Page 86 of Whiskey Chase
He arched an eyebrow at me. “Do you think Scarlett Bodine isyourmissing piece?” he shot back.
“I’d like to request a recess,” I joked.
“Motion denied.”
I tilted my head back, enjoying the feel of the sun warm on my face. “I don’t know what I think. But I sure like her, and I sure like this pepperoni roll.”
“I guess that’s good enough for today. You know, sooner or later, we’re both going to have to decide if it’s time to move on, stay put, or go back.”
Sooner or later was not today.
* * *
We headed homehappy to have at least left the house.
I unlocked the front door—a habit I just couldn’t quite give up—and let us in. I was delighted to spy a lithe brunette lounging on the back deck.
“What do you know?” Jonah said. “You did will her to appear.”
“Must have been the hot springs,” I joked. I headed down the hallway and crossed the living room, trying not to appear too eager. When I opened the deck door, Scarlett tilted her head backwards and raised her sunglasses.
“Hi,” I said quietly.
“Howdy, neighbor.”
“Long time, no see.”
She grimaced. “Yeah, about that...”
I shook my head. “Yeah, about that...” I parroted. I wished I could see her eyes because something flickered across her face, an emotion I couldn’t quite define.
“I had a rougher time than I thought at Daddy’s house. Thank you for verbally kicking my brothers’ asses.”
“It had to be done.”
She nodded. “It did, and maybe my own needed a little kick too to finally tell them I didn’t want to do all this on my own.”
“I just hope it wasn’t too little too late.”
She stood and padded to me barefoot. Her toenails were sparkly red. She slipped her lean arms around my waist and squeezed. “I have a favor to ask you, but first I was wondering if Jonah would like to see some more albums. I brought mine.”
She wasn’t telling me everything, and I already knew what that felt like, already knew what that did to a relationship. I wasn’t signing up for that again.
“I think Jonah would appreciate that,” I said stiffly. I pulled out of her embrace to leave.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with you, Dev,” she said. “It’s a family thing.”
That was one thing I did understand: family secrets. Everything my family did was cloaked from the outside world so as to remain above reproach in public. A shiny veneer cloaking the humanity beneath.
I nodded, still not appeased. “I’ll get Jonah.”
I found him inside flipping through a fishing magazine.God, we both needed to get a life. And soon.“Hey, Scarlett has something for you,” I said, jerking my head toward the deck.
He straightened out of his slump on the couch.
“Cool. Hey, listen. I noticed you’ve been working out a bit. If you need any guidance, I can help.”
“It beats sitting around waiting on the Bodines,” I said.
