Skip drops his phone onto the table. Unfortunately, it stays intact because I’ve just realized what I gave him. The hook of all hooks for a hungry reporter looking for a story.
“Oh, no.” I put my head in my hands.
“Oh, yes,” Skip’s excited voice says next to me.
88
I end the interview right away, but I’m well aware it’s too late. My scar is going to be talked about by the entire town, possibly the state, as soon as Skip’s story is published on the first of July.
And Mama will absolutely have my head when she finds out. Luckily, Ginny’s wedding will have already happened, so if I need to hide from the public eye, I can.
I drift into a fitful sleep filled with lots of strange dreams—about catfish, a giant microphone in my face, and Skip floating face down in the creek.
Then I have a different kind of dream. A sex dream. About Logan and me. And it’s not for kids’ ears.
As soon as I wake up, I go to The Cowherd to give Ben the heads up on Skip coming by later, and then I stop by Ginny’s before she leaves for work. I tell her what’s going on with Skip, and I confess my dream.
“How X-rated was it?” she asks breathlessly.
I rock back and forth where we’re sitting on her porch swing. “Let’s just say it’s a good thing those jail cell bars are made of steel. Because I was holding onto them pretty good while Logan…” The image of Logan naked and driving into me from behind while I gripped the bars with both hands is too much to repeat. I stop talking as my face heats.
“Wow. That sounds like quite a dream.” Ginny looks at me. “Are you gonna tell Logan about it?”
“What? Of course not!” I lightly swat at her knee. “Why would I do that?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. Just to clear the air before he…you know…marries somebody else?”
I glare at her. “No. I’m not going to tell him. I have to go, though. Skip’s coming by to complete his blackmailing of me.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this for Logan.” Ginny gives me a hug. “You know it’s not your fault that Skip has all those photos of you two. I don’t know if I agree with your decision to protect Logan like this.”
“Join the crowd. Ben feels the same as you. He thinks Logan dug his own grave, blah, blah, blah.”
“Well, he did.” Ginny walks me to my SUV. “He roped himself into this engagement.”
“Like a steer?” I joke.
“Exactly. Logan went out to West Texas and got confused. He roped a rich girl from the city instead of a bull.”
I laugh.
“No, but seriously, you wouldn’t be selling him out by refusing to give Skip a story.”
I get into my SUV and wave good-bye to her. “I know. But the choice to do this interview was all mine, and I’m going to stand behind it.”
“Vivian’s handwriting is gorgeous.” Skip pores over Vivian’s diary at The Cowherd. “How beautifully she wrote.”
Ben groans. “Skip, you sound like a middle-aged woman. Otherwise known as our mother.”
I lean over the bar and glance at the page. “It is pretty.”
Mr. Bingley sits on the stool to Skip’s right and regards him with suspicious eyes.
Okay, perhaps I’m projecting a bit. But the cat has been here since Skip arrived and hasn’t napped or cleaned himself once. All he’s done is sit and stare at Skip, who unfortunately doesn’t seem to mind the scrutiny.
I’d already shown the torn diary page to Skip privately, and he eagerly took a picture of it with his phone. Truthfully, I felt relief when I revealed the page to him. I felt like I could finally come clean and just move on. The curse is Mama’s thing, not mine, no matter how much she’s tried to burden me with it.
From behind the bar, Riley cleans a beer glass and hands it over to Ben for inspection. “I like working back here with y’all. It’s very relaxing.”
