Gin Fling (Bootleg Springs, #5)(10)

“So what are you doing?” I asked, picking a box from the truck and following her up the porch steps with it.

“I’m helping your new roommate move in,” she said cheerfully.

I missed a step and smashed my shin on the porch. “My what?” I winced.

“Hey, Scarlett, do you want the security deposit now or—oh, hi, Jonah. Come on in.”

Shelby Thompson—or, according to Cassidy Tucker, sneaky-ass reporter Shelby Thompson—was standing in my doorway, smiling at me, inviting me inside my own damn place. She was short and curvy and always smiling. She had thick brown hair with a heavy fringe of bangs that framed out her wide eyes. Green and brown that made me think of the forest floor. Creamy skin, thick lashes. She was pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way.

Until she smiled, and then people tended to take notice of something that went deeper than pretty.

Of course, none of that made up for the fact that she was one of the horde of journalists that had descended like a biblical plague on Bootleg Springs to get a piece of the Bodine family over the whole Callie Kendall case. She’d flirted with me, and I’d flirted back. It pissed me off that she thought she could get to the rest of my family through me. That I was the weak link somehow.

It also pissed me off that she’d somehow wormed her way back into the town’s good graces, that we were all just supposed to forgive and forget.

“Now that you’re both here, we can talk arrangements,” Scarlett said, leading the way inside.

Shelby frowned. “Arrangements? I thought everything was settled.”

“What are you two doing in my house?” I demanded, dumping the box on the porch.

“Your house?” Shelby blinked and looked at Scarlett.

Scarlett grinned her diabolical Southern girl master of manipulations smile. “This is such good news for you both,” she said, clasping her hands in front of her.

I knew this was going to be bad.

“Jonah, remember when you signed your lease you agreed that, if I needed, I could rent out the second bedroom?”

I vaguely remembered something about that. But Scarlett had been pouring celebratory moonshine when she went over the documents, and things had gotten a little bit fuzzy. Fuzzy enough that Devlin had to drive me home.

“I don’t recall,” I hedged.

“I’ll email you a copy of the lease and highlight the pertinent section,” she promised. “In the meantime, say hey to your new roommate!”

“Wait, a minute,” Shelby began. “He lives here?”

“And now so do you,” Scarlett said, tossing her a key. “Isn’t that great?”

She bobbled the key and seemed slow to lean down to pick it up. “You didn’t say Jonah lived here,” Shelby began.

“I have a feelin’ you two are gonna get along like two pigs in a blanket.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Scarlett? Also I should have a say in who I share a house with,” I cut in.

“Well, you see pigs in a blanket are—”

“Scarlett Bodine, you’re up to something,” I said, pointing a finger at her.

She was immune to my sternness. “I thought you two would be pleased as punch. Now you’re only responsible for half the rent.”

“I’m not living with her,” I said.

“Her has a name. It’s Shelby, and I didn’t ask to be your roommate either,” Shelby said, crossing her arms. She gave me a disapproving look through her glasses.

“Scarlett, can I talk to you outside?” I said, taking my sister by the arm and dragging her toward the door. She must have been feeling friendly since she didn’t take a swing at me or try to kick me in the balls.

I let the screen door slam behind us. “What game are you trying to play?”

“Game?” She gasped. “Why, Jonah Bodine Jr., how dare you insinuate that I’m playing some sort of game when I gave you this house to live in at a discounted rate. I put family before business, and you’re expecting me to just what? Stop making money altogether? Will that make you more comfortable, Jonah? Will it?”

She poked me in the chest, and I backed up a pace.

“I’m not asking you to not make money—”

“Because that’s exactly what it sounds like. It sounds like you’re trying to take advantage of my generosity. I didn’t have to rent this house to you, did I?”

“No, but—”

“And you don’t expect me to stop running my business of putting paying people in my rentals, do you?” She took another step forward into my space. I had close to a foot on her, but I was man enough to admit that my sister scared the hell out of me.

She was unpredictable. And that made her dangerous. She was also a biter.

“No, however—”

“I’m so glad we have that settled. Now, you and Shelby will share the Little Yellow House for the next month. After that I’m sure I can juggle some of my renters around at great expense to myself and get one of you into a different damn place. But until then, I expect you to say, ‘Thank you, Scarlett.’ And pay your damn rent, which is now half of what it was before I so generously bestowed a roommate on you, on time.”

“Th-thank you, Scarlett.”

“You’re welcome, Jonah,” she said, batting her lashes at me from under her Bootleg Cockspurs ball cap. “See ya around, Shelby,” she called into the house as she tromped down the stairs.