Page 118 of Moonshine Kiss
Not trusting my voice and not really wanting Bowie to know all of this mess, I nodded.
Scarlett rolled up into a seated position. “Then stop letting other people dictate how you live your life. Stop trying to do everything all by your lonesome. Start standing up for yourself. Share. Be part of this life, not just some outsider lookin’ in and keepin’ secrets. And for Pete’s sake, stop lying to your best friend in the whole world!”
“That is a whole lot of conflicting advice,” I pointed out.
But Scarlett was done with me.
“A secret relationship?” she scoffed to herself as she climbed to her feet. “That’s the dumbest damn thing I’ve heard all week.” She headed toward the patio doors.
“He got in my head,” I admitted. Connelly had prodded the cracks that I’d developed after Bowie broke my heart.I wasn’t good enough. My instincts were off. I didn’t belong here.
“Well now, I think it’s time you got in his.”
“I might have something,” I admitted. “I did a little internet research.”
“Did you now?” Scarlett nodded her approval.
“Speaking of. That Shelby girl from boot camp? She’s a journalist. I think she’s trying to get to y’all through Jonah. I haven’t told him yet.” I thought back to his “ah, shucks” face at Shelby’s compliments. The guy had to be lonely out here away from his mother and friends. But accidentally cozying up to a reporter wasn’t the answer.
Scarlett’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, we’ll see about that.”
We were silent for a beat and then another one.
“I don’t want to see you fuck this all up, Cass,” Scarlett confessed. “You gotta understand that obeying crooked authority isn’t doing the right thing. Neither is making yourself small and your wants few. Deep down you know what’s right. You know what you want out of life. So don’t fuck that up just because you’re scared.”
I nodded again, and she reached for the patio door. Bowie and Devlin were probably frozen out there.
“Thanks, Scar,” I said softly.
“Don’t thank me. I’m mad at you, Cass. You’re gonna have to make this disappointment up to me in a big way.” She turned away from me and toward the porch. “Y’all can come back in.”
“Good,” Bowie said. “We’re freezin’ out here and the pizza’ll be here in five.”
56
Cassidy
“Scarlett still mad at you?” Bowie asked as we wandered up Lake Drive.
I’d thrown caution to the wind and let him talk me into hitting the Pop In for a late-night ice cream treat. We weren’t holding hands or sticking tongues down each other’s throats, but we were visible. Together. An inflatable Frosty the Snowman tipped his top hat at me from Yee Haw Yarn and Coffee’s patio.
We were a week out from Christmas, and I hadn’t come up with any solutions to my immediate problems, which included:
How to date Bowie without getting fired?
How to get Connelly to stop treating me like dog crap?
How to apologize to Scarlett?
It was a lot of how to questions and not a lot of answers. And I hated to admit it, but I felt something stirring under the holiday calm. Something was gonna break. But I didn’t know if it was the investigation, Bowie’s patience, Connelly’s limited self-control, or my heart.
“Yeah,” I sighed, biting into my ice cream sandwich. “I haven’t quite figured out how to fix that yet.”
“You’ll figure it out,” he said, opening my car door for me.
I slid in, buckled up. Bowie climbed in behind the wheel and cranked the heater. He looked over at me, a sexy sparkle in his eyes. “You know how many times over the last few years I’ve wished I could take you for ice cream?”
I smiled back. Every time he confessed to a yearning that had tortured him, I felt another seam in my heart stitch itself up. “You know, I’ve had a few fantasies over the years, too,” I confessed.
