Page 17 of Cold Foot Cash

“But you aren’t denying it.”

“Do you want to know what I went to prison for or not?” he asked.

“Yes.”

His eyes went all serious, and he stood to his full height, and sighed. “For being too fine.”

She smacked his arm. “I’m being serious.”

“I got too many bitches.”

“I’m leaving,” she groused, shouldering her purse.

He followed. “I’m allowed to say bitches because that is the female version of a dog, and I’ve mostly dated werewolves. Where are you going?”

“Far away from you.”

“Oh come on. How cool would it be to have a make out pic with a bad boy? You would get so many cool points in Bozeman. You would get more street cred.”

“What? What are you even talking about?” She scoffed and waved to King and Reed, then made her way to the girls to say goodbye.

“You’re leaving?” Katrina asked. “It’s early.”

“Cash is…”

“Cash is Cash,” Timber, Sasha, and Katrina said in unison, like they already understood.

“What did you say to her?” Katrina demanded to Cash

“That he went to prison,” Harley whispered. “Prison!”

The girls’ faces cooled.

“Prison,” she repeated slower, in case they hadn’t heard her over the loud music.

“To be fair most of us were in prison,” Katrina said.

“I wasn’t,” Sasha pointed out.

“Nor I,” Timber said.

“Oh, Garret wasn’t in prison,” Sasha pointed out. “But you haven’t met him yet.”

“Wreck hasn’t been to prison,” Timber pointed out.

“Okay,” she said, looking around at the loosely formed group, counting in her head. “So, about half of you? Half?” Why was her voice so high-pitched right now.

“Is this some kind of meltdown?” Cash asked around a bite of southwest eggroll.

“Prison is a pretty big thing!” She looked around at the girls, but they were just chill. “Right? No?”

“I mean,” Timber drawled. “We’ve all made mistakes.”

“I haven’t made illegal mistakes,” Harley said, “and it’s been relatively easy to not get arrested.”

“She’s one of those boring, upstanding citizens,” Cash announced, picking up another eggroll. “Fuck, these are so good.”

“So all of you…escaped?”

---