Page 66 of No More Secrets
After a pit stop in the kitchen for utensils and beer, Joey led the way out onto the back porch. “We’ll eat in the screened in porch. I don’t want to share my food with mosquitos.”
She flicked a light switch and an overhead ceiling fan and light came on.
“This place suits you,” Summer said, taking in the vista. Beyond the deck, a brick patio ran the length of the back of the house and pastures rolled on as far as the eye could see. “You have a bathtub on your patio.”
Joey grinned. “It runs, too.”
“You take baths outside?” Summer asked incredulously.
“Who’s going to see me? The horses?”
Summer imagined it. A warm summer night, a fire in the fire pit, and a good long soak under the stars.
“Okay. You may be onto something here.”
Joey opened her container and dug into her lukewarm roast beef sandwich.
She pointed at Summer’s salad. “No meat on that. Did Carter get to you, too?”
“Maybe a little,” she confessed. “He and Dixie make a pretty compelling case.” She reached for a fork. “When I write pieces like this, I try to live as close to the lifestyle of the subject as possible just to get a better feel for it.”
“Method,” Joey mumbled through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.
“What?”
Joey swallowed. “It’s like method acting, only for writing.”
“Exactly.” Summer speared a cherry tomato. “So, think we gave Anthony enough to write his articles?”
“More than. He’s very ‘creative’ with his facts. In a week, all of Blue Moon will be reading about how you’ve fallen for a farmer and plan to kiss Manhattan good-bye. And how I’m ready to have another Pierce brother’s babies.”
They both drank deeply.
“So how was the sex?” Joey asked as casually as if she was talking about shoes or recipes.
Summer choked on her beer. “Excuse me?”
“Those Pierce brothers know how to treat a woman right.”
“Brothers?” Summer demanded.
Joey smirked. “After Jackson left, Beckett and I may have made out one night.”
“No. Way. Does Jax know?”
“Probably not. And it was nothing,” Joey shrugged. “Beckett was worried about me. I was in a tizzy over his brother leaving. It just happened. And then we came to our senses, decided we were better off as friends, and never spoke of it again.”
“I’ve never made out with two brothers before,” Summer said, wistfully.
“It was a lot more than making out with Jackson,” Joey said matter-of-factly. “Even at seventeen that boy knew what he was doing.”
Summer watched her straighten her shoulders and dig back into her meal.
“Why don’t you call him Jax like everyone else?”
“I used to. I don’t anymore.” Joey kept her attention on her dinner.
“Too familiar?”
