darlin’.” I assured her as I carried her up the steps.
“Billy Comfort. What did you do to that girl?”
“Miss York here consumed not one, but two glasses of moonshine.”
“Oh dear!” Mrs. B’s eyes widened and she opened the front door for me. “Bless her heart, she’s gonna be in a world a hurt tomorrow.”
Once we made it to Reagan’s room, Mrs. B opened the door.
“Thanks.” I said as I entered, Reagan still in my arms. When I saw that Mrs. B was leaving I stopped her. “I have to go back to the bar. Would you be able to check on her later, make sure she’s okay?”
She patted my arm. “I’ll take care of her. Don’t you worry. She’s not the first victim of Rhonda Moore’s Satan juice I’ve had here.”
I nodded. “I’ll check back in with her when I close up. But call me if she needs anything before then.”
A small smile lifted on Mrs. B’s mouth. “Billy Comfort, your mama would be so proud of you,” she said before she left, closing the door behind her.
I wasn’t so sure about that. I didn’t feel like I’d done much to earn my mama’s pride. The fact that the bar was set so low that just me worrying about Reagan was enough for Mrs. B to tell me that she would be proud was all the proof I needed that I was right.
I’d wasted so much of my life not living it. Not feelin’ anything. After Mama died, I hadn’t wanted to feel the loss. When Pop was alive, I hadn’t wanted to feel the anger or resentment for him being the way he was.
I did everything I could to just be numb. But that was going to change. I felt something for Reagan, and for the first time I wasn’t going to ignore it or push it down.
Slowly, I lowered Reagan to her bed, rolling her to her side. “Goodnightbilly,” she mumbled, all of her words running together as she snuggled into her pillow.
“Good night, darlin’.” I kissed her forehead, my lips brushing against her soft skin as I whispered, “I love you.”
It was the first time I’d ever said those words aloud to someone who wasn’t family. I waited for lightning to strike, or a flood to come and wash me away. Hell, some sort of natural disaster to occur caused by my declaration.
When nothing happened, it emboldened me and I spoke the words with more confidence, “I love you, Reagan York.”
She smiled widely as she opened her eyes.
Oh shit! My heart slammed in my chest. It was one thing to risk a natural disaster, it was another to have the person I was declaring my love for to actually hear it.
“I love you, Billy Comfort,” she said before closing her eyes once again.
Unlike the other things she’d said tonight, those five words came out crystal clear. So did the loud snore that followed them.
CHAPTER 34
Reagan
I stared at the brief on the desk in front of me, but I didn’t take in the words. The blocks of text on the paper may as well have been random black scratches against the stark white background for all the sense they made to my brain in that moment.
I wasn’t distracted by the aftereffects of the moonshine I’d drunk on an empty stomach the night before. It wasn’t even the lack of sleep from my fitful night that was pulling my brain in a different direction. Nope. It was five simple words that kept playing in my brain, I love you, Billy Comfort.
This morning when I’d woken up in my bed, fully dressed, I found toast, water, and a mug of coffee. Before I could even sit up, there was a knock at my door and Mrs. B’s head popped in. She’d filled me in that Billy had brought me home after I’d consumed too much moonshine, tucked me in and asked her to check on me.
As soon as she said that, a vivid memory of me looking into Billy’s eyes and telling him I loved him flashed in my head. The scariest and most horrifying part of that recollection was that I was pretty sure I’d meant it.
Then, that memory was joined by less clear visions of other events. They weren’t so much playbacks of things that happened. More like short clips of scenarios. One was of Billy kissing my forehead, my neck, and other more southern regions. Then I was floating in the ocean, and he was with me.