Page 86 of A Little Taste

“What was it?”

“No.”

“I was there for that!” Piper calls with her mouth full. “I’m pissed at him for it, too. He won’t give me anything for my story, and the town has a right to know what happened. People are scared. They want to know they’re safe.”

“They’re safe.” My voice is muffled by another spoonful Cass swooped into my mouth.

“Can I quote you on that?”

“No.” Tucking my face in my bestie’s lap, I’m not getting over this. “What am I going to do, Cass?”

“Say you’re sorry.” Cass nods, taking another bite of ice cream.

“I want to.” I sit up, shoving my bangs behind my ears. “I want to tell him I know I was wrong not to trust him with this when I trust him with everything. I want to tell him I won’t let my mom guilt trip me ever again. I’ve learned my lesson. I want to tell him I love him…” My voice breaks, and my chin drops as the pain rushes in like a storm surge, knocking the wind from my lungs.

“You love him?” Cass’s voice is a soft whisper.

Nodding, I touch the tears off my cheeks. “How can I apologize if he won’t even speak to me?”

“Let’s see.” She scoots around on the couch. “What would Shania say…”

“She gal darn gone and done it?” Piper suggests.

Cass shakes her head. “What about ‘Any Man of Mine’?”

Curling my nose, I shake my head. “I’m on the wrong side of that equation. I need something where she screwed up and sings about loving him so much she’ll never, ever,everdo it again.”

I add the emphasis on the lasteverfrom the depths of my soul.

Piper shakes her head. “Shania never sang a song like that. You’re thinking of something from waaay back. You need Waylon Jennings.”

Frowning, I try to think of which song she means. “The Dukes of Hazzard?”

“Ahh, that would be…wrong.” She puts a spoon of ice cream in her mouth before getting on her knees and leaning closer.

In a flash, I know exactly the song she’s talking about. “No.”

A warning is in my voice, which she completely ignores. “Wrong!” She growls in her best Waylon Jennings impersonation before falling back on her butt laughing.

Cass presses her lips together, her eyes widening comically like she’s about to burst.

“Don’t you dare,” I push her with my foot.

Her brows squench, and she clasps both hands over her mouth and nose. “That song is so funny.”

“You should’ve known it all along,” Piper continues, and I move my foot to her hip, pushing so hard she falls off the couch. It doesn’t stop her.

“You are evil and you must be destroyed.” I say, quoting my all-time favorite character from my all-time favorite film—Ouiser fromSteel Magnolias.

She only laughs more, and Cass caves, belting out in her own growly impersonation, “Wrong!”

“You are both pigs from hell.” I grab a pillow and flop hard on it, turning away from them snorting and laughing.

They only crawl closer to me singing that dumb song even more. I sit up hard, slapping the pillow on my lap when I notice my phone is lit up on the coffee table.

It’s probably a text from my mother that I have no desire to read. Still, I grab it at the very least to get them to shut up.

When I see the screen, my heart jumps to my throat, and my mouth goes dry.

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