at a booth at Moonshine. Bought me a chocolate shake to make me feel better. And the next day, I’d gone home with Mom. I hadn’t been back since.
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