Page 135 of Highball Rush
She took a deep breath. “What if it doesn’t work? What if people don’t believe me? Or they can’t use the evidence they find for some reason? My father’s been getting away with everything for so long. He’ll have contingency plans or… I don’t know, something. Then what? I’ll never be safe, and neither will you or your family or this town. What if everything goes wrong and we look back and realize your life would have been so much better if I’d just stayed away? If Callie Kendall had stayed dead.”
I took her face in my hands. “Don’t you ever say that, you hear? Nothing would have been right if you hadn’t come back. If this goes to shit, we’ll figure it out.”
Her lips turned up in a weak smile.
I kissed her forehead.
“Besides, my life was boring as hell before you showed up.”
“Yeah?”
I gave her a little grin. “I think the highlight was when we found out Devlin got Scarlett’s name tattooed on his ass and the artist spelled it wrong.”
“I regret everything about that, especially telling you assholes,” Devlin said.
“How could you regret everything about your cute little butt tattoo?” Scarlett asked. “It says my name on a rose.”
“Oh god, there’s a flower too?” Bowie asked. “That’s more information about Devlin’s ass than any of us needed.”
Devlin pointed at me with his beer. “Gibson brought it up.”
“You’re the one who lost the bet,” Scarlett said, crossing her arms. “It ain’t right for you to complain about it now.”
Callie laughed. “Who’d you lose a bet to?”
Scarlett grinned, looking proud. “Me, of course.”
“Can we stop talking about my ass, please?” Devlin asked.
“If you’re going to have to live with your future wife’s name permanently misspelled on your body, at least it’s on your posterior,” June said. “Very few people will see it.”
“Until we pants you next time we’re all at the rusty reef,” Jameson said.
“You’re all assholes,” Devlin said, but he was trying to hide a grin.
He knew my brothers were fucking with him. Mostly.
Best of all, Callie was perking up.
“Is her name really spelled wrong?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Devlin said with a roll of his eyes. “The guy spelled it with an i-t-t, not e-t-t.”
Scarlett went for his waistband. “Here, look—”
“Don’t take my pants off,” Devlin said with a hearty laugh, twisting so she couldn’t drop his drawers.
“I was just going to show her that it isn’t really that bad. At first glance, you can’t even tell. And the rose is real pretty.”
Callie covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. “That’s okay, I don’t need to see it. I was just going to tell you, I know a tattoo artist who does incredible work. I bet he could fix it for you. He’s up in Blue Moon, but it would be worth the drive.”
“Thanks, May—I mean, Callie,” Devlin said. “I guess we can call you by your real name now.”
She smiled. “Yeah. It feels good. Like I can be me again. Although that reminds me, I have no idea how I’m going to explain this to my boss.”
“You should invite him out here to visit,” Scarlett said. “Introduce him around town. I bet it’ll help clear things up.”
“She makes a good point,” Cassidy said. “Bootleg Springs is a place that needs to be experienced to be understood.”
