Bootleg’s own Judge Kendall considered for higher calling.
Father of teenager missing for thirteen years considered for federal judgeship.
27
Shelby
The cabin Scarlett arranged for my parents to rent was halfway up the mountain. It had a front porch with a spectacular view of the lake and town. The green siding made the building seem as though it was part of the forest that surrounded it. It was cute enough that I temporarily forgot to obsess over the fact that I’d woken up in Jonah’s bed… without having had sex with the man.
I sipped my coffee on the blue plaid couch and listened to my parents as they alternated naturally between their two favorite forms of communication: good-natured bickering and finishing each other’s sentences.
In my professional opinion, James and Darlene Thompson were suitably matched.
As their daughter, I thought they were just about perfect. My stint as a social worker had given me an intense sense of gratitude for growing up in the family that I did. My parents were steady, loving, and interested in their kids.
“Begone, woman,” my dad said, playfully pushing Mom out of the galley kitchen.
“You’re cutting the sandwiches wrong,” she insisted.
“And they’ll taste exactly the same,” he shot back, wielding a container of mustard in her direction.
Laughing, Mom joined me on the couch. Her hair was pulled back in a short tail today, and she was wearing comfortable hiking shorts and a t-shirt. Vacation Casual Darlene also had a tube of Rosy Mauve lipstick in her cargo pocket.
After thirty-five years of marriage, Mom still wore lipstick every day, and Dad still got her flowers on the seventeenth of every month in homage to their first date.
Of course, they weren’t perfect. Mom hoarded greeting cards. GT liked to joke that she made new friends just to have more birthdays and surgeries to celebrate. And Dad. Well, Dad considered himself a handy man when, in reality, they would be better off calling in a professional. The coat closet light still turned on every time someone used the toaster in their kitchen after Dad’s DIY wiring job.
“So, before GT and June get here, tell me about this gorgeous roommate of yours,” Mom said, tucking her feet up under her on the cushion next to me.
“Not only is he gorgeous and built like the human version of a racehorse, but he’s also very smart and very nice,” I told her.
“And you’re sure you’re just roommates?” Mom prodded.
I didn’t want to get her hopes up and then dash them when I went back to Pittsburgh or on to wherever my career took me. “Just friends,” I insisted. Just friends for now. Hopefully sex-having friends soon.
“Have you tried pretending you forgot where your room was and walking into his in a towel?” she asked, her face serious.
“Mom!”
“Kidding! Kidding,” she promised. “You two looked like you were getting along. And I’d love to see both of my kids living their happily ever afters.”
Her heart was in the right place. But her nose could stand to be removed from our business.
“Speaking of,” I said grasping for a subject change. “What do you and Dad think of June?”
“She is abrupt. Inflexible. Sharply intelligent. And—”
“Absolutely perfect for GT,” Dad interrupted. He joined us in the living room. A mug of coffee in one hand.
My mom beamed at him. “In short, we’re thrilled. She’s so different from the women he’s dated the past few years,” she said.
My parents were devout believers in karma and tried never to speak ill of anyone. The “women” my brother had dated before June could be neatly labeled attention-seeking gold diggers. But we were too polite to mention it.
“Tell us more about your survey, Shelby,” Dad insisted, settling his broad shoulders back into the armchair. He may have been wired to love football, but Dad never shirked his fatherly interest when it came to my studies.
I unleashed the nerd girl in me and filled them in on the responses I’d received so far, regaling them with the nuggets of small-town life.
Before long, we heard a car in the driveway.
I peered through the front window, watching as GT and June got out of his SUV. They raced around to the hatch.
GT carefully lifted the pig out of the back and carefully checked her leash and harness while June gave her a good petting.
“Your grandpig is here,” I announced.
My parents burst through the front door greeting GT and June—and Katherine—as if it had been months rather than hours since they’d last seen each