Page 40 of Love Me Boldly

Weirdly enough, as soon as I suggested the guys come back and hang with me in the office, none of them mentioned a thing about the girls. The looks or what they’d said before.

“It’s not uncommon,” I admitted.

“Why?”

Tracey tossed a chip at him. “Because they’re small-town people with small minds.”

“I’m from the small town,” I said to Tracey.

“Yeah, but you’re not small-minded. That’s the difference. Who was it this time?”

“Hannah and them.”

“Ugh. Good Lord. You’d think those girls would be so focused on the Spring Fling they wouldn’t have time to do anything else.”

Great. I’d totally forgotten that was coming up.

“Spring Fling?” Graham chuckled as he asked. “Isn’t that a dance?”

“At schools, yeah,” I answered. “But in Deer Creek it’s a town thing. There’s a parade, a carnival, all the things.”

“It’s a big deal,” Tracey confirmed.

“It’s unbearable,” I groaned.

All the people. The looks. Last year I’d hid at Tracey’s apartment all weekend. Considering my dad had only gotten arrested ten weeks earlier, there was no way I was going to it. Hatred for Marvin Jones was at its full height, my dad being blamed for the sudden death of our winter tourism. Considering all the rich city people canceled their reservations following the accident, I couldn’t blame them.

Wild how the bartenders who had served him that night got off with a slap on the wrist and no lingering hatred. If someone had cut him off…

His court-appointed attorney had tried that route to shift the blame.

No one went for it.

Especially the judge, who happened to be friends with the governor. He should have recused himself considering he knew the governor personally. Our attorney had fought for that until we realizedeveryjudge in North Carolina knew the governor. My dad had no shot at a fair trial anywhere he went, but that didn’t really matter in the end. He’d killed the governor’s daughter, and now he was paying the price.

“Aw. Come on. It used to be fun,” Tracey said. She grinned at the guys. “She’s dragged me to this both our freshman and sophomore years. For a small town, they do itup. You get free rein to spend the entire weekend being a little kid again. But this year we can also hang out at the beer garden.”

“Right.” I gave her a face. “That’d be fun.”

Her face paled, but fortunately, she kept her mouth shut. Frankly, I was surprised none of these guys had put two and two together yet. They seemed awfully smart. And monied. Definitely Tanner and Graham. Eli came off as a little rougher, a little less Daddy’smoney would have paid for my college if I wasn’t playing hockey,and more like he’d be taking out loans with the rest of us.

“Fine. Anyway, you guys in?”

“I like carnival rides,” Tanner said.

Eli smirked at Tracey. “I like all kinds of rides.”

She smirked right back. “I think I like you.”

Tanner abruptly shifted his leg, and Tracey crashed to the floor, shrieking in surprise.

I laughed loudly and freely for the first time in months.

* * *

“It’s late,and I’m guessing you won’t invite me back to your place.”

Graham’s gloved hands were on my cheeks. We were standing outside The Premier Grille, and Tracey and his friends were out at their cars. After most of the customers left, Caroline asked me to come back out and help her close up. To my utter astonishment, Graham and his friends and Tracey all chipped in.

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