Page 56 of Honeycombs & Homecomings

“Funny,” she snapped.

He pointed at her. “This is Allie’s, right?”

She folded her arms and tapped her steel-toed boot. So, he had her all figured out, huh?

“Except for the boots,” he said. “Those have Jo-Jo written all over them.”

She looked away, her irritation growing by the moment.

He reached out, lightly taking her chin in his hand until she looked at him. “You’d look beautiful in a brown paper sack.”

She quirked a little smile. “I didn’t have one of those.”

“Well,” he straightened his spine. “Something to look forward to.”

She smacked his shoulder, then glanced at his outfit. He’d run home and changed out of the slacks and t-shirt he’d worn earlier and now had on jeans, a blue flannel, a belt with a ridiculously huge belt-buckle, and cowboy boots. “What are you supposed to be?” he looked like half the men in town now.

A goofy grin spread over his face as he rushed to the couch and picked up a black cowboy hat. He put it on and tipped it up. “Ma’am,” he laughed.

Jo scratched her head.

“Oh, come on!” he said. He spun around for her and it was all she could do to keep from bursting out laughing. “It’s so obvious.”

She shrugged and shook her head. “Sorry.”

He slouched. “I’m a towner, you know, instead of a Yankee.”

She rolled her eyes and signaled at him from head to toe. “Everyone dresses like that. They’re not going to let you in.”

“They will,” he pulled his hat back down. “Just you wait.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

Cash took off his hat and scrubbed a hand through his golden locks, his face falling. “I told Deputy E. Morrison—”

“Ethan?”

He nodded. “—that something might go down with your investors tonight, and if he could be somewhere back by the corn maze just in case, that’d be appreciated.”

“Something with the Warners?” She eyed him skeptically. “And that worked?”

He nodded and glanced at his feet.

“He met them this afternoon, I don’t see what he could possibly think might be going on with them enough to warrant his presence,” she said.

Cash breathed deep and grasped her arms in his hands. “Listen, Jo, we need to talk.”

They did need to talk. There was so much to talk about. But she couldn’t handle that right now. She placed a hand on his chest. “I know we do, but I can’t. I’m so twisted in knots right now—scared for my sister.”

His face hardened and her stomach flip-flopped.

“I don’t mean I never want to talk, I just mean right now . . .” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Is that all right?”

He squeezed her arms for just a moment, then stepped back. “Yeah, it is.”

She smiled at him. Aside from her dad, he was the only person who always considered her feelings and not just his own. Not that her mom and Allie were bad, they weren’t—they were just really emotional people.

He forced a smile. “Grab your coat,” he said. “We’ve got a sister to save, loan sharks to thwart, and sketchy investors to stop.”

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