Page 20 of Moonshine Lullabies

“You too,” Jessie said and took it, giving it a firm shake.

“I’ll leave you ladies to it,” I said and Jess gave me a nod.

“Thanks for the help.”

“You bet.”

I left the girls chatting and trailing in behind me, feeling a little like an asshole for not carrying the groceries in, but they’d divvied them up between ‘em and I didn’t want to interrupt their talkin’.

Inside the house, some of the boys were gettin’ rowdy over a video game and Hex threw me some chin to come on over and talk to him.

“Feel like takin’ a ride with me and checkin’ still number one?” he asked.

“Ain’t no rest for the wicked,” I told him. “Hell yeah, let’s go.”

He nodded, and I asked, “Tate home?”

“Yeah, he’s in his room. I think he’s worried his mamma’s fixin’ to kick his ass.”

I raised an eyebrow at that and asked, “Aw yeah, and why’s that?”

“Got himself after-school detention for scrappin’ in the hallway today,” he said.

I frowned.

“One of them Bayou Brethren’s boys picked a fight, and he finished it,” Hex said, grinnin’.

“Jesus Fuck, ain’t they got any code or morals?” I demanded.

“Fuck nah. Why you think we’re beefin’ to begin with?” La Croix grumbled.

I swore softly. “Well, you wanna head out now or we got a few minutes?” I asked.

Hex eyed me and said, “We got a few.”

I nodded and waited to see how this was gonna unfold.

I mean, shit – wasn’t it enough that this shit spilled into the kid’s home but school too?

Damn.

CHAPTERSEVEN

Jessie-Lou…

“Mom, can I talk to you?” Tate’s voice was nearly drowned out by a loud cheer and laughter from the living room and I turned from where I was at the sink, peeling onions to get to choppin’ ‘em for my holy trinity of Cajun cookin’.

“Yeah, what’s goin’ on, Bub?”

“Please don’t be mad,” he said, and I set things down and dusted off my hands on the front of my cookin’ apron.

“Before I open this,” I said, thinkin’ before I lit off in his ass about whatever it was. “I want you to tell me what happened.” I took the envelope he’d held out to me.

He swallowed hard and said, “I got in a fight.”

“Okay, who hit first?” I asked.

He heaved a big sigh and said, “I did.”

---