if my brothers had got it, but they were both gone. Chickens.
When I turned back around, her arms were extended, and I leaned down and gave her a hug. “I always thought of myself as more of a Hawkeye.”
She squeezed me tight and then looked up and patted my cheek. “You’re cute, but you’re no Alan Alda.”
“Fair enough.”
“So, you and my Chipmunk sure caused quite a stir.”
Chipmunk. I grinned. That was a cute nickname for her.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“She’s got her panties in a bunch about it. How are you fairin’?”
“I’m fine.”
“Is your phone blowin’ up, too?”
“I forgot my phone at home this morning.”
She nodded and I could see that her eyes were studying mine, looking at me in a way that she never had. I felt…judged.
“Sorry about the mix-up with the bake sale.”
It could be my imagination, but the way she said it made me think that she wasn’t sorry. Not at all. That it had been intentional. I grinned. “Don’t be. The boys were more than happy to make sure the muffins didn’t go to waste.”
“I heard you gave my girl a ride to her car.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You like her, don’t ya?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. “I don’t really know her.”
“Look here, I know your reputation.”
My reputation? I had a reputation.
“But I also know you’re a good boy. You have a good heart. That Rachel”—Mrs. Nelson shook her head—“she didn’t know a good thing when she had it. But don’t let your past muck up your future, ya hear.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And the same goes for my Chipmunk. You both got dealt a bad hand, but that doesn’t mean that you need to fold. There’s still a lot of game to be played. You just need to know who to gamble on.”
I wasn’t sure why we were having this talk. Did Mrs. Nelson actually think that there might be a future for me and Sasha?
That was impossible. She lived in Los Angeles. She was an actress. Her life was a world away from mine.
Still, even as I thought those things, my lips tingled with the memory of the kiss we’d shared.
“She’s in the kitchen. Why don’t you go talk to her about whatever’s goin’ on in that noggin’ of yours. I’m gonna go find my girls.”
The girls she was referring to were Mrs. Porter, whose granddaughter Destiny was married to my brother JJ, Mrs. Higgins, who had been my fourth-grade teacher, and Mrs. Scoggs, whose house I’d TP’d when I was a junior in high school.
“They’re over at the picnic tables.”
As I walked toward the house, my pulse started racing and my palms dampened. Mrs. Nelson had said that Sasha’s “panties were in a bunch.” I was going to do my best to unbunch them. And also do my best not to think about them being bunched up on my bedroom floor. I was pretty sure I’d have more success with the unbunching.
Chapter 15
Sasha
“Boobs are proof that men can focus on two things at once.”
~ Barbara-Jean Nelson
“Hold on, so you don’t remember any of it?” Cara’s eyes were wide as she patted her baby’s back.
I was a very private person and never opened up to strangers. But these three women didn’t feel like strangers, they felt like I’d known them my entire life. “Yesterday was…stressful so I poured a few, well, six, shots of Absolute in my punch. The last thing I remember is catching the bouquet, then waking up in my Gam’s guest room.”
All three of them remained quiet and I wondered if I’d revealed too much. Growing up, my mom liked to say that Wishing Well was like the town in Footloose that didn’t believe in dancing or drinking. Had I scandalized them?
Just when I was about to excuse myself and go find Gam to tell her the jig was up and I needed to leave before they made me put a Scarlett Letter inspired A on my chest for alcoholic, the three of them all started laughing.
Harmony definitely found it the most amusing, she was practically doubled over in laughter.
“Wait, what did Beau say when you told him you didn’t remember it?”
“He didn’t say anything. We haven’t talked about it.”
“But I thought you went down to the fire station today.”
“I did. Gam asked me to bring down muffins for the bake sale.”
“The bake sale’s next week, isn’t it?” Destiny interjected.
“Yeah. I guess she got her days mixed up.”
“And he didn’t mention it?” Harmony clarified. “Because I know he remembered it.”
The way that she said know made