Page 227 of Boots, Bucket Lists & Bad Ideas
I hear Jade chuckle at the memory. “The bookstore’s basement.”
Lord, I loved the old couch in that basement.
“And the kissing booth in the event storage room.” That one was our favorite.
“The kissing booth?” This is the first time she’s sounded surprised.
I nod.
She turns to Jade. “That’s why you burned it down?”
Gasps.
Dean chokes on his drink.
Hannah grasps the arms of her chair, sitting forward.
I turn to Jade. “You burned it down?”
She shrugs. “I mean, yes.”
“And you burned it down with her?” Hope asks Natalie.
“To be fair, she gave a good argument.” Natalie isn’t fooling anyone; she knew why her sister burned it down. “The whole degrading tradition toward women.”
I snort, remembering that argument with her last year.
“Which time?” Bronx asks. “The high school burn or the fire last year?”
I scoff. “High school, obviously.” She wouldn’t have done it last year as an adult.
Guilt shades Jade’s eyes. “Both times.”
Everyone explodes.
“You what?!”
“Last year?”
“Oh my god.”
“Are we just casually admitting arson now?” Josie looks like she’d jump on that bandwagon.
“So what you’re saying,” Dean starts. “Is that you two had a secret friends-to-lovers—”
“We were teens,” I say.
Dean holds up his hand. “Don’t break the tropes.”
“What tropes?” Jade asks.
“Don’t get him started.”
But the question does exactly that, and he gets lost in a world of romance tropes I honestly don’t understand.
“This reminds me of a story I know.” Bronx tips back his hat. “Ya’ll ever hear ‘bout Sheriff Jed and the bootlegger’s daughter Etta?”
Sitting straight in his chair, he slowly breaks a graham cracker in half on his lap. He pays no attention to the crumbs that spill on his jeans.
