1
JAMESON
I didn’t care what my sister said, being here tonight wasn’t good for me.
She’d called no less than half a dozen times today, insisting I needed to get out of the house. Why? Who knew with Scarlett. Once that girl got an idea in her head, it was damn hard to get it out. And apparently Miss Scarlett Rose had decided her brother needed a drink at the Lookout.
Now that I’d been sitting here awhile, I’d decided she was wrong. I didn’t need to be here. I’d have been much happier if I’d stayed in my shop. I made my living as a metal artist, and I was working on a big commission—had plenty to keep me busy. Granted, I liked a cold beer as much as the next guy, and Nicolette served ’em up good. But what I did not like was the fact that half the people in here were looking at me.
They thought they were being so damn sneaky. Little glances over their shoulders. Heads together to whisper.
Moving my gaze back to the table, I shifted on my stool. The noise of a dozen conversations drifted around me. I knew what people were whispering about. All us Bodines knew. They were wondering if our dad—a man who was no longer among the living—had been responsible for the disappearance, and possible murder, of Callie Kendall a dozen years ago.
Did I think he’d done it? I didn’t rightly know. There’d never been a lot of love between me and my father, but that didn’t mean I believed he’d been a murderer.
Hadn’t been a lot of love between our father and any of his children, save Scarlett. She’d always tried the hardest with him. Maybe because she was the baby, or the only girl. Hell if I knew.
There had been good times with him, and with our mama. A lot of ’em, in fact. But Dad had made it hard. Drank too much. Blamed us kids for every problem in his life. My brother, Gibson, had taken the worst of it. Turned him into a mean son of a bitch if you weren’t related to him. Sometimes even if you were. Bowie seemed to have decided he’d be Dad’s opposite. Nice guy, Bowie. Upstanding sort. Our half-brother, named Jonah after our father, hadn’t the pleasure—or misfortune—of growing up with Dad. That seemed to have been a blessing, far as I could tell.
Me? I’d always tried to stay out of his way. Keep my head down. Be invisible. Kinda what I did in general, and it usually worked out fine.
Wasn’t working no more. Not with the whole town whispering about Jonah Bodine Sr. and Callie Kendall’s damn sweater. Now eyes were on me, and I did not like it. Not one bit.
Moisture beaded on my beer bottle and the scent of garlic fries and whiskey wafted by. I took a sip and ran my thumb down the cool glass.
Bowie sat across from me, staring into his beer. He was usually a bit more talkative, but tonight he’d been quiet. I hadn’t asked why. June Tucker sat next to him, reading a book. I liked Juney. I found her bewildering sometimes, but she also didn’t talk too much, or expect me to. Although she did tend to ask awkward questions. Jonah sat on her other side. We’d only found out about Jonah’s existence a couple of months ago when he showed up in town looking for us. He’d heard about dad’s death, and saw he had siblings he’d never known. Of course Scarlett had claimed him as a Bodine after about ninety seconds of knowing him. I reckoned she’d been right to do so. Jonah was a decent sort. He hadn’t been sure about staying in Bootleg, and I wasn’t sure if he’d wind up settling here long-term. Somehow—I wasn’t quite sure how, seeing as the agreement had been made in the sixth inning of a Bootleg Cock Spurs softball game, and I’d been pretty far gone on moonshine—Jonah had recently become my roommate.
I took another sip of my beer and Scarlett flashed me a sweet smile. She was standing by another table with her beau, Devlin. My brothers and I had reluctantly agreed that Dev was all right for Scarlett. She’d made us promise we wouldn’t toss him in the lake again. We got around it by promising we wouldn’t unless he deserved it. She’d thank us later. Devlin was obviously crazy about Scar, but every man deserves to get his ass thrown in the lake once in a while. Even the good ones.
Normally I wasn’t one to start a conversation where one wasn’t already happening, but I glanced up at June. “Where’s Cass tonight, Juney?”
She blinked at me once. “On a date.”
My eyes flicked to Bowie. His jaw tightened, and his eyelid twitched. Now I knew why Bowie was playing the part of the broody Bodine tonight. He had eyes for June’s sister, Cassidy Tucker, but for reasons none of us could fathom, he’d never done a thing about it.
“A date, huh?” I said. “Who’s she seeing?”
“Someone she met online,” June said. “I told her the probability of finding a suitable match using an appropriate online resource was high.”
“You gave her this idea?” Bowie asked.
“It’s perfectly logical,” June said. “Cassidy would like to meet, and date, a man with potential for long-term commitment. Utilizing a dating application will widen her range of potential mates.”
“Potential mates?” Jonah asked. “You make it sound like she’s an animal.”
“Technically speaking, we’re all animals,” June said. “Homo sapiens are classified within kingdom Animalia.”
“Thanks for the science lesson, June Bug,” Bowie said.
“Bowie, are you experiencing feelings of jealousy because Cassidy is having a potentially romantic encounter with another man?” June asked, her voice flat. There was no sarcasm or humor in her question. She was really just asking.
I tried to cover my smirk by taking a drink of my beer.
“No,” Bowie said. “I’m good.”
June shrugged and went back to her book.
Scarlett swept up next to me and elbowed me in the ribs. “See, Jame. I told you this would be good for you. Aren’t you glad you came out of hiding?”
“Not especially.”
“Oh, stop,” she said. “Y’all are a bunch of negative Nancys over here. Bowie, quit your scowling. You look like Gibs.”
“Who looks like me?” Gibson asked.
He’d come up behind Scarlett, a bottle of water in his hand. The oldest and youngest Bodines were opposites, and not just in gender. Scarlett was tiny, while Gibs was the tallest of all of us. Looked the most like Dad, too, which I was pretty sure he hated.
“Bowie,” Scarlett said. “He’s over there trying to turn his beer sour.”
Gibson just grunted.
“Y’all are a sad-lookin’ lot,” Scarlett said. “And I know exactly why.”
“Why is that?” Bowie asked.
I wanted to kick him under the table for encouraging her.
“Because you’re single,” Scarlett said. “Here I am, the youngest Bodine, and I’ve got this great man. And you poor things are still waiting to find someone.”
“Who says we want to?” Gibson asked.
She smacked his arm. “I wasn’t talking about your grumpy ass. You find a woman who can put up with you, and I swear I’ll learn to cook just so I can bake her the best pecan pie in Olamette County. She’ll deserve it.”