The Pop In was crowded. That was normal this time of year, especially on a Saturday. Bootleg swelled with tourists in the summer, most of them staying in cabins around the lake. I slipped inside, planning to get in and out as quickly as possible.

My jaw felt fine today. Rhett didn’t hit all that hard. Hell, I’d taken worse from my brothers on more than one occasion. Wasn’t even any bruising.

I went through the store and grabbed what I needed. There wasn’t a line to check out, so I put my purchases on the counter and pulled out my wallet. Opal Bodine was working the cash register.

“Hey, Jameson,” she said.

“Opal.”

“This all for you?”

I eyed my purchases. “I think I could use something sweet. Got anything good?”

“You bet I do,” she said. “I’ve got two more cinnamon rolls if you’d like one.”

I thought about buying both and bringing one to Jonah, but he’d only tell me we shouldn’t eat so much sugar. Course, if I bought both and he didn’t eat his, I’d have no choice but to eat it for him.

“I’ll take both.”

“Sounds good,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

Someone brushed against me as they passed, and I winced. I hated it when people did that. The store wasn’t that small; there was no need for bumping into people. I glanced over, but it wasn’t anyone I knew, and he was walking out the door anyway. I shrugged it off and looked to see if Opal was coming with my cinnamon rolls.

A girl had gotten in line behind me and I did a double take when I saw her, my jaw dropping all the way to the floor. Or it would have if my jaw had been capable of such a thing. It was Leah Mae Larkin.

She was tall and willowy, with limbs that went on for miles. Her long blond hair was down and wavy. Honey-lemon skin with a few freckles across her nose. Bright eyes that were such a surprising shade of green they made you look twice.

I swallowed hard, finding it exceedingly hard to do anything but stare.

“Jameson?”

Her voice was soft and melodic, and when she smiled, I noticed the little gap between her front teeth. She’d always had it—and hated it—but it had become her trademark as a model.

“H-hey there, Leah Mae,” I said, hating how strangled my voice sounded. It was not unusual for me to get a little tongue-tied around a pretty girl, but this was something else entirely.

“Jameson Bodine?” she asked, as if she hadn’t said my name already.

I noticed her accent was gone. I’d noticed it on the show, too, but hearing that northern lilt to her speech here, in Bootleg Springs, made it stand out all the more.

“Yeah,” I said. Great job, dumbass. You’re really going to win her over with your charm.

“Wow, it’s been a long time,” Leah Mae said, looking me up and down.

I was suddenly glad I’d let Jonah talk me into working out with him and Devlin. I kept in decent shape as a rule, but I’d put on some muscle recently.

Not that it mattered. This was Leah Mae, not some girl I was hoping to impress.

I opened my mouth to speak again, but the words weren’t there. Damn it. I had this problem a lot. My mind had plenty going on, it was just that sometimes the words didn’t want to make it from my brain to my mouth.

What would Gibson do? No, he wasn’t the one to look to. Bowie? Nah, Bowie would just pretend like he wasn’t interested. I hadn’t seen Jonah with a girl enough times to know how he’d handle himself. And Dev… well, he was in love with my sister, so that just made it weird.

Damn it. I still wasn’t saying anything.

“It has been a while,” I said.

“How have you been?”

Well, my dad died and now he’s a person of interest in the Callie Kendall case. No, don’t say that. Jesus, Jameson, what in the hell is wrong with you?

“Um, I’ve been all right. You?”

“I’ve been well,” she said. “I was wondering if I’d run into you while I was here.”

“You must be in town visiting your dad?”

She nodded and adjusted the items she had in her arms. “Yeah, just got in today.”

“Here, let me help with that.” I took the loaf of bread, half-gallon of milk, and a few other items from her. Used my elbow to move my stuff over and make room on the counter for hers.

“Oh, thank you,” she said.

She smiled at me and my heart stopped. I was surprised I didn’t drop to the ground right there in the Pop In. Could you go on living when your heart quit on you?

“You’re welcome.”

I stood there another second, unable to decide whether or not I was grateful to Opal for taking her sweet time. I didn’t particularly want to stop talking to Leah Mae—although talking was a term I’d use loosely for what was happening. But I was failing at this pretty damn hard and it would have been nice to be put out of my misery sooner rather than later.

“Been watching your show,” I said.

“Really?”

I nodded. “Sure. Whole town is mighty proud of you.”

“Oh, yeah, the town,” she said.

“It’s not every day that a Bootlegger’s on TV.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Wow, I hadn’t thought about everyone here seeing it.”

“Yeah, everybody’s real excited. It’s on at the Lookout, and I hear a few people organized viewing parties.”

Her cheeks flushed a hint of pink, and she drew her teeth over her lower lip. She always did that when she was nervous. “I guess… I hope everyone’s been enjoying it.”

“I’d say so.” Some of the tension left my shoulders and my words came a little easier now that I was starting to relax. “Been interesting to see how you’re doing, even though you’re far away.”

She smiled again and this time I was able to smile back.

A man came up beside her and my smile faded. He had dark hair and a strong jaw. Eyes that looked around the store with a fair amount of disdain. Reminded me of some of the rich tourists who swept through town, thinking they were better than all us locals. By his clothes, he looked like he belonged in an office somewhere, not a little convenience store in an out-of-the-way town like ours.

“Hey babe, we got everything?” he asked.

He stood close to Leah Mae and that’s when I realized what I’d missed. She had a ring on her finger.

I’d been wrong about my heart stopping before. It hadn’t. It had kept right on going, beating a steady rhythm. But it did stop now. Stopped dead in my chest.

I gave the guy a quick once-over. He was not wearing a ring, which meant one of two things: Either they were not yet married, or they were and he didn’t wear one. If it was the latter, he was a douche. The former, and there was still a bit of hope.

Hope? For what? For me and Leah Mae to reconnect after twelve years? As if we were going to wander off together and reminisce about being kids. Or talk about those summers when we were teenagers, and I’d been too shy to make a move.

Not that I would have. Me and Leah Mae were just friends. Always had been.

Damn it, I was doing a lot of not talking again. Where in the hell was Opal?

“Kelvin, this is Jameson Bodine,” Leah Mae said, gesturing to me. “We grew up here together.”

Kelvin seemed to notice me for the first time. He looked me up and down with a quick flick of his eyes. I wasn’t dressed all fancy and sophisticated like him. But I was wearing a clean t-shirt and decent jeans—nothing that I ever wore in my workshop. That stuff always wound up with burn holes all over it.

“Jameson, this is Kelvin Graham,” Leah Mae said.

“Leah’s fiancé,” Kelvin said.

Leah Mae glanced at him like something he’d said surprised her. Kelvin tipped his chin to me.

I decided to be the bigger man and offer to shake his hand. Some things needed to be handled like a gentleman. “Nice to meet you.”

Kelvin shook my hand with a firm grip just as Opal finally made an appearance. She glanced at Leah Mae and Kelvin, then back at me, and lifted one shoulder in a little shrug.

“Babe, is this the only store in this town?” Kelvin asked Leah Mae while Opal started ringing up my purchases.

I turned my back to them and focused on getting my money out. Tuned out the conversation they were having. I paid, and Opal handed me the bag.

“See you later, Jameson,” she said.

I started to go without saying anything else, but my pride got the better of me. I did have something else to say to Leah Mae, and I wasn’t going out like that. Pausing, I looked back at her, and she met my eyes.

“I know the fishing pole wasn’t your fault,” I said. “It looked faked, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah, thank you.”

“Good to see you again, Leah Mae,” I said. “I hope you enjoy your visit.”

Her smile lit up the world. “Thanks, Jameson. It’s good to see you too.”

Clutching my bag, I nodded and turned for the door. Because I was a gentleman, I glanced over my shoulder and tipped my chin to her fiancé. “Kevin.”

“It’s Kelvin—”

The door closed behind me before I heard the rest of what he was going to say, if anything.

My pulse raced as I got in my truck and slid my groceries over to the other seat. Had I really just seen Leah Mae Larkin at the Pop In? Or was I in the middle of a strange and terrible dream where my childhood friend was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on, and she was wearing another man’s ring?

Damn it. It wasn’t a dream, but the rest of it was true.

I shook my head, like I could shake loose out of my stupor. I needed to get myself together. Of course I was going to run into Leah Mae one of these days. Her dad lived here, so chances were she’d come back to visit at some point. And we were old enough that one of us being engaged or married was a distinct possibility.

Not that I’d ever been anywhere close to that with a girl. I’d dated Cheyenne Hastings for a while in high school, but she’d dumped me for Cody Wyatt. After that, I’d been out with a handful of other girls, but nothing that had lasted long. Then there was Willa Sawyer. But that hadn’t been much of a relationship. She’d been someone I could turn to when I needed it, but neither of us had expected much from the other. We’d known it wasn’t going to last forever.

So Leah Mae was here, and she was engaged. That was all right. I ought to be happy for her. After all, she’d been my friend. Weren’t you supposed to be happy for your friends when something good happened to them?

But happy wasn’t what I was feeling as I drove back out to my house.