Page 85 of Moonshine Kiss
“How was Cassidy feeling after Girls Night?” Devlin asked, accepting the crisp lager Gibson poured for him.
I grinned. “Rough around the edges. Jonah here poisoned her with some hangover cure that made her puke her guts up for ten minutes straight.”
Jonah flashed us a smile. “Happy to help.”
Gibs finished doling out beers and pulled a root beer for himself.
“Did she enjoy the pictures?” Devlin asked.
“No. No, she did not.”
“Y’all are movin’ in slow motion,” Jameson complained.
“Through no fault of my own this time,” I argued. “She’s more stubborn than Scarlett when she puts her mind to something.”
“And she’s put her mind to not datin’ you?” Gibson asked.
“I’m lucky if she’ll say dog to me. Frankly at this point, I don’t know if I should wind my ass or scratch my watch. Not only is she pissed at me, that detective is running herd on her for being tight with us.”
“That’s bullshit,” Jonah argued.
“He took her off the investigation, telling her he can’t trust her objectivity.”
“I take it Scarlett doesn’t know since the detective is still among the living?” Devlin asked.
“Let’s go kick his ass,” Gibson suggested.
“Been awhile since I punched anyone in the face,” Jameson mused.
My brothers were mostly kidding.
“I don’t know what to do. If I keep forcing the idea of dating, I’m basically asking her to give up her career for me.”
“And why should she trust you to do that?” Jonah filled in.
“Exactly.” I nodded into my beer. “I’m torn in two. I don’t want to put her in some situation where she might lose her job. But I’ve already wasted a good long time. If we keep waiting on the right opportunity, it might never come.”
“Connelly’s not gonna be here forever,” Devlin pointed out. “Sooner or later the case will either break or go cold again.”
I sat there with that. What would it do to me and Cass if the case broke and Jonah Bodine, Sr. was found responsible for Callie’s disappearance? I could feel my brothers thinking along the same lines.
“When are you gettin’ Leah Mae a ring?” I asked Jameson, trying to lighten the mood. “Maybe if I got one for Cass she’d finally give me the time of day.”
“Christ. Bow. You don’t propose to a woman to get her to like you,” Gibson pointed out.
“Like you would know, Mr. Nothing More Serious Than a Quick Roll After Closing Time.”
Gibson leveled me with a look. “I don’t tell you shitheads everything.”
We oohed and ahhed him good-naturedly.
“Alls I’m sayin’ is there are ways to get a girl to notice you.”
“I’ve tried every other thing under the sun. I’ve tried gifts. I’ve tried bein’ nice. I bailed her out of jail. Hell, I even tried some friendly blackmail, thinkin’ it would at least get a rise out of her. She says she needs time to think about it.”
“Sounds like it’s time to call in the big guns,” Gibson said. My permanently single brother was suddenly the Oprah of relationships.
“Big guns?” Jonah asked cautiously.
