“Dad will lose his shit,” Boone says. “Like, completely lose it. There might be violence. Definitely yelling. Possibly disowning. Not to mention how Mr. Thompson will react.”
“Good. Maybe it’s time for shit to be lost. Years and years of shit, all lost at once.”
Wyatt nods slowly. “She might reject us. Probably will reject us. We weren’t exactly relationship material before. Not sure we are now.”
“She might,” I agree. “But at least we’ll have tried. Not just fumbled around in barns and made assumptions.”
“I still need to apologize to Rita,” Boone says.
We stare at him.
“What? I feel she got caught in the middle. Collateral damage. She deserves better.”
“Boone, Would you rather date Rita the goat than Callie?” I ask.
Boone smirks. “Hey, Wyatt, did you hear Jesse wrote a book? It’s calledI’m a Dick and I Know It.”
I laugh, twisting my bottle cap ring, thinking about Callie laugh-crying in the church basement, discovering that everything she thought she knew was wrong. “We need to be ready for her to say no.”
“We also need to be ready for her to say yes,” Wyatt points out. “Which might be scarier.”
“What would that even look like?” Boone asks. “The four of us, together, in Cedar Ridge? After everything?”
“Bedlam,” Wyatt says.
“Scandal,” I add.
“Paradise,” Boone concludes.
We’re quiet for a moment, each imagining what it would be to have Callie back. Not sneaking around this time. Not hiding. Just... together, whatever that means. Sunday dinners with both families glaring. Town events with everyone whispering. Rita probably eating important documents at inconvenient times.
“Worth it,” I say.
“Definitely,” Wyatt agrees.
“Even if our fathers murder each other?” Boone asks.
“Especially then. Inheritance would be simpler.”
“Jesus, Jesse.”
“Too dark?”
“Maybe.”
My phone buzzeswith a text from Callie with images of all the documents she found, spread across her kitchen table.
Callie: Thirty years of lies, expired mayo, and mathematical incompetence.
Then another.
Callie: I’m going to the festival.
My heart starts racing.
Callie: I’m going public.
Racing faster.
