Page 62 of Hotter 'N Hell

“I know what they are. It just baffles me what women will spend money on. Slap together some shoes, put a little bling on them, then beat the hell out of them. Put a seven-hundred-dollar price tag on them in a shiny store. BAM! Females everywhere flock to get a pair.”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you about done, Papaw?”

He laughed and winked at me. “I’m kidding. I wanted you to get something that would make you smile for me again. Still waiting on the dimples, but I’ve got hope.”

At the worddimples, my decent mood plummeted. Turning to stare out the window, I watched as the trees passed and let the thoughts of Jude come crashing in like a wave I’d been struggling to hold back. Tomorrow would be a week since he’d sent me away. I missed him. Heck, I even missed Mena.

“Where did you go?” Gathe asked.

“Nowhere,” I replied.

“Liar. I said something, and you shut down on me. I was trying so hard too.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t saying his name out loud. I’d sworn I wouldn’t say it again after I unloaded on Halo on Friday night. It had helped, telling someone, but then that night, I had cried myself to sleep.

He pulled into his driveway, and relief that we were about to be out of the truck together so he would stop with the questioning came with that.

“You want to leave the bags in here or take them in to change into the beat-up shoes?”

He was trying to make me smile again. I wished I had it in me. For his sake at least.

“Just leave them in here,” I told him before climbing out.

He thought I believed his lie about stopping here so he could take a shower and change before we went to meet my parents for my birthday dinner. It was a bad lie, but I also knew him too well. Gathe was letting me walk in front of him.

Don’t be obvious or anything, bud.

“Gathe,” I said just before we reached the door.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for the party,” I told him before turning the knob and pushing open his front door.

The place erupted in, “SURPRISE!”

Hot-pink balloons fell from the ceiling over my head, silver confetti sprinkled down around me, and a massive silver22with rhinestones outlining it covered the far back wall.

“22” by Taylor Swift began playing over the speakers, and I turned back to Gathe.

“What gave it away?” he asked.

“You’re a bad liar,” I told him.

“Happy birthday,” rang out, and I faced the others.

Halo smiled as she stood in the center of everyone, holding a white two-tiered cake with red heart sunglasses perched on top, red lipstick prints all over it, and the wordsI’m Feeling 22in more red fondant on the front.

“I helped get folks here and paid for half, but it was Halo’s idea when she found out about your birthday,” Gathe said in my ear.

My eyes prickled.

Well, Crosby, I bet you never would have guessed this was the way it would all play out.I sure as hell hadn’t.

I felt a pang in my chest at the thought of him not being here. It was my first ever birthday without Crosby Cash in attendance. Last year had looked so very different.

I made my way over to Halo. “I hear this was your idea,” I said.

A nervous smile curled her lips. “Birthdays are important. And, well, it’s twenty-two.”

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