Times like this, I wished I had a little more Gibson in me. Or even Bowie. I couldn’t imagine my brothers being nervous the way I was. Not over a girl, anyway. Especially one that was just a friend.

Of course, they were both older than me, and neither of them showed any signs of settling down. So maybe they weren’t the ones to emulate after all.

Still, I felt foolish for the way my heart thumped and nervousness unsettled my stomach. I parked down the street from Moonshine and looked out to see if Leah Mae was here yet. A few people wandered up and down the street, but no sign of her.

I got out just as a car parked across the street. My heart sank straight to the concrete below my feet as I watched Leah Mae and her fiancé get out of the car. Damn it, he was here too?

The thought that I might be able to get back in my truck and leave without her seeing me crossed my mind. But I dismissed it as quickly as it had come. I had better manners than to stand her up, even if I’d thought it would be just the two of us. It wasn’t the same, but I’d make the best of it.

I looked up and our eyes met. She smiled, and I knew I was in some trouble. Damn it, she was pretty.

Shoving my hands in my pockets, I walked down the sidewalk to meet her. Or them, as it were.

“Hi, Jameson,” she said. “Thanks for meeting me.”

“Sure.” I glanced at Kelvin. He was glaring at me, his arms crossed over his chest.

His eyes flicked to the ground behind me. “What is that?”

Mona Lisa McNugget, Bootleg’s town chicken, was pecking her way up the sidewalk. She stopped near my foot and scratched, looking for some little tidbit on the ground.

“It’s a chicken,” Leah Mae said, her voice amused.

“I know it’s a chicken,” he said. “What is it doing here?”

“It’s Mona Lisa McNugget,” I said.

“There’s a chicken just… walking around town?” he asked.

As if she could sense his disdain, Mona Lisa charged toward Kelvin and started trying to peck his ankle. He jumped backward, like she was a giant spider or something, not a regular old chicken. Mona Lisa kept after him, her head bobbing, beak thrusting.

“What the hell?” he asked. “This chicken is trying to attack me.”

Leah Mae started to laugh and covered her mouth. I just kept my hands in my pockets, watching. I’d never seen Mona Lisa go after someone like that. I probably could have coaxed her away, but I wasn’t so keen on interfering.

“Hey y’all,” Bowie said from behind me and smacked me on the back. “What’s going on?”

“Not much,” I said.

“Somebody get this chicken off me,” Kelvin said, hopping from foot to foot.

“Kelvin, just move out of the way,” Leah Mae said. “She’ll leave you alone.”

“Is that Leah Mae Larkin I see?” Bowie asked.

“Hi Bowie,” Leah Mae said.

Gibson came from the other direction. He spared half a glance for the chicken, still trying to peck Kelvin, and stopped in front of the rest of us.

“Leah Mae,” he said with a nod, as if it wasn’t unusual for her to be here. Or maybe he just didn’t care. Hard to tell with Gibs. He looked at me and Bowie. “So we eatin’ or what?”

“What are all y’all doing here?” I asked.

Bowie shrugged. “It’s lunch time.”

Oh my god. Was my entire family going to show up?

“Oh hey, y’all!”

I closed my eyes and shook my head, hearing Scarlett’s voice. Of course she would be here, too.

“Well, isn’t this fun,” Scarlett said. She walked over, arm in arm with Devlin. “It’s like a reunion.”

“Hi again, Scarlett. Everyone, this is Kelvin Graham.” Leah Mae tried to gesture at Kelvin, but he’d hopped his way down the sidewalk, trying to get away from the relentless pecking of Mona Lisa McNugget. “Kelvin, what are you doing?”

“This fucking chicken won’t leave me alone,” he said.

“We’ll go get a table,” Bowie said. He nodded at Kelvin. “Nice to meet you, Kevin.”

Kelvin stopped. “It’s Kelvin. Ow, what the hell?”

“Don’t hurt her,” Leah Mae said.

I was having a very hard time not laughing, but I kept quiet. Gibson, Scarlett, and Devlin followed Bowie inside Moonshine, ignoring the chicken attack occurring on the sidewalk.

“Do you want to come in and have lunch?” Leah Mae asked Kelvin. “Or go back to the cabin and get some work done?”

Kelvin took a few quick steps toward us, leaving Mona Lisa McNugget distracted by something on the sidewalk. “Jesus, this place is crazy. I’m not eating here. I’ll go back to the cabin.”

Leah Mae glanced at me and gave me the tiniest of winks. “Okay, if you’re sure.”

Kelvin eyed the chicken. “Yeah, positive. You’re just having lunch?”

“Yes, I already told you that,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “And you didn’t have to come into town. I could have driven myself.”

He leveled me with a hard stare. I met his gaze, keeping my face blank. He had nothing to fear from me as far as Leah Mae was concerned. I wasn’t the sort to mess around with another man’s girl. But he didn’t know that, and I saw no need to clarify. If he didn’t trust Leah Mae, that was his problem, not mine.

“Call me when you’re done,” he said. “I’ll come pick you up.”

“Okay,” she said.

He grabbed her by the waist and planted a kiss on her forehead. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like she stiffened. With another glance at me, he turned for his car. Mona Lisa McNugget went after his ankle again, so he hurried across the street. He got in his car, and the chicken strutted on down the road.

“Does Mona Lisa McNugget always do that?” Leah Mae asked.

“Nah, she’s usually a real sweetheart,” I said. Leah Mae laughed, and I glanced inside Moonshine. My siblings were sitting in a booth, drinks already on the table. “Do you want to grab something to go from the Pop In? We could take it down to the lake and avoid… all that.” I gestured to the table full of Bodines. And Devlin, but he was one of us now, even if he wouldn’t ever have our last name. Of course, Scarlett might just make him take her name eventually.

“I was hoping you might suggest that,” she said.

With a fair bit of relief, I led Leah Mae up the street to the Pop In. I bought us sandwiches and drinks. It wasn’t a date, but I still insisted on paying. Then we walked down to the lake and found an open picnic table.

“It’s amazing how familiar this place is,” she said, settling down on the other side of the table. “Some things are a little different, but it’s still Bootleg Springs. Does that even make sense?”

“Sure it does,” I said. “I guess that’s part of its charm.”

“I miss it.” She unwrapped her sandwich. “I heard your dad passed away. I’m really sorry.”

“Thanks,” I said. “It wasn’t unexpected.”

“Still, must be hard.”

I nodded. Didn’t much want to bring up Callie, but I wanted Leah Mae to hear it from me first if she didn’t already know. “Yeah. I don’t know if you’ve heard the talk, but there’s some evidence that suggests my dad could have had something to do with Callie Kendall going missing all those years ago.”

Her lips parted, and she set her sandwich down. “Oh my god.”

“Scarlett found Callie’s sweater in an old trunk at Dad’s place.” I swallowed back the sick feeling creeping up my throat. “The police have been investigating again—went through his house. You stay in town long enough, you’ll hear people speculating.”

“Wow. That’s awful. Do you have any idea why the sweater would have been at your dad’s house?” She put up a hand, as if to stop me from answering. “I’m sorry, that was a rude question. Of course you don’t know why.”

“I don’t. It’s baffling, actually. I want to believe it’s a coincidence. That he wasn’t involved. It’s hard to say after all these years. And it’s certainly not something you want to think about your father.”

She offered a gentle smile, her eyes full of warmth. “No, of course not. I remember your dad, and I know he wasn’t always very nice. But I don’t think…” She paused, taking a deep breath. “Whatever happened, hopefully they’ll find out the truth someday and everyone can have some peace.”

“Thanks. That’s my hope too.” I resisted the urge to reach over and squeeze her hand. I didn’t want to talk about my dad anymore. “How’s your mom these days?”

“She’s fine. Still lives in Jacksonville. She remarried not long after I graduated high school. His name’s Stan Michaels. He’s a nice guy—runs an insurance agency. I think they’re happy.”

“Does she know you’re here?”

“She does,” she said with a smile. “She had to get used to me traveling all over the world when I started modeling. I don’t think she’s so worried about Bootleg Springs anymore.”

“That’s good.” I’d always thought her mom’s hysteria over Bootleg was sorely misplaced. It was a far sight safer than most places, even with Callie Kendall’s disappearance. People ’round here looked after each other. “What about you? Where do you live these days?”

“Los Angeles,” she said. “Actually, Kelvin just moved us into a new place. I haven’t even seen it yet. He took care of everything, but my stuff is all still in boxes. He got it while I was filming the show, and I’ve been traveling and living in hotels since then.”

She seemed all right with that arrangement, but something about it bothered me. “Sounds like you’re without any roots.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” She took a bite of her sandwich, and I did the same. “Listen, Jameson, I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job of keeping in touch.”

“No need for apologies. I didn’t do so well at it either.” Which was the truth. The way we’d drifted apart had probably been more my fault than hers. We could have kept up our friendship over email at least. But she’d gotten a boyfriend in Florida, and I’d started dating Cheyenne Hastings. I’d missed Leah Mae, but at the time it had seemed easier to just let it go. And once she’d started modeling, it had seemed like she’d moved into another world. One that was far too removed from my life in Bootleg Springs for us to ever be friends again.

“I suppose,” she said. “But I could have tried harder. It seemed like every year I meant to come visit, and every year something came up.”

“You’ve led quite the life,” I said. “Far fancier than anything going on around here.”

“It’s not always as fancy as it seems,” she said. There was that thing I’d seen in her eyes again. A dulling of her light. “It’s funny, but being here makes me feel like I lost touch with something. I’ve been so busy for so long, I forgot what it was like to slow down and just be.”

“Bootleg is good for that.”

“It really is.” She took a bite of her sandwich, then set it back down. “But what about you? I don’t even know what you do for a living.”

“I’m an artist,” I said with a shrug.

“Really?” she asked, her smile brightening her face. “You make a living with your art?”

“Sure do.”

“That’s amazing,” she said. “Do you have a specialty?”

“Metal sculptures. I have a workshop at home.”

“Wow,” she said. “I’d love to see some of your pieces.”

Although I didn’t keep people out of my workshop on purpose, I didn’t invite people in very often, either. But I liked the idea of showing her around.

“Well, if you have time before you go, maybe you could come out to my place and have a look.”

“That would be fun,” she said. “I’m not sure if I’ll have time before we leave. We have to drive to Pittsburgh tomorrow afternoon. Can I text you?”

I smiled at her. Smiling around Leah Mae was awfully easy. “Yeah, of course you can. Anytime.”

She smiled back, her green eyes sparkling. “I’m sorry if I keep staring. It’s just so good to see you again. Kind of feels like those summers when I’d come back and find you sitting on the porch steps. I always imagined you were sitting there waiting for me.”

“I was.”

“Really?”

“Course. I’d sit out there every day from the last day of school until you’d show up in town.” I glanced away, embarrassed. I couldn’t believe I’d just said that to her.

“That’s really sweet.”

We ate our lunch and caught up on our lives a bit. She talked about some of her experiences as a model. Sounded to me like she’d worked hard, but hadn’t had much time to enjoy it. She wanted to hear all about me, but there wasn’t a lot to tell. I didn’t think so, anyway.

The afternoon wore on, but I barely noticed the time passing. We just kept right on talking. I could have sat there with her forever, but eventually she said she needed to get back. She said she’d call Kelvin for a ride, but I insisted on driving her back to their cabin. Wasn’t far, and I didn’t mind.

It had nothing to do with getting a few extra minutes with her.

I didn’t walk her to the door—seemed a bit much, what with her being engaged to someone else—but I did wait until she’d gone inside before I drove off. She waved to me before closing the door. I waved back, my heart feeling heavy. We’d promised each other we’d keep in touch, and I meant to.

But I missed her already.