by Lucy Score
I looked for Shelby again. She was watching me.
I love you, she mouthed.
52
Shelby
T he wedding was picture perfect. There wasn’t a dry eye in the backyard when Cassidy and Bowie pledged their love to each other, and it wasn’t just because the caterer had opened the bar early.
No, Bootleg Springs was as enamored with the happy couple as they were with each other. After the vows were spoken, the toasts made, and dinner served, I finally got a slow dance with Jonah.
“You look beautiful, Shelby,” he told me as we swayed under strings of lights. I was barefoot in the grass in the arms of the man I loved under a starry summer sky.
“You look pretty great yourself,” I said, plucking at his collar. He’d removed the tie, shed the jacket, and rolled up his sleeves after the pictures were taken. And looked even more delicious now with his suspenders showing than he had in the suit jacket.
“How you feeling?” he asked, swaying us in a slow tick-tock that made it feel like time was standing still.
“I feel… magical,” I decided. That was the perfect word for what I felt.
“You’re not too sore?” he pressed, pausing to dip me backward in a slow-motion arc. The lights and stars above us blurred in happy confusion.
I grinned as he pulled me back to standing, his arms banding around me. “I will be tomorrow and the next day and the next day.”
“I’m so proud of you,” Jonah said, leaning in to rest his lips on the top of my head. I was really glad I’d taken a second pass with the shampoo in the shower.
“I’m pretty proud of me, too.”
“How did your parents take the ‘hiding a diagnosis from them’ news?” he asked.
I glanced over to where my parents were feeding each other cake. “Better than I expected. Though they still got in a parting guilt trip.”
I wanted to tell him about the sketch. About what it meant. But the moment was so perfect. I selfishly held on to it.
“Speaking of parents,” I said, nodding over Jonah’s shoulder.
He turned us and spotted his mother dancing with Bowie.
“Everybody needs a mom,” I whispered.
Jenny was laughing as Bowie spun her away from him. And then Gibson captured her other hand and took over the dance.
“This is what she always wanted,” Jonah confessed. “A big, complicated family.”
“It doesn’t get much bigger or more complicated than the Bodines,” I teased.
“Uh, excuse me you two.” Jimmy Bob Prosser looked like his necktie was choking him. He was a big man with broad shoulders and work-roughened hands.
He was also sweating profusely.
“Hi, Jimmy Bob,” Jonah said amiably, and I loved him just a little more for it.
“Hi,” Jimmy Bob said. His Adam’s apple worked in his throat. “I just wanted to, uh, tell you, well, reassure you that…” He got that look that people got when the words they wanted to say up and evaporated right out of their head.
“Jimmy Bob, would you like a glass of water?” I offered.
“Oh, no thank you, Shelby. I’m just trying to work up the nerve to tell Jonah here how much I like his mama and how I have nothing but honorable intentions toward her,” he croaked.
Love was in the air.
“That’s good to hear, Jimmy Bob,” Jonah said, giving the man a pat on the shoulder.
“She’s one of a kind,” the man continued. “And she and I have been talking some.”
Judging from the flush on his face and neck, they’d been doing a lot more than just talking.
“Anyway, your mama’s real special, and I was hopin’—”
“Hello.” The woman in question floated into our little circle, a glass of champagne in hand and a lovely smile on her face. She pressed a kiss to Jonah’s cheek, then turned and did the same to Jimmy Bob.
Jimmy Bob beamed at her brighter than the moon above. “Jenny, darlin’, I was just tellin’ Jonah and Shelby here how much I enjoy your company.”
“Did you also tell them that I’m considering moving to Bootleg Springs?” she asked brightly.
Jonah stiffened in surprise next to me. “Are you serious?”
Jenny grinned. “Only if you don’t mind.”
“Mind?” Jonah laughed. He released me with a parting squeeze and picked his mother up in a bear hug. “Are you nuts? Are you sure?”
He set her down to see her face.
“Clarabell and her husband are thinking about retiring in a few years. They want someone they can trust managing Moonshine Diner.” She shot a look at Jimmy Bob. “And I happen to like the company here.”
Jimmy Bob looked like he’d just won Chicken Shit Bingo and the state lottery on the same night.
What Jenny didn’t voice, what I wasn’t about to bring up since I was all about not ruining the moment, was the fact that she was probably also going to need to be available to a lot of questions from investigators. Callie Kendall was alive and out there somewhere. And someone was determined to make sure she stayed dead.
A shiver worked its way up my spine, and I felt as if there were eyes on me. I thought of the sketch folded up in my clutch. The shadow it represented.
As if sensing the chill, Jonah slipped his arm around my waist, drawing me into his side. I spotted my brother dancing forehead-to-forehead with June on the other side of the yard. Bootleg Springs had cast its spell on all of us, drawing us in and making us feel like we belonged.
I only needed to know if there was a place here for me with Jonah.
“I’m happy for you, Mom,” he said gruffly.
“And I’m happy for you, son,” Jenny said with a knowing tilt of her head in my direction.
“On that note, I’m going to whisk my girlfriend away to a dark corner of the yard for some necking,” Jonah announced.
True to his word, he set a course and led me through the throng of jubilant celebrators. We were stopped a dozen times by friends and family.
Nadine Tucker’s gardening shed, a charming little building tucked away behind the garage, appeared to be our destination.
Jonah paused in front of the door.
“About what you told me earlier,” he began.
My pulse picked up. “Refresh my memory?” I said coyly, tapping my chin with a finger. I imagined nerd girls everywhere standing up and cheering.
“You said you loved me,” he said, his voice whisper soft and deep as the night that surrounded us here in this quiet little corner.
“Oh, that.”
“I don’t want you to leave at the end of the summer,” he said. “I don’t want to find a good home for Billy Ray. I want to keep him. And he and I will follow you wherever you go.”
He was warming up for the big finish, and as much as I wanted to hear those words, as much as my soul was vibrating with the need to hear them, I had a few loose ends to tie off first.
“What about your mom? You can’t leave Bootleg Springs if she’s moving here. You have family here. A lot of family.”
“And now that I know where they live, I can visit whenever it’s convenient. I love this town, and I love my family, but, Shelby…” He paused and tilted my chin up so I was looking in those oh-so-tender green eyes. “I’d rather be next to you.”
“Jonah,” I sighed, savoring his name.
“Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind since this afternoon?” he teased.
I shook my head. “You’d follow me?”
“Wherever you go,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. Soft, intimate touches that were untying every knot in my stomach. “I can work anywhere. I can visit my family any time. But I want a hell of a lot more than a fling with you, Shelby.”
Say it. Say it. Say it, the fifteen-year-old nerd in me chanted.
“Hmm, why is that?” I asked, dancing my fingers under his suspenders.
“I think it has something to do with the fact that I’m head over heels in love with
you. Frankly, I’m surprised a smart girl like you didn’t figure it all out weeks ago.”
I poked him in the chest. “I’ve been a little busy.”
“How’s your schedule looking now?” he asked, leaning in and down, down, down.
“Wide open,” I whispered. His lips were a breath away from mine, but I stopped him. “Jonah, wait.”
He paused where he was. “What? Are you okay?”
His breath was hot on my skin. And I could feel the heat of his body through his shirt.
“I want to stay here. In Bootleg. Morgantown isn’t too far. And there are a handful of universities within a hundred miles. I might be able to work from home part-time like June. Or I’ll just get good at long commutes. But my point is, I want to be here, with you and my brother and June and everyone else and—”
I was sure there were more words. And definitely a few not so pretty ones. I had to tell him about the sketch, and we had to talk to Sheriff Tucker sooner rather than later.
But for right this second, I was just going to kiss the hell out of Jonah Bodine on a beautiful, hot summer night.
His mouth closed over mine, tongue and teeth taking charge, and I welcomed it. He was who I wanted for my lifetime. We fit. We belonged.
“Shelby, honey, how much do you like that dress?” he asked.
“Not as much as I’d like your hands on me,” I told him.
53
Shelby
T he garden shed had the metallic tang of potting soil in the musky air. Dimly, I could make out shelves along one wall stocked with terra cotta pots and the like. The opposite wall was a puzzle of tools and gardening implements. And on the back wall, there was a long, skinny workbench.
Jonah carried me to it, settled me on it, and drew me to the edge.
He cupped my face in one hand, and I felt rather than saw him stare into me.
“My girl,” he breathed.
I spread my knees wide and used my heels to drag him against me.
The bulge behind his zipper ground into me. I could feel the metal through the thin cotton of my thong.
The noise he made was primal. We were eye-to-eye as he flexed his erection against my opening.
I gripped the edge of the workbench, and the straps of my dress slid down my arms, hanging precariously. The scoop neck deepened to indecent. Jonah was bucking against me now, slowly, rhythmically. As if he were waiting for the dress to give up its battle against gravity.
Obliging him, I curved my shoulders forward and was rewarded with a gasp that I felt on my hard, furled nipples. He bent and dipped his tongue into the neckline of the dress where one areola peeked through. The rough flat of his tongue drove me wild. While he licked and sucked, I went to work on his belt and pants.
I didn’t want him slow and sweet tonight. I wanted him wild with his own need. Desperate to have me.
I used my hands and my heels to shove his pants down just enough.
He sprang free, bobbing against my swollen clit, and it was my turn to gasp. Ignoring the fact that I was fisting the root of his cock, Jonah moved to lick over my other nipple. The dress was bunched around my waist from the top and bottom like a yellow tutu. My breasts were bared to his mouth while his hand slid between my legs.
He hooked a finger under the thong over the growing wet spot and then, with unfair patience, dragged the material back and forth over my cleft.
“I’m going to want you in this dress again and again,” he growled.
He raked his teeth over my nipple, and I shivered.
“I’ll want you bent over a table, your skirts pushed up, and your sweet ass on display. Just waiting for me to touch you.” He slid the thong to the side and skated the tip of one finger through my seam.
I was balanced on the edge of the table and had nowhere to go. Forward would have me falling. Back would take me away from the cock I was trying to tempt with busy fingers. I stroked up to the top, my thumb dancing over the slit there.
“I’ll want you to wear this to nice parties so I can lure you out into the woods and finger fuck you against a tree.”
Jonah pumped into my hand and then slid two fingers into me.
I gripped his cock tighter. He groaned, nuzzling his cheek against my breasts before bringing his mouth to mine.
The kiss, that glorious filthy kiss, mimicked what we were doing to each other. Short, sharp thrusts of tongue, finger, cock. I ached for more, even as I felt my inner muscles dance. I could come on his fingers. But I wanted all of him. I wanted to seal this night and our promises the right way.
“Take me here, Jonah,” I begged. I brought my heels to the edge of the table, opening my legs as wide as they could go.
“Fuck, Shelby. Who could say no to you?” He brought his forehead to mine, nipped at my lower lip, still pumping himself into my hand, still fucking me with his fingers.
Our breath mingled in the dark.
“Please, Jonah,” I breathed.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered. “Your body’s been through a lot today, and I’m worked up enough that I don’t know if I can be gentle.”
“That’s exactly what I want. Don’t be gentle with me. Trust me to take it, to handle it.”
He growled low, fighting with his body’s wants and his need to be careful with me.
“Show me you trust me,” I demanded. I angled the head of his cock so it brushed between my wet, wet folds on his next thrust.
I saw the tightening of his jaw. He grabbed me by the back of the neck with one hand. “I’m going to be so pissed at you if you let me hurt you.”
“We’ll both deal with it,” I promised, nudging my hips forward so he was notched in place. “Take me. Show me.”
Without warning he drove into me, impaling me on the table. And then he was dragging his cock in and out of my slick flesh. Owning me. Claiming me.
He held me by the neck, keeping our foreheads pressed tight as he fucked into me.
“Stay quiet,” he warned. “There are about fifty people right outside this door who could hear you scream when you come on my cock, Shelby.”
I sobbed out a response, clinging to his shoulders as he used my body. It felt so decadent. Like my body and I were no longer strangers. Like Jonah had taught me how to find the pleasure my body could afford.
“Wider, baby,” he grunted when my knees buckled, closing on his hips.
What a tableau we made. Fully clothed and rutting into each other. Gasping for breath. Begging for the undefined more. My breasts bounced as his thrusts grew more aggressive. I could name and describe the dozens of physiological reactions that were happening in our bodies right this second. But I couldn’t for the life of me ascribe what I felt for this man to mere science.
It was elemental and magic. It was exotic and home.
My neck stung where his grip tightened. And I felt the first shimmers of what we were both chasing.
“Shelby,” he bit out. That impatience, that need to satisfy me even though his own biological drive was leading the charge. It did me in. Jonah loved me. He would always want to take care of me.
And I did the same for him.
With his free hand, he found my exposed flesh, dancing pads of eager fingers over that tight bundle of nerves.
“Yes,” I hissed. Again and again and again. Even after I broke. Even after he broke.
I felt him come. Felt the warm rush of his orgasm as it painted me from the inside.
He grunted softly and flexed into me again and again. I rode it with him, my hungry muscles opening and closing around him.
“I love you,” he said, his voice ragged, his breath uneven. “I love you, Shelby. Say you’ll be mine. I want a wedding like this. I want kids with you. I want the rest of my life to be spent at your side.”
Of course. Of course. It drummed like my heart inside me, vibrating like a song.
“Yes, Jonah. Yes to all of it.”
54
Jonah
“T hat was the mos
t Bodine thing I’ve ever done in my life,” I confessed to Shelby as we tried to right our clothes. Shelby’s hair was a “just had sex” disaster, and I fucking loved it. But her parents were outside, and so was my mother. And it was just bad form to strut on out of here looking like we’d just had the best pair of orgasms available to humans.
“What? Have sex in the town sheriff’s garden shed during his daughter’s wedding?” she asked smugly. “I feel a bit Bodiney myself tonight.”
“Maybe it’s the moon or the wedding or the gin. But Shelby, honey, I’m pretty excited about fall and winter and every other season I’m going to be spending with you.”
She laid a hand over her heart. “You sure know how to make a girl feel special.”
“How about you go get us a couple of gin and tonics, and I’ll figure out a plan to get us out of here so we can go home and celebrate some more?” I suggested.
She answered by pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I’d be delighted, sugar.”
Wearing a shit-eating grin, I went in search of the groom and found all hell breaking loose instead.
Gibson was holding Misty Lynn at arm’s length, a look of abject horror on his face.
“Just give me another chance, Gibs,” she wailed, eyeliner smeared under her eyes.
“Someone needs to tell that girl that desperation ain’t attractive.” Mayor Hornsbladt sighed into his sweet tea.
“How dare you try to ruin my brother and my best friend’s wedding?” Scarlett snarled. “I knew invitin’ your stupid ass was a mistake. But noooo, we had to be nice.”
“Where are Bowie and Cassidy?” I asked Mayor Hornsbladt.
“The newlyweds had a distinct sparkle in their eyes and called it a night about five minutes ago. I think y’all’s parents are waving them off out front.”
At least the bride and groom weren’t here to witness Misty Lynn’s meltdown.
“C’mon, Gibs. It was always so good between us,” Misty Lynn mewled. She was a drunken mess. Her dress was grass-stained, and her hair was exploding out of the prom updo she’d fashioned.
“Never gonna happen, Misty Lynn,” Gibson growled. He let her go, but she latched herself to him like a needy barnacle on the indifferent hull of a ship.