Page 60 of Moonshine Kiss
He wasn’t speaking English. The words weren’t recognizable.
“I never meant for you to stay away from her forever. I just wanted her to have a chance to grow up first. I’ve been waitin’ on you to finally make your damn move for years, son.”
“You think I’m good enough for Cassidy?” I asked, trying desperately to clarify exactly what he was trying to tell me.
“Yes!” he bellowed.
“But you told me to stay away from her!”
“Bowie, I’m not the best communicator in the world. So maybe the words didn’t come out right. I wanted you two to get yourselves where you needed to be before diving into those big feelings.”
He’d been trying to protect me. He didn’t think I was a bad seed or not good enough for his daughter.
I pressed my fingers to my eyes. “All this time I thought you were telling me I wasn’t good enough.”
“Ah, hell. Nadine is gonna kill me deader than a hammer over this,” he groaned. “Bowie, I never, ever meant to make you feel that way. You’re one of the good ones. Always have been. Even your daddy said so.”
My eyes flicked to the picture on the file cabinet.
“So if I want to court Cassidy?” I began, wanting it spelled out loud and clear. No misunderstandings this time.
“You have my blessing. Hell, I’m begging you. You want to put a ring on the girl? I’m a thousand percent in favor. For the love of God, Bowie. Don’t let me sit down at my dinner table with an asshole from one of them there dating applications!”
A weight I’d been carrying for eight long years lifted right off my chest.
I stood up, my chair smacking into the wall behind me.
“Before you go runnin’ off,” Sheriff Tucker said, “I should warn you that she’s madder than a puffed toad. Some of that might spill over on you.”
“I can handle it,” I promised. There was nothing in this world that was going to stand between me and Cassidy Tucker now.
30
Cassidy
Eddie didn’t care that I was good and pissed off or that he’d just had breakfast two hours ago. He wanted food now. He expressed this desire by winding his way in and out of my feet as I warmed up a bowl of stew that I was too mad to eat.
“You want more food? Well, I wanted my dad to keep his big fat nose out of my life. Guess neither one of us is gettin’ what we want,” I told the cat. He was young. But he needed to learn that life wasn’t always fair.
I couldn’t believe my father had sabotaged my chances with Bowie back then. Bowie had felt something for me, and I’d spent the last thousand years questioning my instincts and wondering what was wrong with me. I slammed the utensil drawer shut.
George padded into the kitchen to add his two cents to the lack of food issue.
“You’re already borderline overweight,” I told him.
I’d stormed out of the station, middle fingers mentally flying, and decided to take a little PTO to stew in my rage. Better to do it at home than anywhere near Connelly should he come back to the station. I wished I could be like Scarlett and throw a fit, get it out of my system. But I had the icier kind of temper, freezing people out with my chilly politeness.
My phone rang on the counter. I planned to ignore it, but I saw Scarlett on the screen and picked up.
“Okay, it’s tomorrow,” she said by way of a greeting. “I need to know how you may or may not have had sex with Bowie and why the whole town’s talking about you screaming at your daddy and then him showing up in Bowie’s office, hat in hand.”
“If those two do any more colluding behind my back I’m going to…” I trailed off. I didn’t even know how to threaten people.
“You’re going to turn your best friend loose on them to make them rue the day they were ever born,” Scarlett filled in for me. Her loyal vindictiveness was one of the many things I loved about her.
“Yes! That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“I already have the perfect place picked out for their bodies,” she continued on. “All you have to do is tell me exactly what happened.”
