Gin Fling (Bootleg Springs, #5)(26)

“You’re a party professional,” I observed.

“I also have this,” she said, looking furtively over her shoulder.

Rather than pulling it out, she tilted the backpack in my direction to show me a very nice bottle of gin, tonic water, and a bag of sliced limes.

“Have bar, will travel.” I approved.

“There are no better moonshine makers in the country. But I still prefer some Bombay Sapphire once in a while. Besides, I like to enjoy a beverage with my show,” she said, nodding to the next deck.

Misty Lynn, who’d just got done adjusting her pink leopard-print bikini top over her very fake, slightly lopsided breasts in Gibson’s face, was now sobbing as Rhett Ginsler accused her of trying to get in Gibs’s pants yet again.

“We might need Sheriff Tucker’s services after all,” I told Shelby.

She snickered. “You seem like a refined urbanite. At least, more so than our pal Misty Lynn over there. Can I make you a gin and tonic?”

“I’d be honored.”

She dug deep, producing two Solo cups. “I’ve only ever seen you drink beer,” she said, helping herself to ice out of the nearest cooler. I noticed a long, jagged scar on her thigh and wondered what had caused it.

“You’ve seen me hungover on moonshine,” I reminded her. I held the cups while she poured the gin.

“The Black Friday Bootcamp,” she laughed, remembering. “Half the town turned out to see how hungover you’d be. They really do love you here.”

Scarlett’s voice carried from where she perched on the rocks with Cassidy.

“What do you mean you don’t get it?” Scarlett demanded. She’d mostly dried off, but my sister hadn’t dried out.

“I mean, how would letting Jonah believe that Shelby was still an evil reporter get him to start crushing on her?” Cassidy frowned, dipping her toes in the water. Unlike her best friend, Cassidy wasn’t one to overindulge often. Though I’d been entertained by drunk Deputy Tucker recently.

“Pfft,” Scarlett snorted, obviously having no idea how far her voice carried. “Don’t you know anything about matchmaking?”

“You know my dating app history. Of course I know nothing about matchmaking.”

“Well, the proximity of them living together with strong feelings toward each other created sparks. I created an obstacle—Shelby being a low-down, no good, dirty reporter—that I could remove at the opportune moment to best ensure sexy times. Sparks plus no obstacles means those two will be knockin’ boots in no time.”

I met Shelby’s gaze over the cups as she opened the bottle of tonic.

“Your sister is one in a million,” she whispered to me.

“That’s a nice way of saying she’s a manipulative little schemer,” I said fondly.

“Maybe you should keep it down. They keep looking over here,” Cassidy said.

Shelby snickered next to me.

“Just smile and wave,” Scarlett said at full volume. “They have no idea what we’re sayin’.”

They waved and smiled, and we did the same in return.

“They’re all invested in you,” Shelby said. “I get the sense that the whole town feels responsible for making up for your father.”

“They seem to be fans of you, too,” I observed.

Shelby gave a sassy little shrug. “Yeah, I’m kind of hard to resist.”

I was starting to see that.

“I guess we can be friends now,” I said.

She put the top back on the tonic and took one of the cups from me. “To friendship.”

I clinked my cup against hers. “To friendship.”





14





Jonah





Bootleg Springs had trouble ending a party. We’d stayed out on the lake until the sun kissed the water in a blaze of pinks and reds.

And just before all the decks motored home, Scarlett and Devlin announced a bonfire at their new place. Bootleg apparently also didn’t mind a party at a hole in the ground.

Shelby rode with me, and we gave Bowie and Cassidy a lift. Something else neighbors and family did for each other when everyone lived five minutes from everyone else.

My car bounced down the dirt path that cut through the land leading us toward the lakefront.

I felt a burst of pride for my sister. Scarlett hadn’t had the advantage of college, and she hadn’t needed it. She’d taken over our father’s handyman business before she should have had to. By the time she graduated high school, she’d saved the flagging business and started saving for her first real estate rental. Now, she was building a home and planning a future with the man she loved.

It was probably time for me to start weighing my options, thinking about my future. It had been a year since Rene. A year since I’d arrived in Bootleg as a stranger. I was healing here. But that didn’t mean that I had to stay.

And even though when I’d said I was leaving it had been a lie, the words still struck a chord within me. A decision needed to be made. Stay or go.

Here, I had brothers and a sister. I had friends. Would those relationships survive if I left? Were they real if they didn’t?

I spared Shelby a glance. She was in the passenger seat, quiet. Her eyes looked heavy, shadowed.