Page 36 of Moonshine Kiss
Offense taken.I whipped my head around so fast my neck cracked. I felt wounded. I’d always been considered a Bodine as much as the Bodines had been considered honorary Tuckers.
Eyes were popping out of heads all over the place.
Bowie turned to me. “Cass, I don’t want you feeling like you have divided loyalties over this mess. We don’t want to jeopardize your job.”
He was punishing me over the DNA results again.
I rose abruptly. “Yeah. Got it. I’ll go.” I was shockingly hurt. Like arrow to the chest, knife to the back hurt.Why did I keep letting this man close enough to hurt me?
I was going to throw the used kitty litter onto his back porch tonight.
“We can drive Jonah and Bowie back,” Jameson volunteered, giving me an apologetic look.
I nodded briskly, not making eye contact with any of them. “Yep. Thanks for dinner, y’all.”
I pushed my way out the front door to a chorus of “Cass, don’t be like that.”
I felt like the front door was slamming shut on a lifetime of friendship. I wasn’t one of them. They didn’t trust me. And that fucking hurt.
18
Bowie
Icaught her as she was yanking her car door open.
“Cass.” I stopped her with a hand on her arm. She turned on me, ice in her eyes. That was Cassidy, more ice than fire when she was mad. She never lost control, always kept her emotions buttoned up.
Sometimes I wondered what would happen if she ever let that leash slip.
“What?” she asked crisply.
“It’s for your own good,” I told her.
“I don’t need you looking out for me. I haven’t in a long time.”
It was my turn for pissed off. “You don’t get to tell me to stop caring.”
“I’m not your little sister,” she snapped at me.
I was crowding her against the door of the car, but I had enough room to give her the once-over. “I’m well aware.”
Her breath was coming in pants, little silvery clouds that hung in the night air between us.
“Are you?” she demanded. “I’m not your little sister and I’m not some teenage wild child who needs you to take care of her.”
“Cassidy.” I was exasperated. “What do you want from me? You want to sit in on a Bodine pow-wow so we can figure out how not to let an investigation that you’re helping with ruin our lives? Do you want to be in a position to have to answer questions from that outsider detective about your involvement with my family? You already made it clear your job and our friendship are separate entities. I’m tryin’ to respect that.”
Oh, that fire in her green eyes. It warmed me straight through, chasing the winter out of my bones.
My hand had a mind of its own, reaching out to tuck that stray lock of blonde hair behind her ear. She closed her eyes for a second as if she was melting into my touch. And then the moment was gone.
“Respect? It looks like you’re trying to make a point.”
“I’m a Bodine, Cass. We aren’t a subtle people. If I was trying to say something, I’d say it.”
She gave a humorless laugh. “That doesn’t explain the decade of mixed signals.”
I wished I didn’t know what she was talking about. No matter how hard I tried to hide them, those true feelings bled through, staining everything.
