Page 23 of Double Bucked

God, this town is so bizarre. Trying to explain it to an out-of-towner feels like unraveling a mummy’s tomb and reading some ancient inscription.

“You know…purity rings? How little girls get a ring when they promise to stay clean for their future husbands? And it’s all…bizarre and culty?”

“Sure.”

“Well, we had a tradition like that in Belleflower. Sort of. Except instead of purity rings, if you were very, very good, you would get a ring from the Benefactors’ Society. It was called a Promise Ring. It’s a term for promising young girls who are on the path to be future Belleflower Queens. Sort of like…junior queens, I guess. Only a handful of girls ever got them.”

“And you all had your Promise Rings.”

“Yes. It was like…an elite group.”

“You take this Belleflower Queen thing very seriously, don’t you?” James says.

“It’s a religion,” I say without a hint of humor.

He stares at me. Droplets of water hang over his long eyelashes.

“Switch,” I say.

We do a small dance to swivel around in the shower so I can rinse off while James takes the soap. He suds up under his arms. Over his strong chest.

The most shocking thing about naked James, probably, is his tattoo.

Everything about him is so prim and proper…and then. The lower half of his left arm is engulfed with the image of a dark wolf head swallowing a dagger. The first time I saw it, I asked him what it meant. He showed me the purpled skin underneath.

“The tattoo is to cover the burn,” he told me.

“What’s the burn?” I’d asked.

He gave me a strange smile. “To cover up the boy.”

I tilt my head back into the stream of hot water. I close my eyes under the downpour. “Anyway. We were spoiled, entitled teenagers. We rode our horses everywhere and terrorized the town.”

“You? A terror? I can’t imagine it.”

“On weekends, we took our horses to the river, where we went for a swim and sunned in our bathing suits and teased the old men who fished there. Then—still bathing suit clad—we’d hop back on our horses and ride bareback into town, where we’d hitch them up and go to Margie’s Cafe, and we’d get free coffee—no sugar because we weren’t allowed to intake sweets.”

“So not much has changed.” I open my eyes to see James wearing a sly, sideways smile.

I elbow him for it, and he grunts as I exit the shower. I grab my towel and shake my hair dry.

There’s a double knock on the door before Elspeth bursts in. I barely have time to cover myself with my towel.

“Knock, knock! We brought you a dress!” Elspeth says. To my dismay, she holds up a matching, fluffy, pink dress.

Dear God.

“You’re too kind.” My smile could kill kittens.

“I know,” Elspeth says.

The shower cuts. James opens the shower door and blinks when he sees our company.

Elspeth, unashamedly, gawks.

I guess I can’t blame her. My fiancé is wonderfully endowed. To be honest, I get a small surge of pride when she loses her tongue and simply stares at his handsome, naked figure.

James clears his throat. He nods to the towel rack. “Would you be so kind?”

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