Sidecar Crush

The noise of the crowd buzzed around me. Seemed like just about everyone in Bootleg had turned out, locals and tourists alike. Wasn’t often that there were this many people in one place in a town like ours. Kids darted in and out of their parents’ legs while they chatted with friends and neighbors. Most people held red plastic cups—filled with sweet tea, lemonade, moonshine, or beer, depending on who was holding them.

Mine was just lemonade, although I was thinking a cup of strawberry moonshine didn’t sound like a bad idea. Crowds were not my favorite thing. My dad always used to tell me I was too damn sensitive, and maybe that was true. But the press of people tended to get overwhelming.

“Well, hello, Jameson Bodine.” Misty Lynn Prosser wandered over, swaying her hips more than was natural. Her hair was big, her makeup thick, and her boobs were practically busting out of her I heart America tube top.

“Hey, Misty Lynn,” I said, my back stiffening. I hoped she’d go away quickly.

“Where’s your brother?” she asked.

“Which one?”

She looked me up and down. “You know which one.”

“I don’t know where any of them are.”

“All right.” She smacked her gum a few times. “You tell Gibson I was askin’ for him if you see him.”

“You ever gonna give up on that?” I muttered under my breath. She glanced back at me, so I gave her a little smile. “Sure thing, Misty Lynn. Say, how’s Rhett’s nose?”

She lifted one shoulder. “Fine, I guess. You didn’t break it.”

I almost said that’s a shame, but decided letting her walk away was the better choice.

A light touch on my shoulder made me spin around.

“Sorry,” Leah Mae said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Before I could stop myself, I was grinning at her like an idiot. She looked like sugar and sunshine in a yellow tank top with a few little blue flowers embroidered on the front. Cut-off jeans showed her long legs, and red toenails peeked through her sandals. Her long hair was down, and she had a white flower tucked behind one ear.

“That’s all right,” I said. “Didn’t expect to see you still here.”

“Neither did I,” she said. “But my dad isn’t doing so well. It didn’t feel right to leave.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks.” She fiddled with a lock of her hair. “He seemed better this morning. I made sure he got a good breakfast, and Betsy is spending the afternoon with him. He wanted to come into town, but I talked him into going back to bed after he had a coughing fit. I had to threaten to call Doc Trevor on him, though.”

I laughed. Clay Larkin had never struck me as the sort of man who took orders well. “Hopefully with you here seein’ to him, he’ll be up and about in no time.”

“I hope so, too,” she said with a smile.

Scarlett appeared at Leah Mae’s side, seemingly out of nowhere. “Y’all are here! Good. We need more people to run the obstacle course.”

She grabbed Leah Mae’s hand, and my wrist, and tugged us up the street after her. I tossed my cup into a garbage can on the street corner as we passed.

“What obstacle course?” Leah Mae asked.

Scarlett didn’t stop, dragging us alongside her. “Haven’t you done the obstacle course before?”

“I don’t think so,” Leah Mae said.

I had definitely never done the obstacle course. In fact, I’d always made myself scarce until it had begun because I didn’t want someone—like Scarlett—trying to make me do it.

“It’s been a tradition for a while, but maybe it hadn’t started last you were here,” Scarlett said. She turned toward Gin Rickey Park. “You need a partner, but there’s two of you, so that’s already settled.”

And that was why I avoided the obstacle course. It didn’t look difficult, in and of itself. Climbing over things, slogging through mud, and jumping in the lake were all fine. It was the partner aspect that kept me away. You didn’t just go through the course with another person. You did it tied to your partner. Being fastened to another person with a rope was not my idea of a good time.