He chuckles. “Just the metabolism of a growing seventeen-year-old boy. Reckon I was burning five thousand calories a day back then.”
I turn to Cash. “So, you finally ready to spill?” When he frowns at me, I hitch my chin toward the fine, white scar cutting through his eyebrow. “You showed up at the park that afternoon bleeding like a stuck pig. Fess up. Who’d you get in a fight with that time? Shane Moore? Daren Trapper? They were both sporting black eyes at school the next day. Vee told me she heard they got into a brawl in the locker room, and I always suspected youhad something to do with it. Not that I’d blame you. They weresucha-holes, always calling Luc names.”
“Itoldyou,” he says. “A man needs his secrets.”
“Ugh.” I glare at him. “You’re more annoying than a rock.”
“I’ve never understood that expression.” He makes a face. “What’s so annoying about rocks? I mean, most of them are more boring than annoying, and—oh, holy demented shit.”
“What?” I blink.
“Sally Renee Rutherford.” He points toward the front door, causing Luc to glance over his shoulder.
I peer around Luc’s back. Sure enough, Sally Renee is standing in the doorway in painted-on jeans and a T-shirt that clings to her medically enhanced boobage. Two women I recognize from Aunt Bea’s social circle stand behind her.
I don’t exactly know what I’m feeling. All I know is the last bite of cheeseburger I took is sitting at the bottom of my stomach like a two-ton anvil.
When Sally Renee sees Luc, she squeals. A second later, she’s headed our way.
“Is it me,” Cash whispers in my ear, “or does she look like the kind of woman you can find by going into the bathroom of any bar in town? I bet her number is scrawled on the walls under the message, ‘For a good time, call…’”
“Shut the fuck up,” Luc hisses.
I’m shocked by the venom in his tone.
“Sorry.” Cash pantomimes zipping his lips as Sally Renee and her entourage arrive.
“It’s a small world after all,” Sally sings, and I grudgingly admit she has a nice voice. Smoky and sexy, like a lounge singer. “Luc, you remember Jenny and Joyce, don’t you? They were at the ball.”
“Of course I do. Ladies, always a pleasure.” Luc flashes his dimples at the double Js and both women blink and titter.
“Sally Renee, Joyce, Jenny, these are my good friends, Cash Armstrong and Maggie May Carter,” Luc introduces us.
Cash and I say the appropriate things, although neither of us shake their hands, since ours are covered in melted cheese and burger juice.
“I love your aunts,” Sally Renee gushes to me. “Just yesterday, Miss June came over to help me switch my air conditionin’ to heat. Silas never showed me how. He was always just so good about takin’ care of everything for me.”
I’m shocked to see her eyes grow bright with tears.
“I’m your typical blonde,” she continues self-deprecatingly. “Why did the blonde get fired from the M&M factory? ’Cause she kept throwin’ out all the Ws.” She laughs. “How do you confuse a blonde? You don’t. They’re born that way.”
Despite myself, I’m smiling.
“I could go on all day,” she says. “Two things I’m good at, manicures and tellin’ dumb-blonde jokes. Sorry, when I’m nervous, I babble.”
“No call to be nervous,” Luc assures her.
“Are you kiddin’?” She looks at him disbelievingly. Then she turns to me and Cash. “The way he talks about y’all, I feel like I’m meetin’ the King and Queen of England. Don’t mind me, though, I was raised country and poor. And by country, I mean catchin’ crawdads in the crick and chuckin’ Natty Light cans at cop cars. And by poor, I mean my ramshackle house was eight miles past the holler at the end of a dirt road with a front yard that was decorated by a rustin’ car on blocks, a busted water heater, and a stub-tailed dog who welcomed everyone by tryin’ to strangle himself by lungin’ against his chain. And there I go again, babblin’.” She turns to the women with her. “Y’all can stop me anytime. I mean, what are friends for anyhow?”
Dang it. I think maybe I like Sally Renee. She seems…sweet. Ditzy, but sweet.
“You ladies aiming to join us?” Luc motions to the three empty barstools next to him.
“Oh, no.” Sally shakes her head. “I don’t want to intrude on your day. But you’ll call me later?”
Luc winks at her. “Looking forward to it.”
She blushes and bites her lip before waving goodbye to me and Cash. Then the trio heads off to grab a table in the dining room.
