Sidecar Crush

“You sure this is everything?” I asked.

“Should be,” Gibson said. “Let’s get this set up.”

“Yeah, before Scarlett notices I’m gone,” Devlin said.

“She knows already,” Bowie said. “It’s not Scarlett we need to worry about.”

Devlin put his hands on his hips. “This is illegal, isn’t it?”

“Only if we get caught,” Gibson said, and started pulling fireworks out of the bags.

“That’s not how the law works,” Devlin said, but laughed when he said it.

I didn’t worry about Devlin’s reluctance. Just reached into my inside pocket and pulled out the diagram. Gibson closed the trunk, and I spread out the paper so we could all see it.

“Here’s how it all goes together,” I said. “The order is important, so don’t mess it up.”

“You sure this is going to work?” Jonah asked.

“Yeah,” I said, although I wasn’t positive. “I reckon it’ll be a sight regardless.”

We all got to work, sorting the fireworks into the right order and fastening the mortar tubes to the platform. Gibson was in charge of the sparklers, and he wound them up in a tight bundle with electrical tape. Jonah double checked the placement of everything, consulting the diagram I’d drawn.

“This looks good,” Jonah said.

Bowie looked over his shoulder. “Yep. I think we got it.”

I tied fuses together and added the starter fuse that would make the whole thing work. When it was finished, we all stepped back and looked at our handiwork.

“Let’s get her lit and launched,” I said.

We put the platform in the water. I checked the line of fuses one last time, then lit the end. Gibson and I pushed it off, letting it float out in to the dark waters of the lake.

“Go,” I said, waving everyone off. I’d made the fuse long so we had time, but we needed to scatter before this thing blew.

I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my dress pants and walked quickly back to the park.

“There you are.” Leah Mae walked over to meet me. “Where’d you run off to?”

I slipped my hands around her waist and kissed her nose. “Nowhere.”

She grabbed my hand and tugged. “Dad and Betsy are leaving. We need to go see them off.”

The wedding guests had all gathered under strings of white twinkle lights. Jimmy Bob Prosser waited in his big Ford pickup. The bed was decked out with quilts, and the back had a big Just Married sign. Strings of beer cans hung from the back bumper.

Clay and Betsy walked through, carrying a wicker basket between them with a red and white checkered napkin. People clapped and congratulated them. Some put baked goods and mason jars filled with moonshine or canned preserves into their basket. A little Bootleg send-off to start their honeymoon.

I glanced over at Gibson and caught his eye. He tipped his chin. Should be any second now. I slipped my arms around Leah Mae and pulled her close.

“What’s—”

Whatever she was going to say was lost in the first loud boom over the lake. A spray of green sparks burst in the air, followed by blue. Then white. A fountain of silver and gold lit up the sky. The wedding guests clapped and cheered. Clay put his arm around Betsy as they watched the little show.

The last firework went off in a burst of color. After a second of quiet, the crowd started clapping and cheering again. I cleared my throat and moved my hands up to cover Leah Mae’s ears.

The sparkler bomb went off with an enormous boom and the wedding guests went wild. Fists rose into the air, cheers went up, and Clay Larkin laughed, hugging his bride.

Leah Mae turned her face toward me and spoke quietly into my ear. “Did you have something to do with all that?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

We watched Clay and Betsy get up into the back of Jimmy Bob Prosser’s truck. They waved at their guests, all smiles. Clay blew a kiss at Leah Mae. She put her hands across her heart, smiling like the sun, with tears glistening in her eyes. The cans clanked and rattled as they drove off into the darkness, ready for the first night of their new life together.

A wave of nervousness swept through me. Lighting a bunch of illegal fireworks didn’t get my heart rate up. But this? I patted my suit pocket. This was enough to tie me up in knots.