I was good and stuck. I should have known better than trying to crawl under the damn porch with my damn tool belt on. But the damn cat had gotten out when I planed down the door, and the last thing Carolina Rae Carwell had said before she’d left was “Don’t let the cat out.” If I didn’t find Mr. Fluffers and get him back inside, I’d never get to enjoy Carolina Rae’s cornbread again.

It was a fate worse than death.

Though laying flat in the dirt under a sagging front porch with a hissing cat’s collar hooked in my fingers wasn’t so great either.

“Scarlett?”

I’d never been more relieved in my entire life to hear someone call my name.

“Oh my God, Devlin!”

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

“I’m under the porch, and I have a cat, and my belt’s hooked on something, and I hope you’re not dressed nice because I’m gonna have to ask you to ruin your clothes and belly crawl on in here.”

There was silence. “Dev?” I called.

“I’m here.”

“You’re recording this, aren’t you?”

“Damn right I am.”

I kicked my work boots into the ground. “I’m so glad you’re amused. Now get your ass in here!”

“Yes, ma’am. Here I come.” He was laughing, but I didn’t care.

“Jesus, Scarlett. How am I going to fit?” he said from behind me.

“That’s what she said,” I said miserably.

“Har har. But seriously.”

“Just crawl in closer to the house—that’s the high point—and then see if you can reach over and unhook whatever has me hooked.”

Mr. Fluffers let out a feral snarl.

“Is that a fucking raccoon?” Devlin demanded.

“Yes. I have a rabid raccoon by the dang collar, Devlin,” I said dryly.

“It sounds like something you’d do.”

I heard him crawling in and turned my head. He made it as far as my feet. “I’m about wedged in,” he said.

“You’re not claustrophobic are you?” I asked, belatedly.

“I don’t seem to be.” I felt his hand on my ass.

“Now is not the time for foreplay.”

“I’m not feeling you up. Your chisel is wedged in a floor board and stuck in your belt.”

“I’m going to die here aren’t I?” I wailed. “My skeleton will turn to dust under this porch, and I’ll haunt trick or treaters every year unless they give me some of their candy.”

I felt a sharp tug and then another one, and my belt jiggled loose.

“Got it,” Devlin announced cheerfully.

I yipped. “You’re the most amazing man in the world, Devlin McCallister.”

He slapped me on the ass. Mr. Fluffers hissed.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m amazing. Now how do we get out of here?”

“You’re going to have to back out. And then I think you’re going to have to pull me out.”

He managed it somehow, first crawling out backwards and then dragging me by my ankles. I pushed with one hand and kept a death grip of Fluffers’s collar with the other.

Inch by inch, we scooted and dragged ourselves out of my almost-grave until I was face-down in the grass.

I leapt up, hauling the cat by the scruff of his neck. “In your face, Fluffers!”

Devlin bent at the waist and laughed loud and long. As much as I enjoyed hearing him laugh, I wasn’t too thrilled that it was at my expense. I dumped the dirtball cat in the house. I’d pay the Carwell’s for a cat bath if I had to. But that son of bitch wasn’t getting outside again on my watch.

“Just what’s so funny, McCallister?” I demanded, hands on hips and working myself into a heated glare.

He was in gym shorts and a t-shirt that were now smeared with dirt. There wasn’t a laundry detergent on earth that could handle that mess. His beard was caked with it too. He looked like a dirty, sexy redneck, and I freakin’ loved it.

I could only imagine my own mud monster state.

“Baby, you’re something,” he said, finally catching his breath.

“I’m gonna pretend that was meant as a compliment.” He pulled out his cell phone.

“If you try to take one picture, I’m gonna—”

Click.

“Oh, you’re in trouble now.” I threw myself at him, heedless of the clods of dirt I flung when I moved. He caught me mid-flight and spun me around laughing. I didn’t know if it was the spinning or his smile. But the bottom dropped out of my stomach, and I forgot all about being mad. All I wanted was his mouth on mine.

I kissed him hard, and he pulled me in tight against him, still holding me aloft. I hoped my tool belt wasn’t digging in anywhere important.

“Thanks for calling me, Scarlett.”

“Thanks for coming when I called,” I told him.

I heard the clearing of a throat, and Dev and I turned around. Carolina Rae was standing on her tidy little walkway staring at us. Her husband ol’ Judge Carwell was behind her peering over her shoulder.

Devlin let me slide down to the ground. “Hi, Carolina Rae, Judge. Door’s all fixed, but I’ve got bad news for you on your porch. The joists are starting to rot out. I think you’re gonna need a new porch next year,” I was babbling. As progressive as I was, I didn’t usually make out on my clients’ lawns with my... lover.

“Uh-huh,” Carolina Rae said, still staring at us. She was seventy-two but only admitted to sixty-six. “And what were you doing with your tongue down your young man’s throat?” she asked sweetly.

“I... uh...” Words, those little traitors, failed me. Even Devlin looked chagrined.

She smiled. “Ah, to be young again. Carry on. But don’t trample my coleus.”

She headed into the house without another word, leaving Judge Carwell outside with us. He was eyeing up Devlin. The front door closed behind Carolina Rae without the hitch it had before I got here. I braced for it.

“Mr. Fluffers!” Carolina Rae screeched.

“Mr. Fluffers had a little adventure,” I explained to Judge Carwell.

He grunted, still eyeing Devlin.

“You the lawyer, son?” he asked gruffly.

Devlin nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Y’all ever think of a judgeship?” he asked. Judge Carwell’s large white moustache twitched beneath his ruddy nose.

Devlin’s eyes widened, and I laughed.

“Still tryin’ to retire, sir?” I asked him sweetly. Judge Carwell ran unopposed every election for the office of county judge. He was so ready to retire he tried to convince June to go to law school.

Mrs. Carwell burst through the front door holding the muddy Mr. Fluffers. “Scarlett Bodine!”

I winced. “Yes ma’am. We’ll take him right over to Pet Paradise,” I promised.