I noticed her accent was gone. I’d noticed it on the show, too, but hearing that northern lilt to her speech here, in Bootleg Springs, made it stand out all the more.
“Yeah,” I said. Great job, dumbass. You’re really going to win her over with your charm.
“Wow, it’s been a long time,” Leah Mae said, looking me up and down.
I was suddenly glad I’d let Jonah talk me into working out with him and Devlin. I kept in decent shape as a rule, but I’d put on some muscle recently.
Not that it mattered. This was Leah Mae, not some girl I was hoping to impress.
I opened my mouth to speak again, but the words weren’t there. Damn it. I had this problem a lot. My mind had plenty going on, it was just that sometimes the words didn’t want to make it from my brain to my mouth.
What would Gibson do? No, he wasn’t the one to look to. Bowie? Nah, Bowie would just pretend like he wasn’t interested. I hadn’t seen Jonah with a girl enough times to know how he’d handle himself. And Dev… well, he was in love with my sister, so that just made it weird.
Damn it. I still wasn’t saying anything.
“It has been a while,” I said.
“How have you been?”
Well, my dad died and now he’s a person of interest in the Callie Kendall case. No, don’t say that. Jesus, Jameson, what in the hell is wrong with you?
“Um, I’ve been all right. You?”
“I’ve been well,” she said. “I was wondering if I’d run into you while I was here.”
“You must be in town visiting your dad?”
She nodded and adjusted the items she had in her arms. “Yeah, just got in today.”
“Here, let me help with that.” I took the loaf of bread, half-gallon of milk, and a few other items from her. Used my elbow to move my stuff over and make room on the counter for hers.
“Oh, thank you,” she said.
She smiled at me and my heart stopped. I was surprised I didn’t drop to the ground right there in the Pop In. Could you go on living when your heart quit on you?
“You’re welcome.”
I stood there another second, unable to decide whether or not I was grateful to Opal for taking her sweet time. I didn’t particularly want to stop talking to Leah Mae—although talking was a term I’d use loosely for what was happening. But I was failing at this pretty damn hard and it would have been nice to be put out of my misery sooner rather than later.
“Been watching your show,” I said.
“Really?”
I nodded. “Sure. Whole town is mighty proud of you.”
“Oh, yeah, the town,” she said.
“It’s not every day that a Bootlegger’s on TV.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Wow, I hadn’t thought about everyone here seeing it.”
“Yeah, everybody’s real excited. It’s on at the Lookout, and I hear a few people organized viewing parties.”
Her cheeks flushed a hint of pink, and she drew her teeth over her lower lip. She always did that when she was nervous. “I guess… I hope everyone’s been enjoying it.”
“I’d say so.” Some of the tension left my shoulders and my words came a little easier now that I was starting to relax. “Been interesting to see how you’re doing, even though you’re far away.”
She smiled again and this time I was able to smile back.
A man came up beside her and my smile faded. He had dark hair and a strong jaw. Eyes that looked around the store with a fair amount of disdain. Reminded me of some of the rich tourists who swept through town, thinking they were better than all us locals. By his clothes, he looked like he belonged in an office somewhere, not a little convenience store in an out-of-the-way town like ours.
“Hey babe, we got everything?” he asked.
He stood close to Leah Mae and that’s when I realized what I’d missed. She had a ring on her finger.
I’d been wrong about my heart stopping before. It hadn’t. It had kept right on going, beating a steady rhythm. But it did stop now. Stopped dead in my chest.
I gave the guy a quick once-over. He was not wearing a ring, which meant one of two things: Either they were not yet married, or they were and he didn’t wear one. If it was the latter, he was a douche. The former, and there was still a bit of hope.